Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops Audiobook By Shaun Bythell cover art

Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops

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Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops

By: Shaun Bythell
Narrated by: Peter Kenny
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About this listen

A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore customers by the curmudgeonly shop owner and author of Confessions of a Bookseller. Shaun Bythell knows them all - from the “Person Who Doesn’t Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover)” to the “Parents Secretly After Free Childcare”. The business of books has never been funnier.

In a tradition that runs from R. M. Williamson’s Bits from an Old Bookshop in 1904 to Jen Campbell’s Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops in 2012 (with George Orwell’s 1936 Bookshop Memories in between), here is the latest and perhaps most complete attempt to classify people who shop in bookstores. It does take all kinds.

Employing something like Linnaean taxonomic groups, there’s the Expert (divided into subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), and Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there’s the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lyrca Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian (generally Canadians who come to Shaun’s shop in Wigtown, Scotland).

Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer - all add up to the funniest sell-and-tell in the house of books.

©2020 Shaun Bythell (P)2020 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Business Cultural & Regional Professionals & Academics Witty Funny
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Witty Observations • Clever Humor • Pleasant Narrator • Insightful Commentary • Delightful Bookstore Setting
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Enjoyed the narrator. Author shared experiences with humor and asks the reader to ponder customers. Something I've never done but am sure I will do now when I shop for books. I found this delightful.

Comedic Insight.

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So many truths! And very humorous. I want to visit his shop! I enjoyed the readers accent as well.

So enjoyable

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A couple PG 13 words caught me off guard, but an entertaining book overall. Worth the listen if you are looking for a couple giggles and some insight on the old book trade. Several observations I am sure many will relate to in their own experience in other retail establishments.

Cute!

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Very enjoyable read for those who like to read people as well as books. I found myself saying, yep, I know someone just like that….

Enjoyable quick read

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I worked at a Waterstone’s for two years in my early twenties, I have very “fond” memories of the customers! The experience was monumental, to this day I still tidy up the tables and stacks in any bookstore that I enter, it’s a habit I guess I will never be able to shake. I throughly enjoyed listening to this book!!!!

Excellent read for any one who loves books & bookstores!

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Relaxing entertainment of author’s whimsical classifications of his experiences with shoppers at higher end bookstores

Enjoyable entertainment

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Did I love it? No, but it's a good book to listen to. I didn't know that there's so many kinds of books that I can read or listen to. Anyways I'm going to be listening to some of the other ones he's written.

Pretty good

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Humorous for bookstore goers, owners, and staff. Which type of customer are you? Read/listen on to know!

a quick little listen

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I struggled to get through this, it was boring to me. I am a bibliophile with varied interests. This book hardly held my attention.

Boring

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A clever, witty, laugh-out-loud account of life in a used bookstore. I have already listened to it several times. The droll delivery by the reader is just right.

Very great fun. A delight for book lovers!

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