Confessions of a Bookseller

By: Shaun Bythell

Narrated by: Peter Kenny

"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.©2019 Shaun Bythell (P)2019 Hachette Audio UK

Still engaging but repetitive

I found this book as enthralling as the first - even though some content was reused from the first. It was repetitive in spots. I still learned a lot about the business of second-hand bookselling. I’d love to visit the shop someday - and not haggle!

The narrator is a challenge. He spoke so quickly from the start that I immediately turn down the reading speed to make it bearable!

A great store!

This book tells the story of the coming and goings of a bookstore in Scotland. It is a great book, especially if you want to know more about the book trade. The author Shaun is funny and has a collection here about the people in his life, that are so funny, they could be fictional. I thoroughly enjoyed both books.

I’m surprised!

I thought at best, this would have been a 4. It’s a diary for Gods sake. However, the Scotch attitude towards life and books on a daily basis left me always ready for more when I paused reading. The fact that it’s 10 years old, and the enormous changes that have occurred since regarding bookshops, leaves you wistful and feeling sorry for all individual owners of any store. I feel guilty listening to this on audio but not enough to stop me from ordering the second book

books!!!

fun day by day adventures of a bookseller in a small Scottish town. Definitely want to visit someday.

Be careful!

I love this story so much, I subscribed to the shop's random book club! Great writing about great people in a great place. It made me wish I lived nearby.