The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (Profile) $33

In Shaun Bythell’s second-hand bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland, there is a mounted trophy. The plaque reads ‘‘Amazon Kindle. Shot by Shaun Bythell. 22nd August 2014, Near Newton Stewart.’’ Above it, the e-reader has been blasted to pieces.

The Diary of a Bookseller isa very readable account of owning Scotland’s largest second-hand bookstore, The Bookshop, at a time when huge online businesses are taking over the trade.

The book gives an account of the social, cultural, and financial consequences, but it is in Bythell’s portraiture of the shop’s clientele that the memoir finds its heart.

Eccentrics swap handmade walking sticks for bookshop credit, the deaf phone up with inquiries but can’t hear replies, and a customer wants to sell his copy of Biggles Takes It Rough. When Bythell purchases a box of 1960s porn magazines (much sought after by collectors), the now-elderly seller puts one into his hands as she leaves. ‘‘See if you can spot me,’’ she says.

As a character, Bythell’s grumpiness is endearing. His view of the second-hand trade is realistic and alert to the eccentricities of everyday life.

He describes the serendipity of discovering a rare volume in an unexpected place, propping up a piece of furniture or covered in dust and cat-fur in a neglected house.

His report of the people and events of the Wigtown annual bookfair as they celebrate a shared love for books and writers is a real appreciation of a unique world.

Ultimately, The Diary of a Bookseller is a well-produced memoir that amply demonstrates the very real pleasure of reading.