“There are a lot of books that I’ve loved.”Woman retires after 47 years in The Book Centre
Mary Foskin, who retired from the Book Centre after 47 years service, is pictured here with long serving staff members working and retired, from left, claire Furlong, 42 years, Mary Foskin, 46 years, Paula Flynn, 40 years and Nellie Fagan, 43 years. Photo: Joe Evans
Mary Foskin started working in The Book Centre in 1978. She was in her early twenties. She told the , “Coming here, working with books, the fact that I could borrow books, has been wonderful.”
The first book Mary read was ‘Seek the fair land’ by Walter Macken. She always has two books on the go.
When asked what her favourite book is, she tells me there is no way to answer such a question: “There are a lot of books that I’ve loved.”
Mary likes reading because, “When I read, it opens my mind to different cultures, different people, places you might not ever be able to go.”
Her time in The Book Centre has taught her “how important it is to have respect for people.”
She said, “People come in, they might not ever have read a book before, they might have no idea – I think it's wonderful.”
Mary thinks people are reading more now than when she started. “When E-Books came out, everybody thought people were going to go away from reading books – it hasn’t happened.”
Mary has a special place in her heart for Irish publishers, which she believes have “really improved” in the last number of years. In fact, one of her favourite books recently was ‘Poor’ by Kaitríona O’Sullivan.
Now that she’s retired, she wants to become more active; she hopes to take up yoga.
The last holiday she booked was her dream holiday – she was going to go to Marrakesh. Unfortunately, the trip was cancelled due to COVID. She said, “Maybe I’ll actually get myself on a plane and out of the country again.”
