The Diary of a Bookseller
Page 27
In the afternoon a customer spent about an hour wandering around the shop. He finally came to the counter and said, ‘I never buy second-hand books. You don’t know who else has touched them, or where they’ve been.’ Apart from being an irritating thing to say to a second-hand bookseller, who knows whose hands have touched the books in the shop? Doubtless everyone from ministers to murderers. For many that secret history of provenance is a source of excitement which fires their imagination. A friend and I once discussed annotations and marginalia in books. Again, they are a divisive issue. We occasionally have Amazon orders returned because the recipient has discovered notes in a book, scribbled by previous readers, which we had not spotted. To me these things do not detract but are captivating additions – a glimpse into the mind of another person who has read the same book.
Till total £77.80
8 customers
THURSDAY, 15 JANUARY
Online orders: 4
Books found: 2
Wild and windy again today, but on a positive note, the gutter didn’t leak into the house.
The first customer of the day asked ‘Who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird?’ I told her it was Harper Lee, to which she replied, ‘Are you sure it wasn’t J. D. Salinger?’
At 3 p.m. the telephone rang. It was a journalist at The Observer who wanted to discuss the proposed wind farm.
I shut the shop at 3.30 p.m. and drove with Anna to Newton Stewart to visit Jessie in the hospital. She was in excellent spirits and we got back at 4 p.m. so I opened for the last hour. There were no customers.
Till total £30
3 customers
FRIDAY, 16 JANUARY
Online orders: 4
Books found: 4
It was snowing when I opened the shop. Nicky was twenty minutes late as a consequence. She took one look at the commode that I had bought on Tuesday and said, ‘That thing’ll never sell.’
We picked the orders then walked through our positions for ‘Readers’ Delight’. Peter, his wife, Heather, and their daughter Zoe arrived at 2.30 p.m. and we filmed it. It took three takes before we managed to get a completely perfect version. There will be no edits, at Anna’s insistence. Poor Peter, who was filming for us, had to walk backwards for the entire time.
Matthew (regular book dealer from London) came to the shop while we were filming and looked nonplussed. He spent £300.
The accountant telephoned to tell me that I haven’t signed and returned my tax return for last year, so I frantically scrambled around my chaotic filing system until I found the relevant paperwork, signed it and posted it back to him.
Nicky stayed the night and regaled us with wondrous tales of some of the treasures she has unearthed both metal-detecting and in the Morrisons skip.
Till total £313
3 customers
SATURDAY, 17 JANUARY
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Nicky opened the shop. I was putting books on the shelves when a customer accosted me with a book and asked how much it was. I told him it was £3.50. He looked at me, then pointed at Nicky, who was wearing her ski suit and brushing her teeth behind the counter, and said, ‘I’ll pay your wife, shall I?’ Nicky dropped her toothbrush in horror, and I dropped the book I was holding at the same time.
I left Nicky packing the random books for this month’s mailing, and Anna and I went for a walk in the morning before the snow melted and the light and landscape changed. When we returned an hour later, Nicky hadn’t even started on the boxes of random books, but she had hijacked the shop Facebook page again and posted the following message:
Craigard Gallery have just delivered home-made, fruit-laden Chelsea buns (the size of a medium turnip) drenched in cream cheese & cinnamon! That’s what OUR neighbours are like – what about YOURS?
Finished Satyricon and went to bed at midnight.
Till total £44.50
8 customers
MONDAY, 19 JANUARY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
Awoke to a message on my telephone from Callum telling me that I was quoted in The Observer yesterday in a piece about the proposed wind farm on the other side of the bay, which the developer – for reasons best known to themselves, no doubt – have decided to call California Farm. Shortly afterwards, the person on whose land it is to be built, and who stands to benefit most financially, appeared in the shop to discuss my objections. He began by telling me, ‘I’m not here to try to change your mind’, then spent the next three hours trying to change my mind. Anna was very impressive dealing with him, asking him how much he was going to be paid for allowing them to be built on his land (over three times what the rest of the community will receive every year) and whether he would be able to see them from any of the properties on his estate. He looked at the floor and sheepishly answered that they would not be visible from any of the numerous properties he owns.
Anna’s love of Galloway is passionate and deep, and she is determined both to market the region to the world and to protect it from anything that she perceives might prove detrimental to it, particularly to the tourist industry, on which so much of the local economy depends.
Today we had another order for a book that Nicky listed recently in her new astronomy/physics shelf. As with the last one, it wasn’t there. When I dropped off the orders with Wilma in the post office at 10 a.m., I asked if she would be good enough to send the postman over to collect the random books later. William was in the middle of berating her for some minor misdemeanour when I arrived.
The commode sold at 11 a.m. Nicky will be furious.
I seem to have acquired a virus, doubtless picked up from a customer, and I passed the day coughing, sneezing, hugging the radiator and shivering. It is always seen as the curse of the teacher, being exposed to germy children and constantly being ill, but it applies equally to anyone who works in a shop. Customers enjoy sharing their ailments with us.
