Download or read book The Diary of a Bookseller written by Shaun Bythell and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A WRY AND HILARIOUS ACCOUNT OF LIFE AT A BOOKSHOP IN A REMOTE SCOTTISH VILLAGE "Among the most irascible and amusing bookseller memoirs I've read." --Dwight Garner, New York Times "Warm, witty and laugh-out-loud funny..."—Daily Mail The Diary of a Bookseller is Shaun Bythell's funny and fascinating memoir of a year in the life at the helm of The Bookshop, in the small village of Wigtown, Scotland—and of the delightfully odd locals, unusual staff, eccentric customers, and surreal buying trips that make up his life there as he struggles to build his business . . . and be polite . . . When Bythell first thought of taking over the store, it seemed like a great idea: The Bookshop is Scotland's largest second-hand store, with over one hundred thousand books in a glorious old house with twisting corridors and roaring fireplaces, set in a tiny, beautiful town by the sea. It seemed like a book-lover's paradise . . . Until Bythell did indeed buy the store. In this wry and hilarious diary, he tells us what happened next—the trials and tribulations of being a small businessman; of learning that customers can be, um, eccentric; and of wrangling with his own staff of oddballs (such as ski-suit-wearing, dumpster-diving Nicky). And perhaps none are quirkier than the charmingly cantankerous bookseller Bythell himself turns out to be. But then too there are the buying trips to old estates and auctions, with the thrill of discovery, as well as the satisfaction of pressing upon people the books that you love . . . Slowly, with a mordant wit and keen eye, Bythell is seduced by the growing charm of small-town life, despite —or maybe because of—all the peculiar characters there.
Download or read book Three Things You Need to Know About Rockets written by Jessica A. Fox and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-08-27 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this inspiring, delightful memoir, a young woman decides to escape the daily grind and turn her “what if” fantasy into a reality, only to find work—and a man—she loves in one fell swoop, all in a secondhand bookstore in a quaint Scottish town. Jessica Fox was living in Hollywood, an ambitious 26-year-old film-maker with a high-stress job at NASA. Working late one night, craving another life, she was seized by a moment of inspiration and tapped “second hand bookshop Scotland” into Google. She clicked the first link she saw. A month later, she arrived 2,000 miles across the Atlantic in Wigtown, on the west coast of Scotland, and knocked on the door of the bookshop she would be living in for the next month . . . The rollercoaster journey that ensued—taking in Scottish Hanukkah, yoga on Galloway’s west coast, and a waxing that she will never forget—would both break and mend her heart. It would also teach her that sometimes we must have the courage to travel the path less taken. Only then can we truly become the writers of our own stories.
Download or read book Confessions of a Bookseller written by Shaun Bythell and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2019-08-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Irreverently funny ... kept me giggling all week.' Scotland on Sunday "Do you have a list of your books, or do I just have to stare at them?" Shaun Bythell is the owner of The Bookshop in Wigtown, Scotland. With more than a mile of shelving, real log fires in the shop and the sea lapping nearby, the shop should be an idyll for bookworms. Unfortunately, Shaun also has to contend with bizarre requests from people who don't understand what a shop is, home invasions during the Wigtown Book Festival and Granny, his neurotic Italian assistant who likes digging for river mud to make poultices.
