West Branch Nonfiction Book Discussion

Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire

This group reads a variety of contemporary nonfiction and meets once a month for discussion. September selection: Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire

For more information, contact discussion facilitator Cesar Ortega at 630-264-3612 or email cortega@aurorapubliclibrary.org. Copies of the book are available for checkout at the West Branch reference desk.

Join us virtually here.

Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire

Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd on Sackville Street (est. 1761) to interview for their bookselling apprenticeship, a decision which has bedevilled him ever since.

He'd intended to stay for a year before launching into some less dusty, better remunerated career. Unfortunately for him, the alluring smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap proved irresistible. Soon he was balancing teetering stacks of first editions, fending off nonagenarian widows with a ten-foot pole and trying not to upset the store's resident ghost (the late Mr Sotheran had unfinished business when he was hit by that tram).

For while Sotheran's might be a treasure trove of literary delights, it sings a siren song to eccentrics. There are not only colleagues whose tastes in rare items range from the inspired to the mildly dangerous, but also zealous collectors seeking knowledge, curios, or simply someone with whom to hold a four hour conversation about books bound in human skin.

By turns unhinged and earnestly dog-eared, Once Upon a Tome is the rather colourful story of life in one of the country's most ancient bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.

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