Book Review: ONCE UPON A TOME by Oliver Darkshire

Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"A word of advice, if you value your life: stay away from any virulently bright green cloth bindings from the Victorian period, because the wretched things were coloured using arsenic, and it’s a nasty way to go."

It's a good thing I read this much-awaited book via my Kindle then, as this edition deliberately has this verdant green seen-better-centuries look!

Do you remember the things that gave much-needed light in the darkest days of the pandemic? Some people obsessed over avocado toast, exotic coffees, and nightly Met Opera streamings.

Me? Apart from SWTOR (a rather old Star Wars game, highly recommended!!) and Genshin Impact (I play for the awesome soundtrack!), I eagerly devoured the tweets of one Oliver Darkshire, head of Sotheran's Twitter account. (You can find them here: @Sotherans)

When I would have too much of doom scrolling, all it would take is reading a tweet or two and I would laugh, and feel so much better about the world.

It's amazing how hopeful one feels after a good belly convulsion! Oliver's tweets have made me ROAR on occasion, hehe.

Take one tweet as an example: "Every day I open my emails and scream LEAVE ME ALONE as I descend into a fit of angry weeping, even when there are no new emails. The solution, friends, is ravens."

Or:

"I have this new anti-theft strategy where I lose a book so earnestly and thoroughly that it vanishes from memory into legend, only reappearing in a time of great need, like Excalibur."

It's this weird mix of book nerdiness and witty snarkiness that appeals to bookish introverts everywhere!

The book itself tells of Oliver's experiences as a rare bookseller in perhaps the oldest bookshop in the world. It's hilarious, yes, but surprisingly with moments of tenderness and conviction, as when Oliver talks about dearly departed older mentors or the time they didn't sell anything to a neo Nazi.

"Nazis don’t get to have nice things like books or bookshops."

"Everyone has to draw the line as to who they choose to sell to, and the choices that we make on those occasions will shape the kind of world we find ourselves in... We are connected to the world by a thousand invisible strings, and each time we make sure a book on something unpleasant gets to the right place, or we block a homophobe from shopping with us, it’s a tiny step in the right direction."

Don't know what book to buy for someone as a gift? Oliver has sound advice: "You can’t just take a stab in the dark and hope for the best. In the best-case scenario, a well-chosen book shows just how intimately you know a person, their interests, their politics . . . their very sense of self. In the worst case, it can show that you barely have any interest in who they are."

What's a good litmus test for kindred spirits? Oliver says: "It’s my belief that anyone worth knowing enjoys spending time in a bookshop. I may be biased, but I can’t think of a more pleasant place to spend one’s time."

This is a must-read for any one who has ever loved the peace and quiet of a bookstore, and the solace that reading brings.

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