Oliver Darkshire offers readers his take on working in general, working in specific, books - rare and otherwise, ghosts - active and present, inactive and mostly legendary, retail worker v book expert, how he really feels about gourds, unique abandoned desk processing, and stories aplenty about customers and co-bookstore staff.

This read will provide a romp with a bona fide book lover!

*A sincere thank you to Oliver Darkshire, W.W. Norton & Company, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and independently review.* #OnceUponaTome #NetGalley

Oliver Darkshire has honed his comedy and writing skills via the Sotheran's twitter (still holds true, as it wasn't referred to as a letter when he posted for the store), and this book is freakin' hilarious. Oliver helps you join the crew of booksellers, who love books and would often prefer not to have to deal with the customers (though the reader gets the benefit of hearing some of the crazier customer stories). & trust me - this is a crew you want to spend time with. Highly recommend!

Funny, heart-felt, charming - but told without sentimentality. A truly delightful book about the oddities of bookshop life!

As a rare book lover, I loved this book. I work in a public library, so I can imagine the cryptids and the tourists walking in, as well as the academics. The characters were all fun to read about, especially the other staff members. And I think in general, the book humanized the world of rare books, which often feels unreachable to the average person. I liked the short anecdotal format, which made the stories more digestible. I wish they were slightly more chronological, because I got lost a few times trying to figure out where we were in his career. However, I would recommend this book not only to rare book lovers, but book lovers in general. It's a fun gateway into the "serious" world of rare books.

Borne of Oliver Darkshire’s delightful authoring of Sotheran Ltd Rare Books’ twitter account, this is a sort of combination professional memoir and brief tour of the world of antiquarian book shops.

Darkshire is as charming and funny here as he is on Twitter, and the resulting book is a fun toe-dip into the industry of rare book sales. There is some day-in-the-life content as well as loads of anecdotal vignettes about all the quirks and quirky people common to shops like this, be they employees, customers, or other characters in the shop’s narrative.

This is a quick, short read, and I think the length was about right for the content. Darkshire does a great job of blending anecdotes with the nuts and bolts of the trade, and as we already know from Twitter, he’s just a delightful person to spend time with.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC. This is my honest review.

I had wanted to read this book since I first heard it announced. I've been following the Sotheran's twitter page for a few years and have found it delightful.

This book was a fun, easy read; entertaining, engaging, laugh out loud funny.

Darkshire has a great tone--confiding, rambling, personal. From the opening note to the end of the book it is riveting and fun. Full of oddities, odd people and odd situations.

If you've ever dreamed of owning a bookshop, working in a bookshop or simply love books I think you will love this book. I could read Darkshire's musings all day.

4.5 stars

Such a charming book! I love these witty insights to the rare bookseller trade. Oliver Darkshire's anecdotes and stories kept me smiling and even laughing out loud. This is an incredibly cozy and entertaining book that I highly recommend!

Thank you Netgalley, author, and the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this e-arc.

I an unable to review this title, as it was archived before I had a chance to download and read it. This feedback is only to stop this title from adversely affecting my netgalley feedback rate. If in the future I have the opportunity to read this title, I will post a proper review here.

Charming and witty, Once Upon a Tome is about Oliver Darkshire, a rare bookseller who works at one of the oldest bookstores in London, Sotheran’s. Somewhat of a rambling, the musings of Darkshire are very entertaining. It’s not often that I laugh out loud at a book. Highly recommend!

Thank you NetGalley to the publishers for this wonderful ARC!

Oliver Darkshire's account of working at Henry Sotherans in London is a hilarious AND thoughtful exploration of the rare book trade. His razor sharp wit and laugh-out-loud (lovingly told) anecdotes about odd books and the even odder people who buy and sell them. Darkshire balances a light, often absurdist tone with some very clear-eyed and insightful observations about how the rare book world could be made more accessible and diverse, pointing a way to a future in which book culture can not just survive, but thrive.

Look at this pretty cover, how can you not fall in love with it! I read this book during my weekend and I’m absolutely obsessed with this story and this author now!

Eccentric doesn’t even begin to describe the people and book collections of Sotheran’s, an antiquarian bookstore in London. Founded in 1761, they found a writer to tell their story, their own apprentice, Oliver Darkshire. Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller, is a delightful book filled with odd people and even odder items.

