posted on 03 Jan 2024

Reflections from a Bookshop Window by Clive Linklater

Published in 1994, Clive Linklater’s Reflections from a Bookshop Window feels like the precursor of what has become a somewhat cliched format for books aimed at bibliophiles. A cynical, self-deprecating, world-weary, put-upon bookshop owner decides to keep a diary of his life battling the commercial odds of the bookselling trade and the characters that inhabit that rarified world. If you want a modern-day comparator, think of the successful series from Shaun Bythell (two of which are reviewed here and here) and you’ll know exactly what to expect.

There are, however, three significant differences from Bythell’s world: firstly, and probably most significantly, Linklater’s is a world before the internet revolutionised hunting for and dealing in books. This was a time when local face-to-face networks of dealers was the key to successful trading, a time when most books once they entered the second hand book trade tended to circulate amongst dealers and rarely escaped again.

The second big difference was the prices of books. In 1994 collectable books at the lower end of the market were relatively low value – something that has shifted significantly today when the internet has made everyone feels as if they are instant experts in ‘rare’ book dealing. Few people now feel they need shelf upon shelf of reference books or the records of auction outcomes to set a value on their books. As a result, inevitably there has been an absurd inflation of prices and crazy collecting ‘bubbles’ arise where titles or authors become temporarily popular and desirable – something the publishing industry conspires with by producing special or limited editions specifically aimed at the collector.

The third difference here is that Linklater has come up with a structural mechanism that sets it apart from the simple day-by-day diary format. The year of dealing he narrates is built around a very specific proposition: can he start by purchasing a book for the £2.50 he has in his pocket, sell that for more and by making a profit on ever subsequent deal, multiply his profit by the end of the year from the modest £2.50 he started with to several thousand pounds.

Of course, along the way and as the months slip by, he makes progress – often seemingly more by accident than design. He relies heavily on his trade contacts, friends and a bit of blind luck to get him out of the mistakes he makes along the way. His somewhat hang-dog persona rarely flickers, even when he’s clearly on the cusp of an excellent deal that always seems to self-destruct. Even so he manages to stay on the right side of the reader’s sympathies – essentially, his travails feel more authentic and more authentically accommodated than Bythell’s.

The book is, I think, out-of-print now and was only ever made available in a paperback edition by Hole in the Wall Publishing. Copies can be obtained on the second hand market but you need to be careful – the books are glued and not stitched so there’s a tendency for the spine to split.

Terry Potter

January 2024