Not really my cup of tea - but I can see that this book would appeal to many readers. Id encourage people to read the blurb and decide to give it a go.

Some might say boring, but humour is always around the next page, and if you have ever been behind the counter in any kind of shop you will recognise the customers depicted here. An unusual concept in true diary form.

I laughed my head off at this book. It's like Alan Bennett meets Basil Fawlty.

Shaun Blythell runs The Bookshop in Wigtown, rural Scotland. He stocks over 100,000 books.
Like most secondhand dealers, he is a passionate bibliophile (read book snob) and pretty much your basic curmudgeon. Having been a secondhand book dealer twice in the past I can relate strongly. Sometimes you just wish your customers would aspire to some level of common decency and intelligence, and yet they (mostly) resist. Running these bookshops is harder work than you think, and everyone always wants what you can't supply, and at a discount. They make you dance around their complaints but won't buy anything. "Have you read all these books?", they say.
Not shy by nature, Shaun wants to let you know how hard it is, and why you should treat him a bit better. We are in 'Black Books' territory here. Yet Shaun is no Bernard Black really. His gripes are real and his snipes at a few of his visitors are mostly warranted (whereas Bernard just insulted everyone randomly). This is funny stuff, and amazingly informative. Somehow The Bookshop manages to make a living in the face of Amazon and globalisation. Each chapter quotes Shaun's sales figures and relates all the sweat and tears given to achieve them, often prefaced by quotes from George Orwell's memoirs of bookselling (spoiler: he hated it).
The mix of weird characters, running gags, dour locals and mundane-meets-extraordinary daily life in a country town reminded me of James Herriot. Like Herriot's books, this is a portrait of a small community and an industry at a turning point in time, told by a warm man with a very dry wit. Blythell cares more than he wants you to know, and he could be my new hero. I cheer as he flies the flag in the face of enemies big and small.
Anyone who loves books, quirky bookshops and eccentric people will enjoy this immensely.

It's a must read (oh, and Nicky the dumpster-diving Jevovah's Witness, ski-suit wearing recalcitrant bookseller is worthy of a sitcom).