The fishing books from the Dumfries deal, while not exactly flying off the shelves, are selling notably faster than anything else. This is a common phenomenon, even in a shop of this relatively large size: it is the fresh stock that always moves the fastest. I suppose there is a sense to it, inasmuch as a book that has been on the shelves for a year and has not sold is probably overpriced or lacks any sort of market. It doesn’t feel like that, though; it is almost as though the stock that has just come in actually looks fresher, and the books that have been sitting on the shelves for ages have acquired a certain staleness, rendering them unsellable.
As I was sorting through the boxes of books from Loch Lomond, I found another Sorley MacLean pamphlet signed by Seamus Heaney. The total print run was fifty; I now have two of them. They should make £100 each. Like the Walter Scott signature and the Florence Nightingale inscribed book, there is something that makes you feel connected to those people when you handle material like this. Perhaps the more interesting mystery is that you never know who has handled all the unsigned, un-inscribed books that come into the shop, and what their secret history has been.
We received another email from the Bay Bookshop in Colwyn Bay, Wales. They are closing the shop soon and want to know if we would like to buy the stock. They clearly haven’t had any luck selling it elsewhere. I’ve asked them to email me some photographs.
Till total £184.49
7 customers
FRIDAY, 19 DECEMBER
Online orders: 1
Books found: 1
Colwyn Bay replied with some photos of what looks like reasonable stock of 20,000 books. Apparently they have had an offer that is well below what they are looking for. I suspect that my offer would be in the same region, so I am not going to bother. Very few people now will take on a deal of that size, so you can pretty much name your price. I suspect they are going to struggle to shift them.
The shop was as quiet and cold as the grave, speaking of which, I must ask Nicky if any of our regulars has died recently.
I was sorting through boxes of books when I spotted a copy of Petronius’ Satyricon. Started flicking through it and I think I’ll attempt to read it.
The postman picked up the Random Book Club mail sacks at 3.30 p.m.
Nicky is staying tonight and will be working tomorrow, so that means I will have a bit more freedom to do such exciting things as go to the bank, then to the sawmill to pick up timber for new shelves, and even clean the van.
Till total £122
8 customers
SATURDAY, 20 DECEMBER
Online orders: 5
Books found: 5
Nicky in. While I drove to nearby Penkiln sawmill to collect the timber for the new shelves to go over the newly insulated wall, she hijacked the Facebook page again.
Dear friends, Nicky here!
WOW, did we upset the neighbours last night with our ‘End of Year’ Book Shop mash-up of hip-hop & swing dance moves then some hard drugs (2 ibuprofen each!) knowing that the elderly staff members wouldn’t be able to walk today. That’s the way we roll. Yeah.
I told Nicky that I couldn’t find a plasterer to finish the wall Callum has insulated, and that I want the job done before Christmas. She said ‘leave it to me’ and walked out of the shop. Five minutes later she was back with someone called Mark, who looked at the job and told me that he can do it tomorrow. She had gone to the bus stop and asked the people in the queue ‘Is anyone here a plasterer?’ and he had said yes.
Nicky has found a place in Glasgow that will take our reject stock and recycle it, Smurfit Kappa (Cash for Clothes recently told us that they’re not operating in Galloway any more). They will pay us £40 a ton for it, which should cover the fuel costs of getting there so I’ll head up in the New Year with a van load.
Till total £82
9 customers
SUNDAY 21 DECEMBER
Mark the plasterer came in at about 8.30 a.m. and plastered the wall.
MONDAY, 22 DECEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 2
All the books that were on the shelves we removed to insulate the wall were boxed and put in front of a section that NOBODY ever asks for – geology. They have been there since Callum began working on insulating the wall. Today’s first customer, a man with a crutch and a limp, appeared and asked, ‘Where’s the geology section?’
Sandy the tattooed pagan came in to wish me a happy winter solstice for yesterday.
I spent the evening building shelves and putting the boxed books back on them.
Colwyn Bay Bookshop has put its stock on eBay with a price of £20,000. There is no way it will sell for that much. They will be doing well if they can realise £5,000.
Till total £181.50
13 customers
TUESDAY, 23 DECEMBER
Online orders: 4
Books found: 4
This morning a customer returned a book that we had posted out last week, with a note saying, ‘Please refund as book looks second hand, not new as expected.’ The book in question was John MacCormick’s The Flag in the Wind, and the cover is designed to look deliberately distressed and aged. It was brand new.
Between Christmas and the first Monday of New Year the shop opens at 10 a.m. rather than 9 a.m., so I put a sign in the shop window.
What a feeble effort I make with Christmas decorations in the shop. They went up today and consisted of a few branches of holly, donated by Bev, and some ivy cut from a local farmer’s driveway, illuminated by some cheap fairy lights. I decorated each window and a bit in the hall.
Anna and I drove up to Edinburgh to spend Christmas at my sister Lulu’s house. I left a note for Nicky (who doesn’t celebrate Christmas) asking her to keep the shop tidy and feed the cat.
Till total £140.10
13 customers
WEDNESDAY, 24 DECEMBER
Online orders: 6
Books found: 5
Nicky in charge of the bookshop over the festive season.
THURSDAY, 25 DECEMBER
Christmas Day. Closed.
FRIDAY, 26 DECEMBER
Boxing Day. Closed.
Anna and I drove home from Edinburgh.
SATURDAY, 27 DECEMBER
Online orders: 3
Books found: 3
Nicky was in today. Apparently she had been waiting patiently outside since 9 a.m. – I had forgotten to tell her that the shop opens at 10 a.m. during the holidays. She was furious. One of the orders today was for a book called Cuckoo Problems.
I spent much of the day ploughing through piles of emails offering to improve traffic to my web site, enlarge my penis, and lend me money. The business doesn’t have the financial where-withal to do any of them, sadly. Among all the spam were four new Random Book Club subscriptions, which would suggest that people have been giving them as Christmas presents.
Disappointingly quiet day. Perhaps visitors to the area think we’re not open.
Till total £140.20
14 customers
MONDAY, 29 DECEMBER
Online orders: 2
Books found: 2
Cold, frosty, sunny day. There was ice on the inside of the kitchen windows when I made breakfast. Opened the shop at 10 a.m. The treat of an extra hour in bed between Christmas and New Year is a luxury. When I checked the emails, I found one from Nicky: ‘Are you working today? Hahahahahaha!’
The shop was quiet until about 11.30 a.m., when a few people began to trickle in. After lunch a teenage girl – who had been sitting by the fire reading for an hour – brought three Agatha Christie paperbacks to the counter; the total came to £8. She offered me a limp fiver and said, ‘Can I have them for £5?’ I refused, telling her that the postage on Amazon alone would come to £7.40. She wandered off muttering about getting them from the library. Good luck with that: Wigtown library is full of computers and DVDs and not a lot of books.