A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock, sells 20,000 a year, and has handled nearly 1m second-hand books since he bought the shop in 2001. Unsurprisingly, the Roger Penrose volume had not stuck in his mind.Before he entered the book trade at the tender age of 31, he was “amenable and friendly”. Now, after many years of fielding bizarre questions, constant haggling over prices (why is it “acceptable to try to screw the profit out of struggling small businesses” but not supermarkets?), and struggling to survive despite Amazon’s “icy grip” on bookselling, he has been forced to embrace the stereotype of the “impatient, intolerant, antisocial proprietor”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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A heart-warming love letter to books and bookshops, by an amenable fellow turned antisocial old misanthrope“I was in here two years ago and you had a book by Roger Penrose. Do you know what happened to it?” Shaun Bythell – owner of the Book Shop in Wigtown, Galloway – has 100,000 books in stock,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-24 10:58:38 UTC ]
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#book shop
#shaun bythell
#tender age
#book trade
#bookseller
A proprietor’s journey from ‘amenable and friendly’ to ‘intolerant and antisocial’According to George Orwell, “there are always plenty of not quite certifiable lunatics walking the streets and they tend to gravitate towards bookshops”. Bythell’s diary suggests that not much has changed, in this... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2018-09-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Pantomime misanthropy is tempered with bursts of sweetness in the secondhand bookseller’s latest dispatches from WigtownThere’s a moment in the first season of the short-lived but influential sitcom Black Books in which an elderly customer appears with a box of attractive old editions of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-11-11 09:00:33 UTC ]
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A welcome revival of a 1980s comedy prophesying the collapse of the Soviet UnionHere is a revival of a 1983 film from the Georgian director Eldar Shengelaia (still alive at 90) and it is revealed as an intriguing, and perhaps even remarkable creation: a dapper, droll satire on Soviet... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-02-06 13:00:00 UTC ]
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I’d begged my way into this job in the hopes that it might lead me closer to a literary life. And it would. Eventually. The post Shelve This In Memoir: Confessions of a Teenage Bookseller appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2022-09-05 10:00:28 UTC ]
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Dyer's gloriously shape-shifting literary project — intensely perceptive, essayistic memoir — continues with "The Last Days of Roger Federer." Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2022-04-28 13:00:00 UTC ]
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Back in 2018, an advert for what seemed like the perfect job for book lovers went viral after Sonu Shivdasani, founder of Soneva luxury holiday resorts, and Philip Blackwell, c.e.o. of Ultimate Library—a company that creates bespoke book collections for hotels and private clients—came up with... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-25 23:24:10 UTC ]
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Latham, a bookseller for 35 years, has put together a heady mix of history, philosophy, anecdotes and entertaining factsWhat most people know about the American librarian Melvil Dewey is his phenomenal classification technique, the Dewey decimal system, which is still used in 135 countries. Less... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2020-12-19 09:00:45 UTC ]
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Profile Books will publish Shaun Bythell's Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops in November. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-07-08 23:31:01 UTC ]
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Bookshops up and down the country say they saw footfall increase on Saturday thanks to the Bookshop Day campaign, organised by Booksellers Association. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Scotland’s largest second-hand bookshop is the backdrop for a comic diary about the joy, and occasional banality, of bookselling. Caroline Sanderson reports. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2017-09-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The Chinese government has broken its silence on the disappearance of five Hong Kong booksellers widely suspected of being detained by the authorities over the publication of controversial books critical of China's elite. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2016-01-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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After producing a long line of ebook readers and tablets (not to mention a set-top box), Amazon has its sights set on the smartphone market. But finding success here won't be easy, even for an established tech giant like Amazon. With the Fire phone,... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2014-07-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The bookstore proprietors of today are putting inclusivity first, building communities, and opening up shop in unexpected places. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-04-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Heartland Fall Forum, the last regional gathering of booksellers this year, kicked off yesterday with what promises to be a high energy show that drew 547 booksellers, authors, and exhibitors to Detroit for networking, education, and an opening night party at Third Man Records. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-19 04:00:00 UTC ]
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A novel of revolution, a graphic novel of Portland punk, and a photo book of the mosh pit. Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2022-02-11 15:22:22 UTC ]
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Source Booksellers has been transformed from a small business serving its Detroit community to an indie with a global customer base. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-09-24 04:00:00 UTC ]
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David Ulin read four of the recall candidate's books, from the jeremiad "Showdown" to the memoir "A Lot Like Me," and found not a writer but a brand. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-09-08 13:00:05 UTC ]
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The Bookseller is calling for authors to pen an “ode to booksellers” as part of a celebration of the trade during a time when high-street bookshops are unable to open their doors. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-02-14 20:12:04 UTC ]
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Bookselling Without Borders is a global partnership of independent publishers that supports travel to international book fairs and residencies for booksellers. It is currently accepting applications for 2020 fellowships. BWB connects booksellers to the international book community through... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-12 09:46:49 UTC ]
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