Bits from an old book shop

by Robert Milne Williamson

This book was digitized and reprinted from the collections of the University of California Libraries. It was produced from digital images created through the libraries’ mass digitization efforts. The digital images were cleaned and prepared for printing through automated processes. Despite the cleaning process, occasional flaws may still be present that were part of the original work itself, or introduced during digitization. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found online in the HathiTrust Digital Library at www.hathitrust.org.

132 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1904

Reviews

[Diane Barnes]

Very old fashioned in some of its attitudes, but generally true as far as bookselling and reading.

[Marlise]

This was a fun read. It’s like a love letter to books and bookshops. Especially in the first nine chapters, I feel swept into a 19th century world of musty bookshops where every man’s a poet and hidden gems are still possible to be found. I found a digital copy of the book for free online at archive.org since it is no longer in print and the only other copy was available in bad shape on Abe Books for $256USD - yikes! I would still like a copy of my own, though, so I’ll have to look next year when I visit Edinburgh and London for a decently priced reprint.

[Brian Quast]

A terrific biblio-memoir that I was finally able to secure an original (albeit a softcover) copy of yesterday & devoured on a single Saturday afternoon/evening. It is a delight to both own & read. Highly recommended.

[Dee]

Just a wonderful old time view of books, authors, booksellers and life. Some of it rings true to this day. Very enjoyable...too me awhile because I read it twice!

[SheMac]

As others have mentioned, this book is hard to find, but is available online in facsimile form. A book about books written early in the 20th century ... not a lot of new ground covered here. I, however, have compiled a long list of books mentioned here that I want to read, especially other booksellers' memoirs. Some might also enjoy both Williamson's denunciation of novel readers especially women who are probably neglecting their household chores and his questioning why taxpayers should be footing the bill for libraries to stock novels. Amusing from a distance of 100 years