Iris Hunscheid (49) is working in the bookselling business since 2001, when she started as a trainee in an independent bookstore in Cologne. She has been working in different independent and chain stores for a few years before she opened up her own bookstore in 2006 together with her husband, Buchhandlung Hoffmann in Achim (near Bremen). In 2014 they added a second store to their own little bookshop chain by taking over Buchhandlung Jost, a traditional independent bookshop in Bonn in the west of Germany.

Besides her everyday routines in the shops she is also engaged in the German Publishers' and Booksellers' association, representing the interests of the independent booksellers.

What she enjoys most in her job:

• getting her customers enthusiastic about books she loves
• trying to find the right book for everyone
• communicating with all types of people
• discovering new authors, topics and wonderful stories almost every day
• solving problems and thinking outside of the box