It’s Friday, so it’s time for the Book Blogger Hop again, hosted by Billy @ Coffee Addicted Writer. I’ve made my own image from a stock photo (credit: Anna Shvets) to avoid adding images created via generative AI to my blog. Feel free to use it too if you would like!

This week’s prompt is a what-if:

Imagine you owned a bookstore—what would it feel like?

Oof, probably quite stressful! Managing stock, dealing with customers, handling rent and taxes and paying any employees… yeah, I can’t help it, my brain jumped straight to the practicalities! Running any kind of business is way more stressful than cosy fiction likes to make it seem. Much as I love my cosy stories, that’s the first thing that came to mind!

But… if I did… I imagine that there’d be some amazing moments, too. Getting to know regulars and being able to hand them the right book in the right moment. Knowing my shop would be a nice escape for people from the busy high street or whatever’s going on in their heads. Handling all those lovely, lovely books… and getting to curate the selection to have a little something for everyone. That would be a lot of fun.

If I owned a bookshop, I’d definitely make sure to make it the kind of haven that a reader like me would enjoy, with a little of everything, so that’d be really satisfying, too.