The Diary of a Bookseller

SATURDAY, 7 JUNE

Online orders: 2

Books found: 2

Laurie fronted the shop today, which turned into a beautiful sunny day.

Her first customer was a Welsh woman who had brought ten boxes of Scottish books with her while she’s here on holiday, with a view to selling them. Her husband brought them in from the car. Some were interesting – perhaps 20 per cent of the total – but they were all in terrible condition. As I was going through the first three boxes, the woman made a note on her list of the books that I had removed. This is always, without exception, an indication that someone has overvalued their books. Occasionally she would pick one up and mutter, ‘Oh yes, that’s very rare’, or ‘valuable’ or ‘first edition’, as if this would somehow influence what I would offer her for the collection. When she eventually stopped talking, I offered her £60 for about twenty books. Immediately she replied, ‘Oh no. Oh no no no no no’, so I left the room at this point and went to make a cup of tea. When I returned five minutes later, both she and her beleaguered husband, and the books, were gone.

Eliot arrived at 4 p.m. and made himself at home, which, as always, meant dispersing the contents of his overnight case as widely as possible throughout the house.

Till total £128

20 customers