Shopkeeping: Stories, Advice & Obersavtions - Peter Miller - Top Book Pick!

Books On Books

Rating: 9/10

If I didn’t know it before, I know it now. At heart, I was born to be a shopkeeper. To embrace and embody the traditions, the codes of conduct, the etiquette, the customs, the minutia that make up a day in the life of one who keeps a shop. To put to good use my innate ability to look at what a person is reading and know everything I need to put the next book in their hands. To glory in the task of the hunt for just the right read for that one person.

The author has written an essay collection that captures the art, and the heart of shopkeeping. Lovingly covering topics like displays and storefronts, shelves and checkout desks, aisles and accoutrement. Delivering a lovely section on customer interactions, encouraging restraint and an avoidance of the token offer service or God forbid, the banalities we all feel so compelled to exchange.

The author shares many thoughts on what a shop should be, here is one I fancied.

“It is a place that has what you have not seen, that has what you could not imagine, that has what you knew was true, that shows what you wanted and shows what you did not know you desired.”

Book Pairing(s): Spent: My Accidental Career In Retail by Dana Goldstein, How To Wash The Dishes by Peter Miller, Laundry Love: Finding Joy In A Common Chore by Patric Richardson