The Diary of a Bookseller

MONDAY, 27 OCTOBER

Online orders: 6

Books found: 5

Nicky in again, and Kate the postie delivered three more anonymous postcards.

The telephone rang at 9.05 a.m.

Me: ‘Good morning, The Book Shop.’

Caller: ‘Oh, hello. Are you open today?’

The first customer of the day was a man with an extremely ill-advised Rolf Harris beard and high-handed tone: ‘Do you have any Folio Society books? You have heard of the Folio Society, haven’t you?’ This is tantamount to asking a farmer if he knows what a tractor is, so I told him that, yes, I have heard of the Folio Society, and have a stock of about 300 books published by them. He bought two of the most beautifully illustrated of the Folio titles, Heart of Darkness and Lord of the Flies. As he left, he apologised for his earlier tone, explaining that the last three bookshops he had been in had no idea what the Folio Society was.

After lunch I drove to Dumfries for an appointment with the back specialist at 3.15 p.m., then picked up Eva from the railway station. She is here until Friday. Once I had picked her up we drove to Lochmaben to look at books in a bungalow. The books were mainly slasher crime fiction paperbacks. The man was selling the books as his wife had advanced cancer, and he was moving her into a care home. He had bought a small flat so that he could be close to her, but there wasn’t enough space for the books. I gave him £40 for about sixty books.

In the van on the way home Eva was curious to find out about acquiring stock, and what factors determine which books I buy and how much I offer for them. I did my best to explain, but it caused me to reflect on quite how complex the process is. There are no rules, other than those you make for yourself.

I emailed Flo this morning to see if she can come in tomorrow for a few hours, just so that Eva has some company nearer her own age. I have arranged for her to work in the festival office on Wednesday (Anna’s suggestion) by way of a change of scene.

Till total £205.90

27 customers