Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell review – a brilliant sequel

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 ]
News tagged with: #book shop #shaun bythell #tender age #book trade #bookseller

Other Publishing stories related to: 'Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell review – a brilliant sequel'


Lauren Groff Prepares to Open Her Bookstore—with a Little Help from Her Bookseller Friends

Fortified by advice and tips from Ann Patchett and Emma Straub, her fellow authors-turned-indie-booksellers, the author of 'Fates and Furies' and 'Matrix' readies to open her new bookstore, the Lynx, in downtown Gainesville, Fla., this spring. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-18 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #ann patchett #emma straub #bookseller


Book Review: ‘Great Expectations,’ by Vinson Cunningham

Vinson Cunningham’s impressive debut novel finds a watchful campaign aide measuring his ambitions on the trail of a magnetic presidential candidate. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-12 09:00:38 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #great expectations #debut novel


Book Review: ‘Victim,’ by Andrew Boryga

In Andrew Boryga’s debut novel, a young writer creates a career for himself by exaggerating, or sometimes completely manufacturing, stories of tragedy. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-09 10:00:20 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #young writer


Book Review: ‘The Enigma Girls,’ by Candace Fleming

Britain’s youngest code-breakers, brought to life in a new nonfiction book by Candace Fleming, were normal teenagers: playing pranks, attending dances. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-08 10:01:52 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #nonfiction book


Book Review: ‘Slow Productivity,’ by Cal Newport

In his eighth book, the best-selling author Cal Newport offers life hacks for producing high-quality work while working less. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-06 10:03:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #eighth book #best-selling author


Book Review: ‘The House of Hidden Meanings,’ by RuPaul

Chronicling the high-heeled path to drag-queen superstardom, the new memoir also reveals a celebrity infatuated with his sense of a special destiny. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-05 10:00:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #memoir


Twelve BIPOC Bookselling Entrepreneurs Jump into BincTank

The Book Industry Charitable Foundation's is bringing a dozen diverse participants into its pilot program for business incubation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #pilot program #book industry


Bookseller Oral History Project Finds Permanent Home at the University of Iowa Libraries

The Bookseller Oral History Project, a program intended to document and preserve the history of bookselling in the U.S., has found a permanent home at the University of Iowa Libraries. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-03-05 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #permanent home #bookseller


When Indie Publishing Meets Corporate Bookselling

In 2022 my first novel, Save the Village, found its home with Regal House, a mighty little woman-owned traditional independent publisher that prints all its books in the US and has a nonprofit division that works with underserved students around Raleigh, where they’re headquartered. Regal House,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2024-03-04 09:53:54 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #independent publisher #indie publishing


Audiobook Review: ‘Surely You Can’t Be Serious,’ by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker

In the audiobook oral history “Surely You Can’t Be Serious: The True Story of ‘Airplane!,’” a cast of dozens fondly revisits a now-classic film. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-03-01 14:12:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #audiobook review #true story #audiobook


What You Should Be Reading This Winter According to Indie Booksellers

Every Tuesday, a wave of new books is published, fresh off the printing press onto the shelves of bookstores around the world. Even for a book editor like me, it gets overwhelming to keep track of all the forthcoming titles. So we’ve turned to our most trusted source for recommendations: indie... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-29 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #indie booksellers #forthcoming titles #electric literature #book editor #printing press


Book Review: ‘A Woman of Pleasure,’ by Kiyoko Murata

“A Woman of Pleasure,” Kiyoko Murata’s first novel to be translated into English, explores the world of sex work in early-20th-century Japan. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-02-26 10:00:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #book review #sex work #first novel


Audiobook Review: ‘My Name Is Barbra,’ by Barbra Streisand

In Streisand’s new audiobook recording for her chatty, brick-size memoir, “My Name Is Barbra,” the superlative diva adds a little freestyling. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2024-02-23 12:45:40 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #audiobook review #audiobook recording #audiobook


12 Brilliant Short Stories by Black Writers to Read Year-Round

From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #black writers #guiding principle #electric literature #short stories


Winter Institute 2024: Booksellers Assess a Changing Tween Scene

Data points and anecdotes about middle grade reading intertwined at a panel on "Recapturing the Tween Middle Grade Market," held at Winter Institute. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-22 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #data points #winter institute


Paris Booksellers Score a Pre-Olympics Win

A win for Paris booksellers, an adaptation of The Devil Wears Prada, and a reading list for fans of True Detective: Night Country. Continue reading at Book Riot

[ Book Riot | 2024-02-19 15:27:51 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #true detective #night country #reading list


‘God forbid that a dog should die’: when Goodreads reviews go bad

From cancelled books to ‘review bombing’, it might seem as though the website can make or break a career. But how influential is it really?Something dramatic happens on a social media platform every day. On Goodreads, the anachro­nistically designed website for logging, rating (out of five) and... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2024-02-17 09:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #reviewing books #draw attention #fake accounts #negative reviews #mental health #sell books #literary world


Winter Institute 2024: Bookselling Activists Call for Words and Deeds

At the ABA Community Forum, held at Winter Institute 2024 in Cincinnati on February 14, a developing coalition of booksellers spoke on behalf of Palestinians under fire in Gaza and advocated for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-15 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with:


Winter Institute 2024: Happenings Back Home Split Some Booksellers’ Attention

A few booksellers attending Winter Institute 2024 have attracted attention on the show floor over unexpected events occurring back home at their stores. For one, B&N is planning to move next door; for another, a spouse's promotion might take him away from his store; for a third, eviction looms. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-02-14 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this | News stories tagged with: #show floor