Darkshire, Oliver. Once Upon a Tome: the Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller. W,W, Norton & Company, 2023.
Reason read: gift at the AIC holiday party. My copy was signed.
While Oliver Darkshire has written other books, I am only reading Once Upon a Tome. I found it humorous and informative (Darkshire will teach you how to identify a cryptid, for one). As Darkshire goes about his day doing inventory in one of the world’s oldest bookstores, decerning what makes a book rare and dealing with the quirky customers like the Spindleman, you can smell the old books and feel the ghosts with their tucked away desks.
As an aside, the physical book of Once Upon a Tome is wonderful to hold. The cover design was by Paul Buckley after anonymous.
And a comment: I wish we lived in a world where we did not have to identified ourselves by how we loved or who we considered family. When someone has to “come out” as gay I am always asking what does that have to do with anything? I don’t walk into a room and announce my preferences. Neither should you. What does it matter who you are intimate with or who you chose to call family?
Line I liked, “The saying goes that once you’ve spent two years in the book trade, you remain there for life because you’ve become unemployable anywhere else” (p 204). Oh. So, that’s what happened to me.
Author fact: As mentioned before, Darkshire has written more than just Once Upon a Tome.
Book trivia: the numerous footnotes were super annoying. I started to skip them after some time.
Music: Wagner
~*LunaSea*~ 