Books Are My Business: Dawn Behan, owner, Woodbine Books

Dawn Behan owns Woodbine Books in Kilcullen, Co Kildare, which was named Independent Bookshop of the Year in 2018. She is also chair of Bookselling Ireland which supports An Post Bookshop of the Year.

Dawn Behan owns Woodbine Books in Kilcullen, Co. Kildare

How did you get into bookselling?

I used to work in IT as an application developer. 

Then I took voluntary redundancy and I opened my bookshop in December 2016 with no experience of selling books at all. 

But I’m still here and it’s working. It is a completely different life. I work near where I live, I know all the people in the town. 

Before I would have commuted, leaving home at 6.30am, not getting home until 7.30pm.

What does your role as chair of Bookselling Ireland involve?

Bookselling Ireland is part of the Booksellers Association of the UK and Ireland and it represents booksellers in all of Ireland, north and south. 

We have about 220 members, a mixture of chains and independent bookshops. We have a committee of voluntary members and we meet six times a year to discuss everything that affects booksellers. 

Our big thing this year was the rollout of free primary schoolbooks, as 50% of our members sell schoolbooks. 

We did not know how it would affect people, whether schools would go to local bookshops or direct to publishers. It was a big worry for people. 

It has been smoother than we had thought but we will know better in the next few weeks how it affected booksellers. The cost of living crisis is another challenge.

Can you tell me a little more about the An Post Bookshop of the Year awards?

The awards aim to highlight how important bookshops are in their communities and the difference they make. 

You see some bookshops on social media but a lot them just work away quietly in their town. 

They are places where people can come in and spend a bit of time, even if they just want a little chat. 

Then there is the role they play in literacy — we have the World Book Day books, and in Woodbine, we have book clubs for adults and children. 

We also have a creative writing group. 

A lot of bookshops have all kinds of events to bring people in, not to make money but to make their community a better place to live.

What do you like most about your job?

I love talking to people about books. I like recommending books, I like hearing what other people are reading, it helps me to buy in stuff that I think our customers will like. 

If you have book clubs and you want to know what to recommend, it’s a good excuse to read. We do a lot of work with libraries as well. 

A lot of people think libraries are in opposition to bookshops but they’re not. Librarians want to put books into people’s hands and that’s what booksellers want to do too. It is nice to be part of that community.

What do you like least about it?

All the non-book related stuff, the paperwork, the accounts, paying the bills. 

I’d rather be out just selling the books. But that’s all part of it.

Three desert island books I recently read 

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray, which I loved and I could definitely read it a few more times. It was funny and dark and really captured small-town Ireland, and it made me think afterwards. I haven’t met anyone yet who didn’t love it. 

Then anything by David Sedaris, it’s hard to pick one but probably Me Talk Pretty One Day. 

Another favourite is 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. I like reading other people’s letters, about day-to-day life, and then there is the bookshop element and the relationship between the US and the UK, it is just a lovely book.

• Nominations for An Post Bookshop of the Year close tomorrow (Sept 17) at midnight. www.anpost.com/bookshopoftheyear 
• The winner will be announced at An Post Irish Book Awards event on Nov 22.