Brown Book Loft Blog

When I was a child, I used to really love being given books as a present for birthdays or Christmas. Come to think of it, I still do ! I have always been interested in books. I love the smell, the feel of them – they are very satisfyingly tactile things.I:0:J

These days, I suppose I could be called a bibliophile, though it always sounds to me as though it means someone a little too fond of his tipple ! Although I still love touching and holding books, I am even more fond of actually reading them !

The years 1999 and 2000 were bad years in the IT business – remember the Y2K scare ? It caused immense problems for me, as a result of which I lost the substantial business I had built up and of course my livelihood. This meant I had to build a new career from scratch. Luckily, I was able to purchase a small bookbinding business, which suited me perfectly because of my love of books, despite the fact that I had to learn the business from my employees ! The business bound theses for students, as well as archival work for a major university and a number of big law firms. We also had a thriving trade in restoring books for local collectors and dealers, as well as restoring specially purchased books which I subsequently sold on the internet.

After a while, I had enough to open a bookshop, and with my new and very supportive wife moved to a super old building which had a double store front with workshops and offices at the back. It was perfect.

Nowadays, I have retired to a remote village in the Karoo, South Africa, where I still keep a small bookshop as a retirement job. This is wonderful for me – its like sitting all day surrounded by hundreds of friends. Customers are the only trouble – I hate parting with any of my books !

Related articles by Zemanta

* Bibliophile (cognitive-edge.com)

* Bookshelf of the Week: Bratislavan Bibliophile (robaroundbooks.com)

* Linking and Pageviews 1850 Style: The American Bookbinders Museum (treehugger.com)

* customizing a book, part one (newfry.typepad.com)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Learn more about retirement books and eBooks. Stop by Peter Shaw’s site where you can find out all about available articles, books and eBooks and what they can do for you.