Remainders of the Day
A Bookshop Diary
Intrepid bookseller Shaun Bythell is back with his latest edition of wry tales from the Bookshop, Wigtown, Scotland’s beloved purveyor of used books.
Bookending each entry with notes of online orders and till sales, Bythell makes a yearlong record of the contemporary challenges and joys of being a bookseller. These include Amazon’s inexplicable algorithms and rude customers hiding behind digital anonymity, but also friendships formed, creative new ventures in response to stilted sales, and the thrill of finding a truly special manuscript among boxes of jetsam best suited to pulping.
Visitors from around the world stop in to bookish Wigtown, and Bythell seems to meet most. In his descriptions of those who assist at, sell to, live near, and peruse the shelves of the Bookshop, Bythell could be mistaken for a misanthrope, but he’s a more complicated host than that: whether interacting with readers or books, he’s curious, observant, and appreciative of individual foibles, quirks, and flaws—a careful cataloger of unique qualities. Some may find his takeaways regarding crass browsers and entitled sellers to be scathing, but the criticisms are fair—and the amusements are endless.
Set time aside for Remainders of the Day, the latest delightful volume of Shaun Bythell’s bookseller diaries.
Reviewed by
Michelle Anne Schingler
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