Download or read book Devorgilla Days written by Kathleen Hart and published by Two Roads. This book was released on 2022-04-14 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INSPIRING STORY OF STARTING OVER 'We all need a Devorgilla Cottage somewhere in our hearts' - KIRSTY WARK 'Beautifully written' - ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG 'A magical and beautifully written memoir and so evocative of Wigtown and its landscape' - RUTH HOGAN This is a story about uncovering the things that really matter, and discovering what makes us feel alive. It is a story about finding that inner strength and resilience, and never giving up hope. Eight years ago, Kathleen Hart was diagnosed with breast cancer. Further complications led to a protracted recovery and months spent in hospital, where Kathleen had to learn how to walk again. While recuperating, she came across a small whitewashed cottage for sale in Wigtown, Scotland. Driving hundreds of miles on nothing more than a few photographs and an inkling, she bought it that very same day, and named it Devorgilla after the formidable 13th century Scottish princess. Devorgilla Days is the story of how Kathleen left behind her old life to begin again in Scotland's book capital. From renovating her cottage to exploring the seemingly quiet, but actually bustling town, she encounters a whole community of book lovers, beekeepers, artists and writers - and Lobster Fishermen. Kathleen starts wild swimming, a ritual that brings peace and clarity to her mind as her body heals. And, with the support of her virtual worldwide community who know her as PoshPedlar on Instagram, she rebuilds her life again. Heartwarming and deeply moving, Devorgilla Days is an inspiring tale of one woman's remarkable journey, a celebration of community, and a call-to-arms for anyone who has ever dreamt of starting over.
Download or read book Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops written by Shaun Bythell and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **From the Sunday Times Bestselling Author** In twenty years behind the till in The Bookshop, Wigtown, Shaun Bythell has met pretty much every kind of customer there is - from the charming, erudite and deep-pocketed to the eccentric, flatulent and possibly larcenous. In Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops he distils the essence of his experience into a warm, witty and quirky taxonomy of the book-loving public. So, step inside to meet the crafty Antiquarian, the shy and retiring Erotica Browser and gormless yet strangely likeable shop assistant Student Hugo - along with much loved bookseller favourites like the passionate Sci-Fi Fan, the voracious Railway Collector and the ever-elusive Perfect Customer.
Download or read book The Declaration of Arbroath written by Edward J. Cowan and published by Birlinn. This book was released on 2020-03-05 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Declaration of Arbroath, 6 April, 1320, is one of the most remarkable documents to have been produced anywhere in medieval Europe. Signed by 51 Scottish nobles, it confirms Scotland's status as an independent sovereign state with the right to use military action if unjustly attacked. Quoted by many, understood by few, its historical significance has now almost been overtaken by its mythic status. Since 1998, the US Senate has claimed that the American Declaration of Independence is modelled upon 'the inspirational document' of Arbroath. This is the first book-length study to examine the origins of the Declaration and the ideas upon which it drew, while tracing the rise of its mythic status in Scotland and exploring its impact upon revolutionary America.
Download or read book A large description of Galloway ed by T Maitland written by Andrew Symson and published by . This book was released on 1823 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The House by the Loch written by Kirsty Wark and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-06-13 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Scottish Number One Bestseller and Book of the Month. A novel of family drama and long-hidden secrets, set in the beautiful Scottish countryside, from the bestselling author of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle. 'Evocatively drawn' Sunday Times | 'Rich, layered and compelling, Wark's debut was impressive; with this novel she has really hit her stride' Yorkshire Post | 'A deeply satisfying work of pure imagination' Damian Barr, author of You Will Be Safe Here | 'Beautiful and atmospheric' Alistair Moffat, author of The Hidden Ways |'Rich and pleasing' Allan Massie, The Scotsman | 'Beautifully written' Daily Mail | 'One to savour' Sunday Express | 'An epic masterpiece' Philippa Perry Scotland, 1950s Walter MacMillan is bewitched by the clever, glamorous Jean Thompson and can't believe his luck when she agrees to marry him. Neither can she, for Walter represents a steady and loving man who can perhaps quiet the demons inside her. Yet their home on remote Loch Doon soon becomes a prison for Jean and neither a young family, nor Walter's care, can seem to save her. Many years later, Walter is with his adult children and adored grandchildren on the shores of Loch Doon where the family has been holidaying for two generations. But the shadows of the past stretch over them and will turn all their lives upside down on one fateful weekend. The House by the Loch is the story of a family in all its loving complexity, and the way it can, and must, remake itself endlessly in order to make peace with the past. 'Powerful and compelling' Sue Lawrence | 'Her understanding of family - its mysteries, losses and secrets - is masterful' Julie Myerson