After lunch I telephoned Smurfit Kappa, who seem quite happy for me to drop off a van load of dead stock for recycling any time, so I’ll go next week when I have sorted through the last of the 2,000 boxes from the farmhouse, most of which are only good for recycling.
Posted ‘Readers’ Delight’ video on Facebook at 3 p.m.
Till total £99.99
7 customers
TUESDAY, 20 JANUARY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
Email from my cousin who lives in Greece to let me know that the shop was featured in a Greek book blog. Once, shortly after I had bought the shop, a Northern Irishman accosted me as I was putting books out and asked, ‘Do you have a copy of the Greek New Testament?’ When I told him that I didn’t have a copy in stock, he replied, ‘No self-respecting bookshop could fail to have a Greek New Testament.’ I muttered something about him being welcome to his opinion and carried on about my business. When he left, armed with a few books on Calvinism, he had the decency to apologise and compliment me on the shop’s stock, particularly the theology section.
The old ladies appeared at 1 p.m. for their art class.
The postman picked up the five sacks of random books at 4 p.m.
Till total £22.50
4 customers
WEDNESDAY, 21 JANUARY
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
At lunchtime I received a telephone call from another bookshop interested in one of our books. The Monsoon software we use to manage our online stock is reasonably widely used in online bookselling, so I assumed that she would have heard of it. Monsoon froze while I was trying to find information about the book and still on the telephone, so I apologised and explained that we were having a problem with Monsoon. She replied, ‘What? Really? You’ve had a monsoon? Oh, I am sorry to hear that.’
Picked up a copy of Auden’s Collected Works and flicked through to ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’, one of my favourite poems. I have resolved to learn it by the end of the month.
Till
total £57.97
4 customers
THURSDAY, 22 JANUARY
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
The order this morning was for a Second World War book. As I was going through the shelves looking for it, I came across Colonial Campaigns of the Nineteenth Century and Saddam’s War, as well as The Armies of Wellington, all in the Second World War section. They were clearly put there by Nicky. When I mention it to her tomorrow, I can guarantee that her explanation will be, ‘Well, there wasnae any space in the military section, and it’s all about fighting. Customers will understand.’
At 2 p.m. a customer walked in and demanded a copy of Barnard’s The Whisky Distilleries of the United Kingdom. This is a title that was reprinted in 2008 by Birlinn, and of which I bought several copies (I had a first edition from the Loch Lomond deal back in December). I told the customer we had five copies, upon hearing which he turned on his heel, said ‘Hmph’ and left.
The thermal curtains and poles I ordered last week arrived, so I spent much of the day putting them up in the draughty corners of the shop in the hope that at night they will trap some of what little heat there is.
It snowed from about 3 p.m. onwards, which inevitably means that people are less inclined to travel and that there are fewer customers.
At 4.30 p.m. a friend from the other side of Wigtown Bay called around. He had heard that we were not too happy with the idea of the wind farm. He lives right in the middle of the proposed site and estimates that if it goes ahead it will reduce the value of his house to almost nothing.
Ewan replied to my email about the 2,000 books from the farmhouse. He is not expecting anything for them, which is a relief. He told me that they came from a cousin’s father, who had come to London from Pakistan when he was young, then cut all ties with everyone he knew. His existence was only discovered by his family when the authorities informed them of his death.
Till total £40.50
5 customers
FRIDAY, 23 JANUARY
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Heavy rain and freezing cold all day today. Nicky arrived at 9.15 a.m., as usual. I was vaguely jealous of her Canadian ski suit. She told me that she has been ill all week with a fever, and by Wednesday she was hallucinating: ‘Aye, it was great. Just like the old days.’ The first thing she did was to enthuse sarcastically about the new thermal curtains I have hung throughout the shop – ‘Oh, aye, they’re lovely. They look like they’re from a Barratt show home in a suburb of Swindon. Ya tube.’
Fortunately her illness prevented her from raiding the Morrisons skip, so there was no Foodie Friday this week.
Mr Deacon came in and bought a copy of Lucy Inglis’s Georgian London which we had in a window display. His left arm was in plaster, but I didn’t ask why, and he offered no explanation.
A woman in China emailed this morning. She blogs about books and has seen ‘Readers’ Delight’. She asked for permission to share it on the Chinese equivalent of YouTube, so I told her that I would be more than happy if she did. She seems to be the Chinese Jen Campbell, travelling around bookshops and writing about them. I have invited her to come and stay here.
When I gave Nicky the paperwork for the orders that I couldn’t find during the week, she immediately blamed Bethan – who hasn’t worked here since September – for putting the books on the wrong shelves.
Anna and I went to visit Jessie in hospital again. She looks much better and had a stream of visitors. Her latest news is that Chris, her husband, has been admitted to Dumfries Infirmary with a heart attack. The poor man’s mother died a couple of days ago, aged 106.
