Remainders of the Day: More Diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown

The Diary of a Bookseller #3

by Shaun Bythell

'Effortlessly charming ... it is soothing to sink once again into the rhythms of Bythell's year' TLS

The Bookshop in Wigtown is a bookworm's idyll - with thousands of books across nearly a mile of shelves, a real log fire, and Captain, the bookshop cat. You'd think after twenty years, owner Shaun Bythell would be used to the customers by now.

Don't get him wrong - there are some good ones among the antiquarian erotica-hunters, die-hard Arthurians, people who confuse bookshops for libraries and the toddlers just looking for a nice cosy corner in which to wee. He's sure there are. There must be some good ones, right?

Filled with the pernickety warmth and humour that has touched readers around the world, stuffed with literary treasures, hidden gems and incunabula, Remainders of the Day is Shaun Bythell's latest entry in his bestselling diary series.

Genres: Nonfiction, Books About Books, Memoir, Biography, Scotland, Audiobook, Humor

381 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2022

About the author

Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland's National Book Town, and also one of the organisers of the Wigtown Festival.

When not working amongst The Bookshop’s mile of shelving, Shaun’s hobbies include eavesdropping on customers, uploading book-themed re-workings of Sugarhill Gang songs to YouTube and shooting Amazon Kindles in the wild.

https://www.facebook.com/thebookshopw...

Reviews

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Shaun Bythell's bookshop life. I didn't want to finish it too quickly. The diary is full of humour but also shows what hard work it is to run a secondhand bookshop.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s just over five years since many of us were introduced to Wigtown and the ups and downs of running a bookshop there through Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller. (I’ve also reviewed the follow-up, Confessions of a Bookseller, which was an enjoyable read for me during a 2019 trip to Milan, and 2020’s Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops.)

This third volume opens in February 2016. As in its predecessors, each monthly section is prefaced by an epigraph from a historical work on bookselling – this time R. M. Williamson’s Bits from an Old Bookshop (1904). It’s the same winning formula as ever: the nearly daily entries start with the number of online orders received and filled, and end with the number of customers and the till takings for the day. In between, Bythell details notable customer encounters, interactions with shop helpers or local friends, trips out to buy book collections or go fishing, Wigtown events including the book festival, and the occasional snafu like the boiler breaking during a frigid November or his mum being hospitalized with a burst ulcer.

Reading May Sarton’s Encore recently, I came across a passage where she is reading a fellow writer’s journal (Doris Grumbach’s Coming into the End Zone):

I find hers extremely good reading, so I cannot bear to stop. I am reading it much too fast and I think I shall have to read it again. I know that I must not swallow it whole. There is something about a journal, I think, that does this to readers. So many readers tell me that they cannot put my journals down.

I’ve heard Zadie Smith say the same about Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle: it’s just the stuff of prosaic, everyday life and yet she refers to his memoirs/autofiction as literary crack.

I often read a whole month’s worth of entries at a sitting. I can think of a few specific reasons why Bythell’s journals are such addictive reading:

1) “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name.” Small-town settings are irresistible for many readers, and by now the fairly small cast of characters in Bythell’s books feel like old friends. Especially having been to Wigtown myself, I can picture many of the locations he writes about, and you get the rhythm of the seasons and the natural world as well as the town’s ebb and flow of visitors.

2) (A related point) You know what to expect, and that’s a comforting thing. Bythell makes effective use of running gags. You know that when Granny, an occasional shop helper from Italy, appears, she will complain about her aches and pains, curse at Bythell and give him the finger. Petra’s belly-dancing class (held above the shop) will inevitably be poorly attended. If Eliot is visiting, he is sure to leave his shoes right where everyone will trip over them. Captain the cat will be portly and infuriating.

3) What I most love about the series is the picture of the life cycle of books, from when they first enter the shop, or get picked up in his van, to when rejects are dropped at a Glasgow recycling plant. What happens in the meantime varies, with once-popular authors falling out of fashion while certain topics remain perennial bestsellers in the shop (railways, ornithology). There’s many a serendipitous moment when he comes across a book and it’s just what a customer wants, or buys a book as part of a lot and then sells it online the very next day. New, unpriced stock is always quick to go.

