Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Confessions of a Bookseller - Nonfiction Review

Goodreads:   Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

Rating: Just Okay
Source:  NetGalley

Description:  "Do you have a list of your books, or do I just have to stare at them?" Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms. Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don't understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices. The Diary of a Bookseller (soon to be a major TV series) introduced us to the joys and frustrations of life lived in books. Sardonic and sympathetic in equal measure, Confessions of a Bookseller will reunite readers with the characters they've come to know and love.

Genre: Nonfiction

Why I Picked This Book:  Between the cover and the title I was helpless to resist.

My Impression:  At the beginning I enjoyed this one - especially once I got used to the format.  It's written as a diary which each entry starting with the date and a listing of orders placed and orders found.  I liked the day to day updates with the details of what went on in the shop - at first.  After awhile, however, it started to lose some charm and drifted over to monotonous.  While I did get a picture of what day is like at The Bookshop and think it will most likely make an excellent TV show after about 100 pages I found myself losing interest. 

This is a nice book to have around to read a few pages at a time but this isn't a book that I want to pick up and read from cover to cover.  If you can get a copy from the library great but I wouldn't go out and buy it.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?  Maybe, if it was a different format.

Would I Recommend this Book?  If you're curious about it I'd take a look but I wouldn't recommend you buy it sight unseen.

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review.  As always my opinions and impressions are completely my own. *

4 comments:

  1. I am not a fan of dealing with the general public at the best of times so I can imagine how rude and annoying some of the customers might be! I think I might have this lurking on an e-reader somewhere.

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  2. Yes the cover and title would hook me too, yes I guess occasional dipping into might work for this one.

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  3. I will wait for the television show. Although I wonder how it would do in audio format.

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  4. I felt much the same. 😛

    I do like your idea of a TV show, though! I think the BBC would do a great job with it. 📺

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