The Diary of a Bookseller

MONDAY, 26 JANUARY

Online orders: 6

Books found: 5

Sandy the tattooed pagan came in at 2 p.m., stayed until 4 p.m. and bought a few books on Scottish folklore. While he was browsing, the depressed Welsh woman telephoned. This time she had found a copy of Ciceronis Opera from 1642 that we were selling online, so I couldn’t pretend that our stock was devoid of anything in her field. She asked if she could pay for it with a credit card over the telephone, and when I asked for her name and address she replied, ‘Dafydd Williams’. So, it was a depressed Welsh man all along.

The Open Book is being run this week by a woman from the Isle of Lewis called Ishi. She is thinking of opening a bookshop there and is here to test the water. Mac TV are going to be filming her during the week as part of a documentary for BBC Alba. She came over for supper. It turns out that she has been running tourists trails in Africa for two years, during which she recently contracted typhoid. She is past the period when it is still contagious, but Anna – ever paranoid about her health – visibly recoiled when Ishi announced this.

Till total £12.99

5 customers