Exactly two years ago, I wrote a review of Shaun Bythell’s The Diary of a Bookseller, which I thoroughly enjoyed and recommended to anyone who sees paper books as more than just bound sheets of paper. This real-life diary of a real secondhand bookseller unexpectedly became a global bestseller, even to Bythell’s surprise, so it’s not surprising that a sequel followed.
If the first book was recommended to me by a friend, I discovered the second one quite by accident. Still, riding the wave of unforgettable emotions from the first, I immediately added it to my “to read soon” list. The new book, titled Confessions of a Bookseller, closely mirrors the structure of the first — it’s again a diary spanning a single calendar year. Once again, each day he records the number of online orders received and processed, the number of customers in the store, and the earnings. In other words, absolutely nothing has changed. Do you like my diary? Here’s part two. The cover of the first book featured the little bookshop itself (which really looks like that; there are now many photos of it online), while the second book’s cover shows Shaun Bythell himself in his shop. By the way, the likeness is accurate — here’s what he looks like in real life:
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