Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd 

ISBN: 9780141991238 

A SPECTATOR AND EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 

The right book has a neverendingness, and so does the right bookshop. This is the story of our love affair with books, whether we arrange them on our shelves, inhale their smell, scrawl in their margins or just curl up with them in bed. Taking us on a journey through comfort reads, street book stalls, mythical libraries, itinerant pedlars, radical pamphleteers, extraordinary bookshop customers and fanatical collectors, Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham uncovers the curious history of our book obsession - and his own. Part cultural history, part literary love letter and part reluctant memoir, this is the tale of one bookseller and many, many books.

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Praise for The Bookseller's Tale:

From the erudite Canterbury bookseller Martin Latham comes the uncensored tale of our love affair with the book. It’s a very physical passion but, he argues, its emotional power is hefty, and ever since printing made reading a private act, it is books that have helped shape our innermost selves. Roaming across topics from legendary libraries to humble book pedlars, as well as historically overlooked literary forms like chapbooks and comfort reads, its appeal is vivid enough that even the electronic edition seems to exude the tantalising aroma of a used bookstore.

- Hephzibah Anderson, The Guardian