Books are my business: Kenny’s Bookshop, Galway, head buyer Gráinne O’Brien

How did you get into bookselling?

In my earlier days, I was very much dedicated to the idea of writing, but I got some knocks to my confidence.

When I was a child, we moved to Silicon Valley in the US because of my dad’s job, so a lot of the books that I would have read would be American classics, like Judy Blume, and the Ramona Quimby and Eloise books. 

I did English and history in UL and then I decided that I would go to Silicon Valley, and I would try my hand at the tech industry. 

It was not good, my creative soul did not flourish in that environment. So I came home and I ended up working on the schoolbooks counter in O’Mahony’s bookshop in Limerick and then worked my way up there.

Bookselling was also how I found my way back to writing, and I did the MA in creative writing at UL. 

I was doing children’s bookselling at O’Mahony’s for a long time; I needed a new challenge and Kenny’s offered me this opportunity. 

It was a big wrench to leave O’Mahony’s but it was time to take the leap; I’m at Kenny’s nearly two years. For me, it was always about being around books, that was all that mattered.

What does your role involve?

Every day is different. The main thing is overseeing the shop floor and ordering stock, which I love. 

It’s like gambling to me, I get such a buzz when I get the right number of books; the other side of that is when you accidentally order too much of something, and then you have to sell it. 

I meet with the reps, I co-ordinate with Shane, the shipping manager, to see what the staff are doing that day, how many orders we have, what we need to pack that day. 

We are also expanding the children’s section and starting a newsletter, so I would be co-ordinating with the marketing side, which is run by Sarah Kenny and her team. 

On any given day, you could be doing something else, for example, if we have a limited edition coming out or there’s an event. 

We did a limited edition of Sally Rooney’s book Intermezzo last year and they were all sold before it came out. So it’s all hands on deck and everybody gets involved.

What do you like most about what you do?

I love having my hands on books. I love to meet the authors, and I love to hear about their journey. 

I love that feeling of when you’re able to diagnose the book to the person, which is how I describe it. When people come in and you’re able to like press into their hands the book they need at that time. 

People come to a bookshop and they’re either looking for an escape or they’re looking for an answer. So my favourite thing is to be able to connect a person with the right book, particularly children.

What do you like least about it?

When you promise a customer something, and then, for reasons beyond your control, you can’t get it, is really frustrating.

People have moved on from Brexit but boxes can still be held up at customs, or then you had the issues at Holyhead, something comes up every year. 

Most people are really reasonable and understanding, but I just hate letting people down.

Desert island books

I would take The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón; I love books about bookshops and that was the first one of that kind that I read, although they’re hugely popular now.

The next one would be Notes from a Coma by Mike McCormack, one of the best books that has ever been written by an Irish author, I love it.

I would have to take a Judy Blume book, probably Forever, because of all of the books that she has written, that is the one that best captured what it’s like to be a teenager and to be in love for the first time. 

It has informed my writing as well, because I write for teenagers, and about those moments that are so important in their lives, which I think sometimes can get forgotten.