Chris Saunders, Managing Director of Sotheran’s, and the author’s supervisor, writes a delightful opening note. The bookstore has been around since 1761, in one form or another, so no one really paid any attention when Oliver said he’d take over the store’s Twitter account. Why would something like the Internet stir up interest in a bookstore that was 260 years old? But, people found Darkshire’s accounts of his co-workers, customers, and books to be humorous. The book came about because of interest in that Twitter account.

Darkshire was hired for Sotheran’s apprenticeship program, with the understanding he would be made permanent staff after two years. The program had only been for one year, but according to Andrew, the store’s manager at the time, “The staff, he explained, was getting whiplash from learning one new name a year and it was all very inconvenient.” So, the apprenticeship became a two-year program. Andrew even enrolled Oliver in the government-sponsored apprenticeship scheme, which would pay some of Oliver’s wages if Sotheran’s could prove it was teaching him a trade. Woe to the government employee who had to check on that. I have the feeling people became lost in that bookstore, and were never found.

In fact, the store was renovated in what was referred to as “The Upheaval”. Afterward, the Powers that Be decided to have it inspected. The poor inspector didn’t know what to make of an antiquarian bookstore with ladders all over, one hidden fire extinguisher, and hazards of boxes and books. When he fled, he was never seen again.

Darkshire has so many stories, including trying to bring the store into the twenty-first century. (If you check the website, I don’t know how well he succeeded, but the store does have a website!) https://sotherans.co.uk/ His writing, and his summaries of chapters and life in the bookstore are a treat to read. And, he sums it up here. “This, I think, is the fate of the rare bookseller. You buy books, you sell them, and then you look after the ones which don’t have anywhere else to go.” Or, perhaps his summary is the funny Appendix, “Bookshop – The Game.” There’s no way to succeed with that game. You can succeed with the book, though, Once Upon a Tome.

I think every dedicated reader has had a daydream or two about working in a bookshop, especially a bookshop with forgotten rooms and lots of hidden artifacts. Oliver Darkshire thought he was going to be an apprentice antiquarian bookseller for a year, but he ended up staying on and the stories he shares about his daily experiences are so quirky and funny. Filled with lots of short chapters, I would recommend this to anyone who loves the "idea" of a bookshop or is needing some giggles between heavier reads.

This was such a joy to read. I loved all the quirky characters that were the customers to this book store. I loved how the jobs they had to do were really not jobs, just made up on the spot when helping the customers.

This was such a good read, I highly recommend it!

This was a delightful book. Who wouldn't enjoy a book about booksellers, particularly antiquarian booksellers? This memoir describes how the author became an apprentice bookseller at an old bookshop in London. It was a clever and interesting look into the antiquarian book trade. Well written and packed with intriguing book-related information.

I enjoyed his stories about cataloguing, book runners, secret cellars, as well as his insights into the store's trade. There's a lot of rare book jargon, and an assessment of different collector types such as Smaugs and Draculas to name a few, but this only adds to the charm.

If you love antique books or the trade, this book is for you.

A fun anecdotal book about life as an antique bookseller. I found that I enjoyed this more when I read it in small, 10 minute sections or a few chapters at a time, instead of trying to read it all in one or two settings. It kept me eager to come back to it.

I realized the more I read that I hadn't ever given much thought to the differences between booksellers and antique booksellers. I thought the primary connection would be a love of books, and wanting to surround yourself with them. Turns out, there are many differences. From the level of customer service - I like to imagine that regular booksellers look forward to seeing their customers - to the important difference that antique booksellers must always remember the value of books. Not only that, but their salability They deal in rare, expensive books, and it's not simply enough that a book is old and valuable. They must be able to sell it, the sooner the better.

On top of the strange characters that occupy the bookshop full time, there were the even stranger customers. Providing oddities and entertainment, this was a fun read, if a little bit slow at times.

Darkshire's bookselling "misadventures" may not have been fun to experience, but thanks to Darkshire’s keen powers of observation and steady flow of wit, they’re great fun to read about. (See full review at link.)

This book is SO delightful and funny in such a refreshing way. Sometimes, when I read essay-adjacent collections such as these, there comes to be a certain amount of tediousness or forced humor within it, but Darkshire makes it seem to natural and intriguing I can't help but start planning my own excursion to Sotherans. Both insightful, poignant, and humorous, this is a book I will highly recommend to anyone.

‘Once Upon a Tome’ by Oliver Darkshire was a charming, funny, and fascinating memoir about working in the world of rare books. I really enjoyed it, and highly recommend it.