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

5.0

Step into one of the oldest bookshops in the world, where the joke is that the business has been "one year away from closing since 1761." Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire is a charmingly augmented account of the long tradition, peculiar clientele, forsaken cupboards and paper-filled catacombs, poisoned bindings, delightful disarray, and one eager-ish apprentice learning the unspoken rules of a place where "the arrival of something as trivial as the internet was like a fly landing on the hide of a brachiosaur." One of my favorite reads of the year so far! If you're as fascinated as I am by the sentimental (and much less often commercial) value of old books and the Smaugs and Draculas who hoard them, you'll smile right through this acquiescent love letter to the whimsical world of antiquarian bookselling.