Confessions of a Bookseller Quotes

“Money can't buy happiness, BUT it can buy books (which is basically the same thing).”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“In the shop I have a quotation from Erasmus painted on a wall which reads ‘Whenever I have money I buy books. Whatever is left I spend on food and clothes.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“very broadly speaking—people can be divided into two groups: those who have worked in a bar, or café, or restaurant, or shop, and those who have not. And while it would be both unfair and untrue to say that everyone in the latter category treats those in the former as a second-class citizen, it is probably accurate to say that virtually nobody from the first category will do so.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“Після роботи записав у саду коротке відео про те, як оновити кіндл до моделі Kindle Fire. Потрібно два літри бензину й сірники.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“This afternoon there was a very satisfying encounter involving a customer who began requesting a discount on a pile of books about the Rolls-Royce company. His friend prodded him in the back and said, ‘You’ve got some nerve, asking for a discount from this poor bloke while you drive about in your fancy Rolls-Royces.’ He didn’t get a discount.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“Karl-Heinz ‘fed’ me the entire book over the next seven weeks. The metaphor is exact. The thin wads of pages were like crucial scraps of nutrition. I devoured them. I masticated, swallowed and digested that book. I cracked its bones and sipped its marrow; every fibre of meat, every cartilaginous module of gristle was dined on with gourmandising fervour.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“A family of five came in at 3 p.m. The children mauled and pawed their way through the books in the antiquarian section in front of their parents before the father spotted the notice requesting that customers handle the books carefully, read it out loud, then finally told them to stop. It’s extraordinary that thought didn’t enter his head until he’d read the notice. I wonder if he has ‘Remember To Breathe’ etched onto the inside of the lenses of his glasses.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“A foreign couple came in just after Nicky. The woman asked, ‘So, this is a library?’ Me: No, it’s a bookshop. Woman: So does that mean people can just borrow the books? Me: No, the books are for sale. Woman: Do you buy the books? Can people just come with a book and give it to you and take another one away? [will to live seeping away rapidly] Woman: Do you sell these old ones over here, or are they just for display?”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“There is a type of person who is convinced that everyone is determined to rip them off, and who obviously thinks that, by giving things they’ve been offered money for free to someone else, they will somehow be punishing the person who offered them the money. This is not how the world works.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“On the news this morning was a story about four men who have been abducted from a bookshop in Hong Kong for disseminating literature critical of the Chinese regime. Bookselling can be a perilous business, but mercifully only financially so in Wigtown.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“There's a difference between a book being too expensive and a customer being too cheap.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“...people can be divided into two groups: those who have worked in a bar, or cafe, or restaurant, or shop, and those who have not. And while it would be both unfair and untrue to say that everyone in the latter category treats those in the former as a second-class citizen, it is probably accurate to say that virtually nobody from the first category will do so.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“...it is when I'm buying books that I encounter the greediest people: the person selling his collection who will push to extract every last penny that they're worth from the bookseller they're selling them to, will inevitably be the same customer who will drive the price down to the very margin when he's buying books. And while this is arguably good business sense, it has rather an unsavory whiff about it. There's no sense of fairness. Conversely, the customer who brings in books to sell and is happy with whatever you offer him will be the one who doesn't attempt to push the price down when he's buying books from you.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“Paljude aastate eest, kui aitasin isal lambaid niita (ehk pügada), uuris üks pügajatest, mees nimega Lesley Drysdale, kui kaua on isa Galloways elanud. Isa vastas, et tema ja minu ema on siin elanud kakskümmend aastat. Pügaja vastas, et viie aasta pärast on isa seal elanud piisavalt kaua, et teda võiks pidada püsiasukaks. On kummastav tunda, et kohas, mis näib sulle kodusem kui miski muu, peavad ülejäänud sind tulnukaks. Lauge mägimaastik, looklevad jõed ja Macharsi metsik rannik on nii tihedalt saanud minu enesetunnetuse osaks, et kui elaksin kusagil mujal, oleks see osa minust vist lihtsalt olemata. (lk. 99)”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller

“Коли я виставляв ціни на видання, до мене підійшов старший чоловік і попросив:
- Не допоможете мені знайти книжки із самодопомоги?
Певний, що він не помітив у цій фразі суперечності, я спитав, яка самодопомога його цікавить. Той відповів:
- Сам не знаю.”
― Shaun Bythell, Confessions of a Bookseller