For me as a child, neither Christmas nor birthdays would have been complete without a present of a new book. I still love them. They are such satisfyingly tactile objects – I just love the smell, the feel of them.
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.
Now retired, I still keep a small bookshop in a beautiful, remote village in the Karoo, in South Africa, where my customers are tourists and farmer’s wives – both few and far between ! But that’s great – I hate parting with any of my books anyway, and its like sitting surrounded by old friends all day !
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