Readers,
Unpredictable weather in Melbourne this weekend + mild illness combined for a good reading climate. Used the time for The Diary of a Bookseller by Shuan Bythell, and to revamp this blog, obviously.
The Diary of a Bookseller was provided to me, in hard-copy, by my Mother, last weekend. She presented it on the first day of her three day visit with the following recommendation, "Heard a radio broadcast with this guy on Radio New Zealand. I'm so excited to read this. Can you read it fast so that I can have it?" I offered to let her keep it, seeing as she had just bought it. "No, no. I want YOU to read it. But then bring it to me."
So I complied, and (as always) Mother is right. "This guy" had me engrossed all weekend. The premise is this: one day, fifty-something-year-old Shaun, the owner of the largest (second-largest?) second-hand bookstore in Scotland, begins to chronicle his life. Said life is primarily composed of interactions with unsavoury customers, many-a-trip to far-off homesteads where desultory book collections are valued by Shaun, usually to the financial disappointment of those wanting to cast them off; unpredictable run-ins and late night drinks with his enigmatic shop clerk, Nicky; and daily till totals which leave you in no doubt that, for Shaun, this is a labour of love, not money.
I wanted to start the new website with this book for a reason: Shaun is a lover of books, and a lover of the people in his community (though he tries, repeatedly, to convince you that he's a curmudgeon). Reading his book reminded me how important those things are in my own life. As he winds through the back-roads of rural Scotland, or entertains the various people in his small town, I was thinking about my own home town in New Zealand and my old life there. It feels very far from the world of Excel and Powerpoint, which I now occupy, and to which I must return, for better or worse, tomorrow morning. It is a testament to Shaun's writing that this book is at once funny, inspiring and brutally honest. Would I trade places with Shaun? Probably not. Do I admire him? Definitely.
Fortunately, my quest for my own purpose in life (yeah, I know), took a turn for the better. Upon reading this book two things happened: (1) I started a running list of things that I love and things I'm afraid of, which feels like a step in the right direction, (2) at a brunch with a wide-ranging group of Melbournians, I brought up this new list of mine and Shaun's book, which led to a fascinating discussion and reminded me that, very occasionally, people really do want to engage on the big topics in life.
So here's to Shaun, for doing what I might only ever dream to do, and for making me laugh out loud in my apartment. Here's one of his best jokes, which sums up the book, and Shaun's tone, far more succinctly than I can: "A customer at 11.15 a.m. asked for a copy of Far from the Maddening Crowd. In spite of several attempts to explain that the book's title is actually Far from the Madding Crowd, he resolutely refused to accept that this was the case... Despite the infuriating nation of this exchange, I ought to be grateful: he has given me an idea for the title of my autobiography..."