Also of note in this volume are his break-up with Amazon, after his account falls victim to algorithms and is suspended, the meta moment where he signs his first book contract with Profile, and the increasing presence of the Bookshop Band, who moved to Wigtown later in 2017. Bythell doesn’t seem to get much time to read – it’s a misconception of the bookselling life that you do nothing but read all day; you’d be better off as a book reviewer if that’s what you want – but when he does, it’s generally an intense experience: E.M. Forster’s sci-fi novella The Machine Stops (who knew it existed?!), Barbara Comyns’s A Touch of Mistletoe, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated, and Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis.

I’m torn as to whether I hope there will be more year by year volumes filling in to the present day. As my blogging friend Annabel noted, the ‘where they are now’ approach in the Epilogue rather suggests that he and his publisher will leave it here at a trilogy. This might be for the best, as a few more pre-Covid years of the same routines could get old, though nosey parkers like myself will want to know how a confirmed bachelor turned into a family man…

Some favourite lines:

“Quiet day in the shop; even the cat looked bored.” (31 October)

“The life of the secondhand bookseller mainly involves moving boxes from one place to another, and trying to make them fit into a small space, like some sort of awful game of Tetris.”

(10 February and 15 March are great stand-alone entries that give a sense of what the whole is like. There are a lot of black-and-white photos printed amid the text in the first month; it’s a shame these don’t carry on through.)

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Sotiria Lazaridou · Rating 4 out of 5]

I absolutely loved the cozy and warm atmosphere of the bookshop!

[Julie Durnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always enjoy Shaun Bythell's diary style format of his Scottish bookshop's day-to-day business and customers, and this one was even better than his others, I thought. Curmudgeonly and slightly snarky, he is knowledgeable and entertaining. Each month is headlined by an excerpt from R.M. Williamson's Bits From An Old Bookshop; which in spite of being written over 100 years ago is still relevant. Besides the chuckle out loud moments in the narrative, I really had to smile reading the epilogue!

[Sheree | Keeping Up With The Penguins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remainders Of The Day was more understated than I expected, quite a cozy read – with brilliant moments of sensational snark. All told, it's a remarkably accurate insight into the life of a used bookseller, and a delightful easy read for this time of year.

My full review of Remainders Of The Day is up now on Keeping Up With The Penguins.

[Kristīne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kau trešā grāmatpārdevēja dienasgrāmata, un tā kā kopš iepriekšējās jau pagājis labs laiciņš, bija patīkami atgriezties klusajā Skotijas mazpilsētiņā, kur lielāko tiesu no gada valda aukstums, lietus, padumji grāmatu pircēji, mazliet traki vietējie iedzīvotāji un skaļākais notikums ir literatūras festivāls.
Biju mazliet pārsteigta, ka šis nav nekāds svaigais teksts, bet dienasgrāmata no 2016.gada. Vispār neko neatceros no 2.grāmatas, bet cik nu atceros no pirmās, tekstā ir šķietami uzlabojumi. Vairāk detaļu par pašām grāmatām, ko pērk, ko atnes, ko pasūta internetā. Joprojām mazliet kaitina visādu nezināmu cilvēku piesaukšana, bet tas ir neizbēgami, jo svarīgi pašam autoram un ir daļa no aizvadītās dienas. Joprojām rodas jautājumi, kā šis kvalificējas kā “bizness”, jo paskatoties, cik naudas ienāk, un cik viņš iztērē grāmatu iepirkumos, diez vai tur ir pluss zīme.

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a comfort to come back to the bookshop, and hear more of Shaun’s sarcastic anecdotes about the various oddballs that visit his establishment. Reading his books make me feel like I am coming home to an old, reliable friend, and hearing about his life with his friends, family and of course cat just make my day (especially his loudmouth, cursing and utterly hilarious Spanish friend whom he affectionately calls ‘Granny’.)
This was written in 2016, before his other books, and things have of course changed since then. I hate to finish his books however. I feel I have become part of his busy and fulfilling life, watching him do a job that he pretends not to, but secretly adores, and find it strange I am so far away from his shop when all these things are happening and all these amusing people are trundling about. I want things to stay the same always.
But as if he knows how I feel once I turned the final page, he reassuringly imparts to us in the epilogue that he won’t be going anywhere - ‘The sun still rises in the east, and sets in the west. The shop is still here.’

