An interview with Hopton Books
Biblio checks in with Hopton Books to learn more about their book business, collecting interests and more! To view and shop their inventory, click here.
When did you get started in bookselling?
I started selling books in 2012 having been made redundant from my job in a charity supporting vulnerable people after 24 years. I had been selling a few books online and decided to give it a go as a full time job.
What drew you to bookselling?
I have always enjoyed books, not just their content but the look, feel and smell of them! Even as a small child my mother talks of me sorting books into piles and throughout my time at secondary school I volunteered in the library.
What are your specialties as a dealer?
I particularly like selling art and photography books because of the beauty of their covers and dust jackets. I started with photography books just by chance but will always look out for them when I am buying stock.
What's the most amazing book you've ever sold?
'Art Forms in Nature' by Karl Blossfeldt 1929 first English edition was my amazing book not because it was the most valuable but because it was so important in the history of photography. I have sold two copies but the first was most pleasing as I found it at the bottom of a box of very old and worn books I bought at auction for £10. I knew what it was as soon as I picked it up, what an iconic book.
What is your favorite part of being a bookseller?
I really enjoy sending someone a book they really want, maybe it contains something about them or their family or it was a book they remember from childhood, especially when they have been searching for it for years.
If so, do/did you have any bookstore pets?
I don't have a bricks and mortar bookshop but I do have two border terriers who follow me back and forth whilst I sort books throughout the day. They aren't too keen when I come back from collecting new stock as empty cardboard boxes are such a scary thing when there are lots!
What is your favorite bookshop (other than your own)?
Castle Books Shop in Ludlow my local town. I always look in the window when I pass and Stanton has been running it for as long as I have lived in the area.
What's your favorite book you personally own? Would you sell it, if the price were right?
Pookie by Ivy Wallace. Its my original copy from when I was a child and very battered and it will go with me to my grave.
What one book would you buy if price were no object?
Another copy of Karl Blossfeldt's Art Forms in Nature in pristine condition with dust jacket and then I will keep it.
