A Year at Shaun's Bookshop

"Many of the people who came into the bookshop were the kind who would be a nuisance everywhere else, but who in a bookshop have some special opportunity," this is one of the first quotes from George Orwell that Scottish bookseller Shaun Bythell uses in Diary of a booksellerHis collection of anecdotes, sufferings, paradoxes, and surreal situations at The Book Shop, his bookstore in Wigtown, over the course of a year. Viena Edicions published it in Catalan in 2019, but I only discovered it this year—dear Viena Edicions, Shaun Bythell has written more books about his bookstore; would it be possible for you to publish them as well? At least it would make one person very happy, and that person is me.

Orwell's quote has provoked a mixture of shame and pride in me, because I'm sure I'm in the way everywhere, except for specific places like a shady bench, a bookstore, and my office, which is full of books, has no window, and has the desk facing the wall. In bed, when they sleep, I'm in the way of my dogs and cats, and I disturb them with my changes of position when my body is searching for a cool corner between the sheets.

Bythell writes in such a way that I imagine him looking at me seriously while I'm dying of laughter at what he says. The parade of customers is incredible, and many have made me want to be his friend. Of course, I'd also like to be friends with Shaun and the bookstore clerk, Nicky, who has made me realize I'm not as crazy as I thought.

Thanks to this journal, I've also learned about the work of antiquarian booksellers, about what it means to go to a house and discover what a deceased person was like thanks to their library. And, because of the book, I now feel an overwhelming need to live in a Scottish village and run a shop, a bookstore or any other kind of shop.

The secret of a book like this can be defined in one word: humanity. This is precisely what he feels we've lost in a country like ours, so overcrowded, so focused on exploiting tourists, so cruel to many of its inhabitants, that we don't even consider that we've lost quality human relationships, the kind that involve pausing and paying attention to others. Reading these pages, he feels a longing for a place he's never even been. Finally, take Shaun's advice and forget about Amazon. Go to a bookstore, get lost in the aisles, and have a good chat with the bookseller.