Me, my shelves and sigh: Scotland’s grumpiest bookseller on the seven customers he loves to hate (but mostly loves)
Owner of second-hand emporium writes the book on most irritating clientele
Scotland’s grumpiest bookseller is back... and less impressed than ever with some of customers.
Shaun Bythell hit the bestseller list with his first two books Diary of a Bookseller, and Confessions of a Bookseller – slightly jaundiced but warm- hearted accounts of running a second-hand bookshop in the era of Amazon and ebooks.
The bookseller’s comic writing and world- weary take on his trade has burnished the reputation of Wigtown in Dumfries and Galloway as Scotland’s book town and brought it new international renown.
Now Shaun has written a third book, drawing sharp portraits of his regulars that would put Spitting Image to shame.
In Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops, he casts a beady eye over his unsuspecting customers, from the Person Who Doesn’t Know What They Want ( But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) to the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare, and all the way over to the erotica section where we’ll meet The Person Who Is Up to No Good.
He says of his new book: “In a further sign of appalling business acumen, I’m now responsible for this book, which attempts to bracket my customers unkindly into broad categories which will undoubtedly offend the very people on whom I depend for a living.”
Despite mocking his customers, Shaun realised how fond he is of them when he had to close the shop during lockdown.
“I missed the customers like longlost friends. From the charming and interesting to the rude and offensive, I missed them all. Apart from the fact that without them I have literally no income, to my enormous surprise I discovered that I missed the human interaction.”
Shaun fell into the second- hand book trade when he bought The Bookshop in 2001.
“I’d just turned 30 and my life wasn’t going anywhere. I popped into the bookshop and the owner said, ‘why don’t you buy my shop?’”
Shortly afterwards, Shaun found himself the owner of The Bookshop, ripping out the old shelving and installing a fireplace, sanding the wooden floors, and stripping off the old wallpaper.
He also installed two spiralling concrete towers of books either side of the front door. But the most popular – and instagrammed – feature in the shop is a kindle he shot and hung on the wall as a sign of his contempt for ebooks.
Shaun’s the first to admit that his profession is a precarious one, but don’t be fooled by his grumpy bookseller persona.
“I don’t regret taking on The Bookshop for a moment – it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I complain about it endlessly but despite the impression I give, I’m really happy and I love what I do. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by books all day? I travel all over the place to buy book collections, getting a glimpse into people’s lives,” he says. “It’s exciting as you never know what every day is going to bring. Besides, I couldn’t do anything else – after two decades of being selfemployed no one would take me on, and if they did, I’d be sacked within 20 minutes.”
He is unapologetic about mocking the customers who pay his bills in his book.
“Anyone who deals with the public will tell you that 90% of them are great, friendly and polite. But it’s the other 10% that stick in your mind,” he says.
Shaun started his writing career by penning a diary to record his observations about life in a bookshop and sent it to literary agent Jenny Brown, who he’d met during the Wigtown Book Festival.
Jenny said: “I was immediately hooked by his frank descriptions of the highs and lows of running a bookshop, the sense of community around the shop and the town, the insight into his buying trips to auction rooms and old houses, and, above all, the brilliant, irresistible humour as he describes his encounters with eccentric customers, and characterful staff.”
I missed customers like long-lost friends. The charming and even the rude