I think Shaun, that we are all in agreement when we say ‘what a relief.’

[Tania · Rating 4 out of 5]

More diaries from The Bookshop, and much the same as the previous books, but it's always delightful to be back there.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book, written in his familiar, friendly, ironic style. It's a great pleasure reading, savouring a couple of pages every evening before going to bed. Five stars!

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

More delighttful musings and shenanigans from Shaun Bythell, Wigtown's most famous bookseller. Written with the same wit and charm as his previous memoirs. I love his thoughts on life and his amusing observations of his customers and the town's locals. It also offers interesting insight into the book trade and a plethora of book-related facts.

Granny, his foul-mouthed Italian assistant, is probably my favourite 'character' (especially with Peter Kenny's narration, who does a great job with the various accents). Her utterances often had me laughing out loud. I hope Shaun is already busy writing the next one. His books are such a joy and a comfort to listen to.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this, the diary form is perfect for bedtime reading. However, bits of it were repetitive at times, offsetting the pleasure of used bookshop esoterica.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never want his books to end.

I'd planned to give this 4.5 stars until the Epilogue, where he mentions two things that make me so happy to read. Actually three! The only thing I wonder now is if he will actually write another book in this series. Because if so, then he basically threw a couple of spoilers that true lovers of this series read these books to find out.

This is basically the diary of a secondhand bookshop owner's business and much of his personal life. His employees are the highlight of every one of these books. They are often hilarious and the audio narration by Peter Kenny is first-rate.

If you are looking to escape, in this case to Scotland or a similar place, where many quirky people abound, you can't go wrong with this series. These are comforting reads and I just love an employee who appears first in the 2nd book, and continues through this 3rd one. She is a gem. I wish I knew her in real life; I would love her!

Diary sounds boring, but these books aren't bc Bythell knows how to write. He has a wry sense of humor too which really helps. Many laughs and a few tears. Highly recommended.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bythell's Diary of a Bookseller series gets duller and more embittered with each entry. Where the first book was well edited, cozy and charming, the subsequent books have ballooned out in page size as his editors have let him loose, but totally lack the charm and interest of the first.

It's a hard slog for the first 200 pages or so, which largely recount Bythell's feud with Amazon and unreliability and fulfilling online orders, until the Wigtown Book Festival. The diary would have been more interesting if it started in the middle.

The mean-spiritedness of this book really make it hard to like Bythell and erase any warm feeling one might have held towards him. Every customer is mocked and stereotyped based on intrinsic characteristics beyond their control. Australians, Queenslanders, the bald, the hairy, the tall, people with lisps, the English, the religious, trainspotters, the old, the young, the sick and the enfeebled are mocked on every page. For all his stated dislike of Fleming, Bythell inherited the love of seeking to pair dislikeable people with physical and mental impairments.

The book picks up in the brief moments Bythell talks about things he enjoys doing, such as walking in Spain, running his own publishing imprint and super local histories of Wigtown.

Strangely he never makes the connection between his bad back and sciatica and a lifetime spent lifting books in and out of vans and going to the pub.

Bythell's refusal to pay his workers adequately comes across as Scrooge like especially when one worker is deported to the US, one pitches a tent in his backyard, one becomes a doctor, one develops a dislike of him, and Granny openly bemoans his lack of payment as she's sent off to exchange cash at a bank he's not a member of.

Meanwhile, Bythell acquires increasingly more properties in Wigtown and tells you of his family's rural lodging holdings. Alongside his admiration for the riches acquired by the 18th century book seller/publishers he comes across almost as a parody of the petite bourgeoisie as rendered by Marx.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very privileged to get an ARC of this directly from Shaun. I gobbled it up in no time and especially loved reading it while in Wigtown where I could truly relate to the locations and culture described in the book.

