I am bizarre.
Just thought I’d get that out of the way before proceeding to tell you about a book which chronicles weird things customers in bookshops say. Maybe I have said such things myself, but if I did, I don’t remember. And I didn’t mean to.
Jen (not a name that appeals to everyone) Campbell has worked in several bookshops and she had the presence of mind to take notes whenever customers talked to her. They invariably said strange things.
It’s worth keeping in mind here that the common denominator throughout this book is Jen…
Anyway, Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops is here, and it’s good for quite a few laughs. I shouldn’t quote really, as there is a risk I will simply reproduce the whole book here if I do. It’s been nicely illustrated by the Brothers McLeod. I don’t know them, but they have capably shown us the girl who wants to grow up to be a bumblebee, and other amusing bookshop situations.
It seems every bookshop Jen has worked in has a bookshop dog. Her current one lives in the middle of the shop floor and refuses to move. So I’ll just fall and make that a flat dog then. Or expired dog. I gather there is a Monty Python connection.
But I do feel for the customer who took the day off work in preparation for reading the last instalment of Twilight, only to find the shop didn’t have it. Good taste, but bad luck.
There are killer books and edible books. Maybe. But very few signed by Shakespeare. Jane Eyre wrote good books and it is a shame Anne Frank never wrote a sequel.
While I wait for better service, I will just lie down here on the shop’s sofa for a little snooze.
The Occasional Bookwitch 