I adore books about books, reading or readers. There are so many things I relate to when I find books about readers. Little details of how the world looks different if you spend a chunk of your life between the pages of books. The inability to walk past (or leave) a bookstore is probably top of that list.
In this book Bythell runs through some particular types of readers he has come across again and again in his time running a bookstore. Some are amusing, some are infuriating, some are gross. But they are all charming in their familiarity to anyone who has spent time anywhere that books can be procured. And it’s fun to try and figure out if you belong in any of the categories he’s created, or what kind of category he’d create for you.
It’s a very short book, and I listened to the audiobook which was just long enough to accompany my through my evening list of chores. But I found it to be extremely amusing. It made real a life I’ve often dreamed I could have had if I’d managed to get a job in a bookstore in my youth. I think most booklovers have that dream, and this book is a good way to feel what it would be like. It’s entertaining, fun, perhaps uncomfortably true, and will definitely leave you thinking, “well, I’m not in this book. I’m different. He’d LOVE chatting to me about books; there’s no way I’m annoying like these people.” Of course, we probably are!
If you, like me, enjoy anything book-related, this book will be a gold mine. It’s also a great little light relief if your day has been extra stressful (which, let’s face it, they all are these days)!
A cantankerously funny view of books and the people who love them. It does take all kinds and through the misanthropic eyes of a very grumpy bookseller, we see them all–from the “Person Who Doesn’t Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)” to the “Parents Secretly After Free Childcare.”
From behind the counter, Shaun Bythell catalogs the customers who roam his shop in Wigtown, Scotland. There’s the Expert (divided into subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman).
Then there’s the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), and the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer–all add up to one of the funniest book about books you’ll ever find.
Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller) and his mordantly unique observational eye make this perfect for anyone who loves books and bookshops. – Goodreads
Book Title:Â Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
Author:Â Shaun Bythell
Series:Â No
Edition: Audiobook
Published By:Â David R. Godine Publisher
Released:Â November 10, 2020
Genre:Â Books, Humour
Pages:Â 128
Date Read:Â August 20-21, 2021
Rating: 6/10
Average Goodreads Rating:Â 3.57/5 (2,411 ratings)
