.jpeg?width=1200&auto=webp&trim=319%2C0%2C21%2C0)
I’m less than 30 minutes into my first shift at Read and Rabbit – a small, independent second-hand bookshop in the small North Yorkshire town of Loftus – and I’ve just made my first sale. Like many bibliophiles, I’ve long fantasied about running my very own bookshop. It’s a romantic dream that’s been replicated everywhere from the romantic Hollywood encounters of Notting Hill to the anarchism of Black Books. So, when I heard about a new bookshop that had opened nearby which enabled book-lovers to cosplay as a bookseller for anywhere between a few hours to a few weeks, I was intrigued. Situated between the big skies and rolling landscapes of the North York Moors and the wild North Yorkshire coastline, it’s also perfectly placed to explore this beautiful slice of the North.
It works like this: visitors book the flat above the bookshop for a minimum of three nights. If they wish, they can choose to work a shift in the bookshop, serving customers and selling books. Marta Eleniak, the owner of the shop, is happy to provide an IRL induction for “guest booksellers”, but I opted to simply follow the detailed notes she left, which provide step-by-step instructions on how to open up, operate the card reader and log books sold.