Having read all of Shaun's previous work, without having it with me to directly check, I had a sense that this latest book is richer in detail and observations of local people and activities, and perhaps slightly lighter on the humour around customers, although there is still plenty of that.

For those who loved the characters in the previous books, there are many updates on Sandy the Tattooed Pagan, Callum, Granny, Shaun's parents, and many others. He also provides updates on those who are running the Open Book and the usual goings on in Wigtown. The book covers the year 2016, so much has obviously happened since then (including Shaun's getting married and becoming a father twice over) so it remains to be seen whether he will keep up the diaries. We can only hope.

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Bucket List includes a trip to Wigtown & this bookshop.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another year spent in the company of a Scottish bookseller. A great reminder of all the heavy toting that a used Bookshop necessitates! Shaun, the diarist, remarks on the towns characters and his customers with a biting wit. The trials of online selling,festival participation, and unending overnight company,boiler challenges fills the pages. Reading this makes me want to visit the local used Bookshop and pet the shop cat!

[Belle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think I jumped in at the end of a series of memoir about Shaun in his bookstore. He is sarcastic and witty in his head anyway. I really don’t think he would actually say the half of what he thinks about mankind. The 3 stars is probably owing to my own fault of not starting at the beginning.

What I appreciated in this book was the slow pace of Shaun’s bookseller life. Yes, he sells online and uses technology but as a means to support his quieter and smaller life in Wigtown Scotland. What I mean by this is he seems to work just enough to support himself. Sort of like sufficient unto this day…

It has been one of three books I read in January that support my efforts to “slow it down a bit” over here.

My 2023 idea:

1. Ditch Amazon completely for books and all the rest. Oops can I even say that here?? My apologies for any offense this causes. Amazon represents over-consumerism to me.
2. Eat less extravagantly.
3. Turn off the tv and all social media (except GR which I really love).
4. Turn to walking and biking as a form of meditation.

Living teensy-tiny small is sounding so attractive to me at the moment.

[Kitty · Rating 5 out of 5]

võiksin Shauni päevikuid lugeda lõputult, aga järelsõna põhjal paistab, et ta rohkem ei plaani neid avaldada. mul pole suurt midagi öelda, mida ma juba eelmiste osade kohta poleks öelnud - vaimustav sissevaade kasutatud raamatute müüja igapäevaellu, kirja pandud toonil, mis püüab jätta mulje, et Shaunile inimesed eriti ei meeldi, aga ikkagi kumab sealt läbi, et ta on tegelikult väga kena inimene ja suurepärane sõber.

vist on asjakohane ära märkida, et legendaarset raamatupoekassi Captanit (kujutatud ka kaanepildil) ei ole tänasest enam meiega ja kuigi ta oli tõesti juba vana, on see minu meelest ikkagi kohutavalt kurb, sest pärast kõiki neid kolme aastat detailset päevikut on tunne, nagu oleks see olnud mu oma kass.

[Trin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Warm (despite the perpetual Scottish chill) and comforting (despite the stress of all the Amazon bullshit). Makes me miss bookselling (almost).

Justice for Nicky's "Home Front Novels" section though; I would go nuts there. Someday I hope to!

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐️ there‘s something about reading the diary entries of a sarcastic Scotish bookseller that’s simply appealing and soothing to my brain

[Christopher Junker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same shtick. Probably four stars if this is your first read of this series and if you liked the others you will like this but the return characters are no longer novel and nothing really replaces Nicky. Nevertheless i enjoyed the return to Wigtown.

[Eevi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vaikee antaa tähtiä tän tyyppiselle kirjalle koska tää tosiaan oli aika lailla vaan päiväkirja, mutta tosi kiva luettava kyllä. Hauska, viihdyttävä hyvänmielenkirja, jää ikävä. Tuli tarve a) mennä antikvariaattiin ja b) muuttaa pieneen kylään Skotlantiin

[Debby Binns · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third book of diaries from The Bookshop, Wigtown in Scotland and I hugely enjoyed it and found it to be a comfort read with a lively edge. SB records the weather and the minor events of each day, along with the staff who help him and happenings at the Wigtown Book Festival. For me the chief strength of this book is the wonderful descriptions of the characters that come into the shop.

