Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Abby Irwin-Jones, book buyer at Time Out in Mt Eden, Auckland.
Weirdest question you’ve ever been asked on the shop floor
I had a very well-dressed, charismatic young man come in right before closing one night asking if I would “hear his story” which turned into a soapboxing session — he roped a bunch of customers in to listen to him so it became a full-blown town hall on the shop floor. The story ended up being that the government is forcing people to donate blood so that they can implant trackers in them and then sell the blood offshore. – which was titled Beware The Lactose-Tolerant Left. To be honest, it had been a slow day so I let it go on way longer than I should have purely for entertainment. There’s more than one way an independent bookstore can enlighten you, sheeple!
Another banger: “I’m looking for a … gift for my friend … he’s really into erotica. Anything you’d recommend?” It was abundantly clear there was no friend involved, but I do love the idea of gifting my closest friends like, a Fabio book each for Christmas. Not the book they wanted, but the book they needed.
Funniest thing you’ve overheard on the shop floor
Because Time Out is open late, quite often on a night shift we’ll have a lot of first dates come through. And we’re a small shop, so it’s easy to get a good sense of whether or not there’s going to be a second date. Sometimes it works out (we’ve had a proposal in the shop before) but the most memorable are definitely the disasters. I’m not sure what manosphere podcast is telling boys they should explain the plot of Diary of an Oxygen Thief/IQ84/Crime and Punishment to a woman they’ve just met, but they should know that her and I are making significant eye contact while he’s not looking.
Best thing about being a bookseller
When it feels like so much more than retail.
Worst thing about being a bookseller
When it feels like retail.
Most requested books
I’ve been a bookseller for seven years, and the most consistently requested books across that time have been The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk and Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Which makes me happy! Two fantastic books, some of those “everyone-has-to-read-at-some-point-in-their-lives” titles, so I imagine we’ll still be getting asked for them years from now.
The last time I can remember that we had people literally hovering over the boxes waiting for us to open them was Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. I love watching a book release gather momentum, people will ask us to text them as soon as it’s in, or start lining up outside the shop before we open on pub day — the buzz is so much fun! It’s especially great when it’s a local book getting that celebrity treatment.
Lastly there’s “It Was On Kathryn Ryan I Missed The Title And The Author”. Has anyone read that? Is it any good? Should we do it for book club?
Most underrated books
Despite having just won a Pulitzer, and being one of the most devastating things I’ve read in a long time, not enough people are reading A Day In The Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall. A relatively short book telling the story of a single day in which a school bus overturns in the West Bank manages to extrapolate outwards into such an intricate history of violent Israeli occupation. If I could make everyone that comes into the bookstore leave with one book, this would be it.
I think Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud by Lee Murray deserves a bit more of a presence in the NZ literary hivemind. What a darkly strange and interesting book. Genre-blending, reality-bending, filled with staying power and the muddling richness of history and folklore and violence and poetry. A preternatural reading experience. Ugh — I want it on all the longlists, all the festival programmes!
Favourite bookshop that isn’t your own bookshop
I started out in bookselling at The Women’s Bookshop as a teenager, and practically lived there. I wouldn’t be half the reader or woman I am today without those ladies. And how many people can say that their first job ever was their dream job? It was epic. Younger me was very smug about it too. It has to be a favourite because of how much it is a second home.
Earlier this year I was working in Kenny’s Bookshop in Galway on a booksellers exchange program. It’s a two-storey warehouse with a million+ (!!) titles, art gallery, and book bindery. It made me realise how much of a novelty it was to have an indie bookshop that big – you could figuratively and literally get lost in there. The shop is really committed to their community and acts as a home base for local authors, and has a huge section dedicated to Irish language and history. It became more of a cultural exchange than a work one. I hope to go back one day!
Favourite encounter with an author
Sarah J Maas came to town right at the height of her popularity. I was a baby bookseller, firmly in my fantasy era, and running the BookTok shelf at the shop like a Navy Seal. So, I was sad when the team told me at the event there was no chance of slipping into the meet and greet line. But then, halfway during the event, her husband appeared at the bookstall holding their baby! We had a good chat and he made sure she came and said hi.
My most recent author meeting was with K Patrick at Auckland Writers Festival, at a very busy signing table. Conversation went as follows:
Me: “I just loved how horny this book was!”
And then I can’t remember the rest, likely suppressed as a trauma response. The context was that they had just been on a panel about writing stories about sex, but still probably not the thing to say loudly, with loads of other people around. Sorry, K. I really did love your horny book though.
The book I wish I’d written
Everyone is Everyone Except You by Jordan Hamel. Fucking sick book. I want to be half the poet he is one day. To me, it’s the peak of contemporary Aotearoa poetry: funny, sharply observant, technically wonderful but still accessible. Praying to the indie publishing higher powers that there is a second collection in the stars.
Everyone should read
New Zealand. Everyone should read locally as much as they can. I’m definitely a past victim of literary cultural cringe, and you’d be surprised how many customers come in and will refuse to pick up anything on the NZ table. But you deny yourself so much by not reading what we have to offer, I find it’s a really joyful reading experience to have that familiarity and relevance. I remember reading Bulibasha by Witi Ihimaera for the first time and thinking “there’s not a single good reason why I haven’t read this until now.” Other authors like Dominic Hoey, Keri Hulme, and Rebecca K Reilly helped me get over myself and showed me how great our reading landscape truly is.
The book I want to be buried with
Bone Black by bell hooks. It’s been out of print for a long time and somehow I managed to source one years ago. It’s a very dream-like memoir told in vignettes of her early life, and you can see how most of her philosophies are formed out of her childhood experiences. It’s so illuminating on privilege, sexuality, language — it’s one of those books I feel shaped me and the ways I read and write. There’s a new edition coming out next month, so I’m stoked that more people will be able to read it!
The book I never admit I’ve read
None – I am a proud reader of some objectively terrible books. I’m a firm believer that reading is a practice and is all about balance, but consistency is key. So if sprinkling your guilty pleasure porn-with-a-plot or stoicism-in-the-workplace books between something of substance will help keep you excited about reading, then I’ll point you to the right shelf. Read what you want. Unless it’s Robert Greene.
The book character I identify with most
I aspirationally identify with Thin Amren from Treacle Walker by Alan Garner – meaning my final form would be a nonsensical bog-man that makes vague, Booker-shortlist-worthy statements about language and the nature of life. That or Piranesi, because really all he does is wander around and journal – it’s very thought-daughter of him.
The book I wish would be adapted for film or TV
The entire time I was reading Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee I was thinking how great it would be as a video game. I could easily see the plot translating into level design, like a cross between Everything Everywhere All At Once and The Stanley Parable. Get Quantic Dream to develop it!
I dare one of our experimental theatremakers to adapt Audition by Pip Adam for the stage. I think trying to capture that claustrophobia in a live space would be so challenging but interesting to watch. I can also see Chinese Fish by Grace Yee being a great play, or film.
This wish has already come true, but I am unimaginably excited for the Laika animated adaptation of Piranesi. How perfect!! I want Björk and Jeremy Soule on the soundtrack.
What are you reading right now?
One of a bookseller’s greatest joys in life is having enough time to get around to reading some backlist. For me, ever since I read Audition last year, I’ve been dying to read everything Pip Adam has ever written – which I’ve almost achieved! I just finished The New Animals and it’s keeping me up at night. I’m so happy they’re bringing I’m Working On A Building back into print later this year – the good people at THWUP just sent us an advanced copy so that’s next on my list!