My Time As A Bookseller

As you may know I have sadly had to make the decision to leave the Imaginarium team as my life goes in a new diretion. While it is a happy occassion it is also a sad one. For the past 3 years I have watched this small little bookshop tucked out the way become something so much bigger, to mean so much to a large community of people and being able to witness that from the very beginning has been a truly one of a kind experience that I will never forget.

I first met Robyn and Daniel before the shop was open and they were kindly requesting donations for their second hand section. So I brought them about six bags full of books and from there I was just eagerly awaiting the grand opening and on that day, I bought 11 books, 90% of them were of course Robyn approved books!

Having an independent bookshop just two minutes away from my home was a dream and I happily spent hours of my day sitting and reading in the shop. Then about a month after they opened, Robyn and Daniel offered me a job and that was definitely one of the best days of my life, I felt incredibly lucky to be getting my dream job at 23 and in apt fashion I started working here just before halloween (the best time of year!)

Since then I have had so many amazing opportunities and experiences, like meeting Samantha Shannon at the booktok awards which is my number one favourite experience, to hosting launch parties, being a part of the bookclubs (for a time) and making ridiculous TikTok videos (if you haven’t seen the bookshop olympics, it’s one of my favourites). This shop has helped me grow as a person and while I’m still a very quiet person, I have a lot more confidence that I didn’t know I could have.

So thank you everyone for making the past 3 years some of the best and most memorable that I’ve had. It’s been an unbelievable time in my life. I'm sure I’ll see you all soon.

Jayde