From the hugely popular blog, a miscellany of hilarious and peculiar bookshop moments:
‘Can books conduct electricity?’
‘My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that’s ok… isn’t it?’
A John Cleese Twitter question ['What is your pet peeve?'], first sparked the ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’ blog, which grew over three years into one bookseller’s collection of ridiculous conversations on the shop floor.
From ‘Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?’ to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year’s weather; and from ‘I’ve forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter’ to’Excuse me… is this book edible?’
My Thoughts
I work in a library. Admittedly, I haven’t worked there long enough to really get the quirky questions from patrons, but I know that, given enough time, it WILL happen.
This book was definitely charming! I didn’t find everything funny in it, but there were certain things said in bookshops that had me snorting with laughter. When I think about it, I’m SURE that I have said silly (or even stupid) things in bookstore before. I mean, there are SO MANY BOOKS out there and I have a very poor memory, so it can happen.
This was a very quick read, but I did find myself smiling throughout most of it. Really, it was the Neil Gaiman quote that was the selling point for me (or borrowing point? since I got this from the library?), but I’m happy that I managed to get my hands on it because it was just a nice, light read. The illustrations were great and kind of reminded me of Douglas Coupland.
Ultimately, while this is a cute read, I like to think that there’s really no such thing as a stupid question and it’s OUR job as book lovers to educate people who might think they’re getting it right when they ask if Anne Frank has written any more books. I don’t think it’s right to be RUDE or anything towards them (which is how I felt the bookshop worker was kind of like at points in this book) but just friendly encouragement towards the CORRECT statement.
Of course, don’t get me wrong — there aren’t a lot of instances like that, but just a few. Other times, there were some truly funny things being said that had me laughing out loud. I think I preferred the observations of people talking in the bookstore compared to interactions with the bookseller. They just seemed funnier to me.
A cute read, full of interesting diagrams, and silly quips, this one won’t take you long to read. I think it’s most beneficial to booklovers who obviously know their stuff.
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