The Diary of a Bookseller

THURSDAY, 31 JULY

Online orders: 3

Books found: 2

Laurie covered the shop. She couldn’t find one of today’s orders, which was for a book whose title was Sewage Disposal from Isolated Buildings.

After breakfast I left Eyemouth and drove to a house near Kelso, where I had arranged to look at another collection for sale. This time it was the library of an elderly man whose wife had died recently and who was moving from his bungalow into sheltered accommodation. He seemed happy to be moving, probably for the last time in his life. The bungalow was on a steep slope, and there were a dozen or so steps up to the front door. As his mobility is quite limited, I imagine that comfort is now his top priority, rather than independence. The books were both his and his late wife’s. They were a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, in fairly good condition, probably about 600 in total, including boxed Folio sets of Wodehouse, E. F. Benson and Orwell. I left with about 100 books, gave him £190 and drove home, arriving back at the shop at about 3 p.m. to be met with a customer in cheap polyester suit who asked, ‘Do you remember me? I bought a book about bowling from you five years ago.’

Alison from J&B Print dropped off the new Random Book Club flyers with an invoice for £313.94. Nicky had better get a lot of new subscribers to cover the cost of that.

Email from Helen, secretary of the Wigtown Agricultural Society, reminding me that I have agreed to film and make a DVD of the cattle show on Wednesday. The long-range weather forecast looks dire for that day.

Till total £277.73

31 customers