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"A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore 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. It does take all kinds. If you visit bookshops more often than the grocery store, you'll recognize the types. There's the Expert (with subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft show more Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lycra Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian (generally Americans who come to Shaun's shop in Wigtown, Scotland). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer - all from Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller), the funniest sell-and-tell observer in the house of books. This is the perfect read for anyone who ever felt a bookstore was home. You've been spotted! Or have you?"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Having read his first two books, I was surprised when this arrived at how small it was. But good things / small packages and all that. It may be a small, slim volume, but it’s spot on and hilarious. I’ve never owned a bookshop (yet) but I recognise these people from time spent in bookshops – and a library or two – everywhere. I found myself reading most of it aloud to my husband, and we took turns naming those we know who fit Bythell’s descriptions a little too well, inside or outside a bookshop.
MT self-identified with type 3 of the Homo qui desidet or Loiterer, sub-type The Bored Spouse (though in his defense, he just buys his books way too fast). I was relived not to have identified with the American sub-type of Family show more Historian, since I leave all that stuff to my mom, who is a first generation American, so comes by it honestly, at least. I’d like to think I fall firmly in the bonus category of Cliens Perfectus as I generally enter a bookshop, talk to nobody, browse everything, and almost never leave without a stack, and the idea of haggling is one I find personally abhorrent, but then, doesn’t everyone think they’re the Perfect Customer?
All in all, a fun way to spend a few hours as long as you have a healthy sense of humor about humanity. show less
MT self-identified with type 3 of the Homo qui desidet or Loiterer, sub-type The Bored Spouse (though in his defense, he just buys his books way too fast). I was relived not to have identified with the American sub-type of Family show more Historian, since I leave all that stuff to my mom, who is a first generation American, so comes by it honestly, at least. I’d like to think I fall firmly in the bonus category of Cliens Perfectus as I generally enter a bookshop, talk to nobody, browse everything, and almost never leave without a stack, and the idea of haggling is one I find personally abhorrent, but then, doesn’t everyone think they’re the Perfect Customer?
All in all, a fun way to spend a few hours as long as you have a healthy sense of humor about humanity. show less
Shaun Bythell does not pull any punches. His first book was a brutally honest look at his life as a second hand bookseller, and this little volume follows the same vein. The thing is though, even as he is ripping each of the seven types of people he finds in his shop, their foibles and behaviours, their tastes and attitudes, it is clear that he (mostly) respects and appreciates all of them, even likes some of them. And the fact that one of his classes is bookstore staff, who are also a cracked and tarnished type of folk, shows a streak of humility which is the secret to his success. The not-so-secret admiration is nicely contrasted with his acerbic insights. I wonder which type I would end up being, if I visited his store.
A short but amusing book that is best enjoyed if you’ve read at least one of Bythell’s other books, so that you get a feel for his writing style. I laughed out loud several times and had to read passages to myself to savour their turns of phrase. The classification scheme was entertaining, even more so because Bythell realized it didn’t work but styled it out anyway. The cover art is gorgeous. Now I want to potter around a used bookstore and buy a big armful of books.
Shaun Bythell, who runs the largest secondhand bookshop in Scotland, shares his thoughts on the various kinds of customers he sees in his store. Mostly the annoying ones. It's mildly amusing, if you're good with snarky Scottish humor (and, I suppose, aren't among the categories of people he really seems to dislike, such as conspiracy theorists and people who force their political opinions on everyone in earshot). I didn't find it nearly as charming as his The Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller, though, and if you've already read those, this one may feel a little redundant.
Witty and very British. I wouldn’t have read it if I wasn’t working in a used bookstore. But since I am, I can attest that the Genera listed here are accurate — I’ve encountered quite a few of them in the four short months of my employment.
A fun, short, written-during-COVID book about the various people that frequent bookstores. Personally, I think he left a few out, and he was often much kinder than I would have been, overall (because, while 99% of bookshop customers truly are lovely people, that remaining 1% can drive you mad).
I get a kick out of the reviewers who don't like Bythell himself. But, as a veteran bookshop worker, I can tell you that, aside from requiring a love of books, the owner or manager of a bookshop also needs a few other qualities, but mostly to not suffer fools, and all the survival skills that come with that. So, if he comes off a little asshole-ish, I think it's mostly justified. Personally, I get a kick out of him.
Good book.
I get a kick out of the reviewers who don't like Bythell himself. But, as a veteran bookshop worker, I can tell you that, aside from requiring a love of books, the owner or manager of a bookshop also needs a few other qualities, but mostly to not suffer fools, and all the survival skills that come with that. So, if he comes off a little asshole-ish, I think it's mostly justified. Personally, I get a kick out of him.
Good book.
A short, sweet and funny read. I found myself imagining not only the various characters Shaun has described in his work before, but picturing people I knew myself and placing them in the different classifications. Definitely a nice little read to complement his other work.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
- Original title
- Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops
- Alternate titles*
- Un libraire raconte ce que le vôtre pense (peut-être) tout bas (peut-être)
- Original publication date
- 2020
- Dedication
- for Lena and Freya
- First words
- In his preface to Antiquarian Books: An Insider's Account (David & Charles, 1978) Roy Harley Lewis wrote that "the role played by antiquarian books in world trade is, financially, insignificant." That is putting a ... (show all)flattering spin on it. If you replace the word "antiquarian" with "second-had," then the financial impact on the global economy shifts from "quite insignificant" to "laughably trifling." It was into thaat world that I stepped when I bought a bookshop in 200, just four years after Amazon started selling cut-price books on line. -Introduction
If your knowledge of Latin is as woeful as mine, then you could be forgiven for assuming (as I did) that this refers to an unsavory part of the nether regions. It does not. It means 'expert.' -Genus: Peritus (Expert), ... (show all)Chapter 1 - Canonical DDC/MDS
- 381.45002
- Canonical LCC
- Z325.B97
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- General Nonfiction, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 381.45002 — Society, government, & culture Commerce, communications & transportation regulations Domestic Trade (Commerce) Specific products and services Books
- LCC
- Z325 .B97 — Bibliography, Library Science and Information Resources Book industries and trade Bookselling and publishing
- BISAC
Statistics
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- Reviews
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- Rating
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- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 18
- ASINs
- 6
