His prose has a languorous lilt to it which is in keeping; there are days where you get a sense of “I just can’t be bothered”. Putting on a brave face, has issues with her past and present, and relationship issues with her dad. Her hatred of her father and jealousy of her sister was her juvenile and lopsided reality of an unhappy young person living in the body of a 50 something woman who would never realize her dreams and blamed everyone but herself for her failures.

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell | Waterstones

Shaun at times pays her compliments (to us, not her) but mostly he is down on her (to the reader, I don’t know whether to her personally…I get the feeling he does not ridicule her to her face).His dismissive attitude towards the pension office was a minus here, being his own fault when issues came back to bite him later.

Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell | Goodreads Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell | Goodreads

This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. humorous, philosophical, personal, written by someone shaking his head at the eccentricities of his fellow human beings… an easy and entertaining read. Fawn, the protagonist, has created alternate realities for herself and acts according to her imaginary self-image, behaviour which varies between being funny, cringeworthy, frustrating and sad at different times. I so wanted to like this book, as I truly respect (and envy) people who have the courage to try and make their living by selling books. He made many a run to different homes to assess books the person at the home wanted to sell, and that was interesting enough.The month-heading epigraphs are all from Augustus Muir’s The Intimate Thoughts of John Baxter, Bookseller this time. This book kept showing up on my feed with negative reviews and I eventually noticed one reviewer (carol) passionately challenged all the negative reviews and DNFs, arousing my curiosity.

Confessions of a Bookseller’ showed me all was well with the ‘Confessions of a Bookseller’ showed me all was well with the

There’s no humour in that of course, but she told me that one of her friends had seen a neighbour, a 75 year old woman who didn’t want to be seen visiting her equally aged neighbour by going through the front door, so instead she’d scaled a 6ft fence to have a lockdown cup of tea with her in the garden. How many times have I had to come down the ladder to answer a question about the wifi password, or give directions to the restrooms? Someone who is so full of themselves and their business and selfishly could care less about others = toxic relationship. Nicky :) Anna, also plays a part, but it seems only right for readers of this review to discover her and Shaun's relationship themselves.

It remains on my bucket to visit all four branches of Topping and Company Booksellers, a divine independent company celebrating books and the power of words in four locations.

Book review: Confessions Of A Bookseller, by Shaun Bythell Book review: Confessions Of A Bookseller, by Shaun Bythell

No one is more surprised than me that I liked this book, having started it due to all the bad reviews! Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Fawn is not an altogether likeable character but I admit I got quite fond of her as I got to know her. The book is almost five hundred pages and I had hoped that the storyline would vary long before the end.Now it’s time for her to dig deep and use every trick at her disposal if she’s to reclaim her beloved business—and her life.