Seven Kinds of People You Find In Bookshops

I’ve become a huge fan of Shaun Bythell. Two books - The Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller – in which he chronicles two years in the life of his second-hand bookshop in Wigtown in Scotland. Surly staff, annoying customers, trips to houses to inspect possible purchases, pompous guests at literary festivals and, every so often, the customer who comes into the shop, finds the book they want and pays for it without once arguing about the price.

I found them both funny and charming and eminently readable. I feel the same about this third – slim - book that offers his observations about the different kinds of customer he’s encountered in the twenty years since he took over the shop. Everyone from the silent farter and the tuneless whistler, to the loquacious bore and the overbearing expert, to passing cyclists who come in, read the maps, fold them up all wrong and then leave without buying a thing.

I’ve read some reviews that find this all grumpy and patronizing. I wonder whether they’ve ever worked in a shop. I have, and even though it didn’t sell books, it definitely opened its doors to some extremely annoying individuals. And some lovely ones too, a fact SB acknowledges in the postscript about the perfect customers.

If you liked either of the first two books, buy this one. I doubt you’ll be disappointed.