Download or read book Wanderland written by Jini Reddy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-04-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2021 STANFORD DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE FOR UK NATURE WRITING Alone on a remote mountaintop one dark night, a woman hears a mysterious voice. Propelled by the memory and after years of dreaming about it, Jini Reddy dares to delve into the 'wanderlands' of Britain, heading off in search of the magical in the landscape. A London journalist with multicultural roots and a perennial outsider, she determinedly sets off on this unorthodox path. Serendipity and her inner compass guide her around the country in pursuit of the Other and a connection to Britain's captivating natural world. Where might this lead? And if you know what it is to be Othered yourself, how might this colour your experiences? And what if, in invoking the spirit of the land, 'it' decides to make its presence felt? Whether following a 'cult' map to a hidden well that refuses to reveal itself, attempting to persuade a labyrinth to spill its secrets, embarking on a coast-to-coast pilgrimage or searching for a mystical land temple, Jini depicts a whimsical, natural Britain. Along the way, she tracks down ephemeral wild art, encounters women who worship The Goddess, falls deeper in love with her birth land and struggles – but mostly fails – to get to grips with its lore. Throughout, she rejoices in the wildness we cannot see and celebrates the natural beauty we can, while offering glimpses of her Canadian childhood and her Indian parents' struggles in apartheid-era South Africa. Wanderland is a book in which the heart leads, all things are possible and the Other, both wild and human, comes in from the cold. It is a paean to the joy of roaming, both figuratively and imaginatively, and to the joy of finding your place in the world.
Download or read book Walden on Wheels written by Ken Ilgunas and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2013 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by Thoreau, Ilgunas set out on a Spartan path to pay off $32,000 in undergraduate student loans by scrubbing toilets and making beds in Alaska. Determined to graduate debt-free after enrolling in graduate school, he lived in an Econoline van in a campus parking lot, saving--and learning--much about the cost of education today.
Download or read book How to Love Animals written by Henry Mance and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A personal journey into our evolving relationships with animals, and a thought-provoking look at how those bonds are being challenged and reformed across disciplines We love animals, but does that make the animals' lives any happier? With factory farms, climate change and deforestation, this might be the worst time in history to be an animal. If we took animals' experiences seriously, how could we eat, think and live differently? How to Love Animals is a lively and important portrait of our evolving relationship with animals, and how we can share our planet fairly. Mance works in a slaughterhouse and on a pig farm to explore the reality of eating meat and dairy. He explores our dilemmas over hunting wild animals, over-fishing the seas, visiting zoos and saving wild spaces. What might happen if we extended the love we show to our pets to other sentient beings? In an age of extinction and pandemics, our relationship with animals has become unsustainable. Mance argues that there has never been a better time to become vegetarian or vegan, and that the conservation movement can flourish, if people in wealthy countries shrink their footprint. Mance seeks answers from chefs, farmers, activists, philosophers, politicians and tech visionaries who are redefining how we think about animals. Inspired by the author's young daughters, his book is a story of discovery and hope that outlines how we can find a balance with animals that fits with our basic love for them.
Download or read book Storyland written by Amy Jeffs and published by Andrews McMeel Publishing. This book was released on 2023-08-22 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immersed in mist and old magic, Storyland is an exquisitely illustrated new mythology of Britain, set in its wildest landscapes. Historian and printmaker Amy Jeffs reimagines ancient legends in wondrous detail in this this gift-worthy collection for all lovers of myth, folklore, and mysticism. Storyland begins between the Creation and Noah's Flood, follows the footsteps of the earliest generation of giants, covers the founding of Britain, England, Wales, and Scotland, the birth of Christ, the wars between Britons, Saxons and Vikings, and closes with the arrival of the Normans. These are retellings of medieval tales of legend, landscape, and the yearning to belong, inhabited by characters now half-remembered: Arthur, Brutus, Albina, and more. Told with narrative flair, embellished in stunning, original linocuts and glossed with a rich and erudite commentary, Storyland illuminates a collective memory that still informs the identity and culture of Britain and its descendants. Readers will visit beautiful, sacred places that include prehistoric monuments like Stonehenge and Wayland's Smithy; mountains and lakes such as Snowdon and Loch Etive; and rivers including the Ness, the Soar, and the storied Thames in this vivid, beautiful tale of a land steeped in myth.
