Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince

Why play to 12,000 people when you can play to 12? In Autumn 2021, Robin Ince’s stadium tour with Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic. Rather than do nothing, he decided instead to go on a tour of over a hundred bookshops in the UK, from Wigtown to Penzance; from Swansea to Margate.

Packed with witty anecdotes and tall tales, Bibliomaniac takes the reader on a journey across Britain as Robin explores his lifelong love of bookshops and books – and also tries to find out just why he can never have enough of them.

It is the story of an addiction and a romance, and also of an occasional points failure just outside Oxenholme.

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Bibliomaniac was a book that I picked up at this year’s Hay festival and one that proved to be unexpectedly delightful.  When Robin Ince’s tour with Professor Brian Cox was cancelled in 2021, Ince decided to tour – in a rather haphazard fashion – the independent bookshops of Britain, or 104 of them, at least.  Bibliomaniac allows the reader to tag along for the ride.

I go into a bookshop with one fascination and come out with five more. I always need another book. I love their potential.

Ince is a bibliomaniac in the truest sense of the word.  Wherever he goes, it’s almost guaranteed that he’ll acquire at least one new tome, and often more than one.  He talks us through these purchases throughout the book, and I love the way in which he doesn’t just “buy” a book out of choice.  Rather, it’s to satisfy a need, almost akin to an itch that he can never quite scratch to his satisfaction.  I also love his wildly eclectic tastes as he buys anything that takes his fancy, restraint often something of an afterthought.  I’m not sure if I envied or pitied the view he presents of himself as he carts these treasures around with him between his visits home – as someone who prefers public transport, there’s no option to dump his new additions in the boot of his car.  This tour really is a labour of love.

I love the tour of Britain’s bookshops, which again demonstrate Ince’s varied tastes.  The bookshops he visits are spread throughout the country, and while I’ve visited some, others I’ve only heard of, and many are completely new to me.  I now have a long list of indie bookshops to visit should I ever find myself nearby, aided by the very handy index of bookshops in the back of the book.  These bookshops cover a mix of first and second-hand sellers, those who specialise in a certain area alongside those providing more general stock as well as frequent visits to various charity shops, many of them containing wonderful little gems.  There really is something for everyone here. 

Throughout Bibliomaniac, Ince comes across as an all-round good egg.  He has a wonderful innate curiosity, and many of the books to buys seek to address that.  He’s someone who wants to better himself, with reading a method of gaining understanding and empathy for experiences outside of his own.  He is also a comedian, and this book often had me chuckling while reading.  He seems like someone who is comfortable in his own skin – happy to acknowledge his own foibles even as he tries to improve. 

Bibliomaniac is a glorious book about books, reading, and a celebration of the wonderfully varied indie booksellers that we’re so fortunate to have.  While not the intention, it did also make me feel better about my own purchasing habits and ever-increasing TBR pile (I swear the books are breeding when I turn my back!)  I adored Bibliomaniac and highly recommend it for the book lovers out there.