Once Upon a Tome, by Oliver Darkshire
3 stars
I feel a lot of kinship with booksellers, being a librarian. We both have to deal with odd questions that might not be answerable. We both have lots of people coming who don’t really understand what the place is about. And, of course, there are all those books that will surely find a reader one of these days. Thankfully, we librarians don’t have to worry about actually selling things to customers (instead we have to pester people to bring things back at some point). Because of that sense of kinship, I am drawn to books about the bookselling life, fictional or not, like Parnassus on Wheels, 84, Charing Cross Road, and The Diary of a Bookseller. When I heard about Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller—and learned that author Oliver Darkshire was the hilarious weirdo behind the Henry Sotheran LTD Twitter account—I …
I feel a lot of kinship with booksellers, being a librarian. We both have to deal with odd questions that might not be answerable. We both have lots of people coming who don’t really understand what the place is about. And, of course, there are all those books that will surely find a reader one of these days. Thankfully, we librarians don’t have to worry about actually selling things to customers (instead we have to pester people to bring things back at some point). Because of that sense of kinship, I am drawn to books about the bookselling life, fictional or not, like Parnassus on Wheels, 84, Charing Cross Road, and The Diary of a Bookseller. When I heard about Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller—and learned that author Oliver Darkshire was the hilarious weirdo behind the Henry Sotheran LTD Twitter account—I knew I had to read it as soon as possible. This delightfully funny book delivered a highly entertaining look behind the shelves. Bibliophiles with a sense of humor will love this one...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.