Download or read book Five Red Herrings written by Dorothy Leigh Sayers and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The elegant, intelligent amateur sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey is one of detective literature's most popular creations. Ian Carmichael is the personification of Dorothy L. Sayers' charming investigator in this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatization. When Sandy Campbell's body is found at the foot of a cliff near the small town of Kircdubright, the local constabulary are convinced that the argumentative painter is a victim of a tragic accident. But when Lord Peter Wimsey turns up, the hunt begins for an ingenious killer. Faced with six men, all of whom have a motive for murder, the aristocratic amateur sleuth must deduce which are the five red herrings and which has blood on his hands.
Download or read book Well Fed Weeknights written by Melissa Joulwan and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers information on following the paleo diet along with a collection of recipes, and variations, for sauces and seasonings, proteins, vegetables, salads, and fruits.
Download or read book McMillan s Galloway written by Hugh McMillan and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: McMillan: Scottish poet who once almost moved away from Dumfries and Galloway, but decided against it in the end. Galloway: an oft-ignored corner of south-west Scotland known as the home of reivers and fairies, the last resting place of Robert Burns and the only constituency in the country to elect a Tory MP. Guidebook: a forum for authors to offer up anecdotes in an authoritative manner, with little regard to that thin line between truth and fiction. McMillan's Galloway takes the reader on a whimsical tour of Dumfries and Galloway through the people, places and myths of the area. Topics include the pub where Britt Ekland did not film the seductive bum scene in The Wicker Man, the striking similarities between fairies and little green men and the unexpected revelation of Lawrence of Arabia's tenancy in Kirkcudbright. A witty cabinet of curiosities, McMillan's reimagining of John Mactaggart's 1824 Gallovidian Encyclopaedia collects the poetry of his beloved Dumfries and Galloway from Burns to the present day, and affectingly delves into the area's continued issues of depopulation and land ownership. Despite his irreverent tone, McMillan's love of this corner of Scotland is obvious, and you'd be hard pressed to finish McMillan's Galloway without feeling that you, too, might like to move to a wee village on an unreliable bus route somewhere west of Dumfries. Though you'll change your mind once you find out it probably no longer has a pub.
Download or read book The Moss of Cree written by Mary Cecil Gladstone and published by Highland Sea. This book was released on 2018 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: childhood autobiography - the adventure of growing upThe Moss of Cree is a charming story of Mary Cecil Gladstone's journey from wee'un to sophisticate, told in her own evolving voice. The charm of the new as she encounters it is thoroughly engaging. As a descendant of an accomplished historic family, including a four-time prime minister, Mary is allowed in large degree to roam alone or with her sisters into a bog of confusion toward the rewards of the larger world. Growing up on a dairy farm, Mary picks the natural path, when she can't smooth her own, through spiky, settled, and dangerous possibilities. Her childhood is oddly familiar, but with unexpected consequences. She strives and plods, proudly and reluctantly, forward, without beheading herself or her family beliefs, though they do take a beating now and again. Regardless, the narrative takes us with her, into finding and freeing herself for a new and open future.
Download or read book Crucible of Nations written by Adrián Maldonado and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most significant collections of Viking-age and early medieval artefacts in the world is housed at National Museums Scotland. This book offers new perspectives on star objects, many never before seen in public, as part of the third The Glenmorangie Company Research Project.
