Шон Байтелл: The Diary of a Bookseller

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

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

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

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

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

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.’