Nicky decided to go home rather than stay overnight, because she wasn’t feeling well.
Till total £118.95
8 customers
SATURDAY, 24 JANUARY
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
The sun was shining when I opened the shop, but by 11 a.m. it was grey. Nicky almost arrived on time. She spent the day complaining about having had the flu during the week and stealing my painkillers and cough medicine.
Till total £447.05
15 customers
MONDAY, 26 JANUARY
Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
Sandy the tattooed pagan came in at 2 p.m., stayed until 4 p.m. and bought a few books on Scottish folklore. While he was browsing, the depressed Welsh woman telephoned. This time she had found a copy of Ciceronis Opera from 1642 that we were selling online, so I couldn’t pretend that our stock was devoid of anything in her field. She asked if she could pay for it with a credit card over the telephone, and when I asked for her name and address she replied, ‘Dafydd Williams’. So, it was a depressed Welsh man all along.
The Open Book is being run this week by a woman from the Isle of Lewis called Ishi. She is thinking of opening a bookshop there and is here to test the water. Mac TV are going to be filming her during the week as part of a documentary for BBC Alba. She came over for supper. It turns out that she has been running tourists trails in Africa for two years, during which she recently contracted typhoid. She is past the period when it is still contagious, but Anna – ever paranoid about her health – visibly recoiled when Ishi announced this.
Till total £12.99
5 customers
TUESDAY, 27 JANUARY
Online orders:
Books found:
Nicky was in, fashionably late as usual.
Monsoon decided to do an upgrade, and now we can’t open it, so I have no idea if we had any orders today or not.
Art class was on this afternoon, so I lit the fire at noon, only to be given a lecture by one of the ladies about how much hotter her wood burning stove is than mine. This week the class is learning portraiture and had a very pretty model. When I was attending the class several years ago, the model for our portraiture lesson was an eighty-year-old man who died while we were painting him.
Nicky took a telephone call from a customer who asked, ‘What side of the street are you on?’ – a question that clearly depends on which direction you are approaching from. He drove to the shop with a car load of books to sell. Nicky rejected them all.
Heavy snow forecast for tomorrow.
Till total £110
5 customers
WEDNESDAY 28 JANUARY
Online orders: 7
Books found: 6
Monsoon was working again this morning, so today we had two days’ worth of orders to deal with.
Till total £90.50
5 customers
THURSDAY, 29 JANUARY
Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
Nicky was in today, and was her usual chirpy self.
Just before lunch a customer came in. Within moments of her arrival Nicky and I were gasping for air. She must have doused herself thoroughly in a perfume so utterly and horribly choking that I can only assume that it was developed in a chemical weapons laboratory by a particularly sadistic scientist during the Cold War.
Very quiet day in the shop, so even the toxic chemical woman was greeted with feigned enthusiasm. It snowed from about 3 p.m. onwards.
Till total £32
3 customers
FRIDAY, 30 JANUARY
Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
Nicky was back in again. Following her illness, she appears to have forgotten about Foodie Friday, much to my relief.
While I was looking for a book – one of today’s orders – I discovered a copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Barrack-Room Ballads in the Scottish poetry section, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam in the history section and Journal of the Waterloo Campaigns in the First World War section. I have given up trying to understand how Nicky’s mind works.
The worst customer today was a balding man with a yellow ponytail who spent an hour breathing heavily in the erotica section, and thumbed his way through nearly everything with illustrations. He left without buying anything. In fact,
I wonder whether it was a good thing that he left empty-handed, thus sparing me any sort of social interaction with him.
Till total £107
7 customers
SATURDAY, 31 JANUARY
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Nicky was in again: that makes three days in a row. I was ready to be sectioned by closing time.
Managed to recite ‘As I Walked Out One Evening’ to myself.
Till total £383
12 customers
FEBRUARY
The combines can never squeeze the small independent bookseller out of existence as they have squeezed the grocer and the milkman. But the hours of work are very long – I was only a part-time employee, but my employer put in a seventy-hour week, apart from constant expeditions out of hours to buy books – and it is an unhealthy life. As a rule a bookshop is horribly cold in winter, because if it is too warm the windows get misted over, and a bookseller lives on his windows. And books give off more and nastier dust than any other class of objects yet invented, and the top of a book is the place where every bluebottle prefers to die.
George Orwell, ‘Bookshop Memories’
The ‘combines’ of which Orwell speaks did indeed come to squeeze the small independent booksellers almost out of existence: Ottakar’s, Waterstones and Dillons tried to do precisely that. Now two of those three have been squeezed out of existence themselves, and the last man standing, Waterstones, faces a perilous future thanks to that combine-of-combines, Amazon. Waterstones has attempted to become a bedfellow with ‘the everything store’ by selling Kindles in its shops, but when you sup with the devil you need a long spoon, and no spoon – not even the longest available in the Amazon ‘Kitchen and Home’ department – is, I suspect, quite long enough to prevent Waterstones from getting a little too close to Amazon for its own good.