Praise for Confessions of a Bookseller and Shaun Bythell "Bythell's wicked pen and keen eye for the absurd recall what comic Ricky Gervais might say if he ran a bookshop." -- Wall Street Journal "Something of Bythell's curmudgeonly charm may be glimpsed in the slogan he scribbles on his shop's blackboard: 'Avoid social interaction: always carry a book.' " -- Washington Post "Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny." -- Daily Mail "Bythell is a skillful writer . he creates a full, appealing world populated with colorful characters. The Scottish landscape--geese flying over the salt marsh, the meandering river where he likes to fish--is gorgeous . an endearing and thoughtful book." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune "Among the most irascible and amusing bookseller memoirs I've ever read.

" -- Dwight Garner, New York Times ".amusing and often cantankerous stories [that] bibliophiles will delight in, and occasionally wince at." -- Publishers Weekly "Bythell writes with biting humor . he is a man on a mission, and a year seen through his eyes convinces the reader that is a mission worthy of undertaking." -- Chicago Tribune "An enveloping account from the front lines of an industry in flux." -- Foreword "Bythell remains an unwavering correspondent whose daily rambles reminds us of the joy in real bookshops." -- Fine Books & Collections Magazine "A bookseller in Wigtown, Scotland, recounts a year in his life as a small-town dealer of secondhand books.Irascibly droll and sometimes elegiac, this is an engaging account of bookstore life from the vanishing front lines of the brick-and-mortar retail industry.

Bighearted, sobering, and humane." -- Kirkus Reviews "Bythell's witty descriptions of cheap customers, the drudgery and comfort of his daily routines and the consistent weather manages to create a sense of place strong enough to capture my flittery mind for long enough to feel settled-in near his fire." -- Portland Herald Press.