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book I have read by this author and honestly, I always have a love/hate relationship with his books.

I owned a used bookstore for 4 years and although it was not an antiquarian shop, I certainly got a lot of experience owning and working in a bookstore. Now, I am sorry I did not keep a diary of my time.

The best parts of this book, for me, are always the (too brief!) description of his buying trips. He does mention that one of the best things about owning a bookstore is the unboxing of books - never knowing what will be in the box. I totally agree with him - loved, loved that part so much.

I also had my share of particular customers and of funny stories. However, I wonder how his customers feel being basically put down by Bythell. I find him mean in his descriptions and yet, at the same time, he lets his employees and people around him call him horrid names. I don't understand his relationships, for the most part. Since he mentions these in his book, that kind of makes them open to comment.

I also question, as I did in the first book, where he gets all this $. He wants us to believe that bookselling is not about $ but he sure buys a lot of books, travels and stays in hotels which all cost a lot. It is never cleared up in his books.

The writing style is engaging, but there is definitely an undertone of....not sure what to call it, other than nastiness that makes me uncomfortable.

But then again, I suppose I could be accused of doing the same with this review.

I wanted to wish this author good luck - having two babies at the age of 50 is quite a feat. I bet its a lot more work than owning a bookstore.

[Margarida · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF - É a primeira vez que não me consigo forçar a terminar um livro mas a vida é muito curta para lermos livros que nos tiram anos de vida, i guess. Mas quando vos digo que as 100 páginas que li foram as 100 páginas mais maçadoras e aborrecidas de sempre, não estou a brincar.
Plot? Não existe! Simplesmente não é esse tipo de livro, é apenas um diário do dia a dia de um senhor muito revoltado (e às vezes com razão) mas também muito repetitivo. As entradas dos diários são todas iguais ou muito semelhantes e talvez esse até seja o objetivo mas para mim não deu. Pelo menos agora já sei que livros assim não são de todo para mim :’)

atualização: dei 2 estrelas porque me estava a doer por dentro dar 1 estrela, não é o livro certo para mim mas deverá ter sido para muita gente

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sigh. Without Nicky's comedic magic and without the romantic drama with Anna (the compelling power behind the anecdotal structure of the first book) there's not enough there to make it worth the read.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although he can be particularly grumpy I do find the work of Bythell rather entertaining. He's witty and observant and gives a real view of the life of a bookseller.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book of diary entries from Shaun Bythell, the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Galloway - published in 2022, featuring entries from 2016 into early 2017 but with a more recent epilogue. Loved the first two books and enjoyed this one every bit as much, especially as I can relate to the locality and the business itself having visited several years ago on a short break to the town. Shaun still has problems with Amazon (mainly) and his other online platforms, but clearly he has to persevere in order to maintain a wider market for his books. I sympathise with him greatly - I have enough problems with Amazon and that's just trying to sell the occasional book I've read myself and want to list on their marketplace! As entertaining as ever and looking forward to more from Shaun featuring his curmudgeonly customers and (occasionally) staff! Some highly amusing anecdotes, many of which I had to read out to my wife, and picked up on a few good books from his recommendations - 9/10.

[Asta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple descriptions of a daily life of a bookseller in a remote part of Scotland.
Yet somehow I find these series addictive.

"Today was World Book Day. I marked the occasion by smashing up a Kindle and nailing it to the front door of the shop with a note saying, 'It's World Book Day. Destroy your Kindle.' "

"Travel by train affords one the luxury of uninterrupted reading."

"Quiet day in the shop; even the cat looked bored."

"Ran out of Lady Grey tea at 2 p.m. As bourgeois complaints go, this may be my finest."

[Aneesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I waited until January to read this cozy, wintry, snarky continuation.

This customer said something in the way my mother would say it: "You'll have to move the art section. The lighting is bad."

For some reason my copy has the same cover as the second book in this series.