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Working in Bookshops

Chris Flynn September 29

National Bookshop Day was on Saturday 11th August this year and as per usual there was a lot of fun to be had in bookstores around the nation. Traditionally, writers give up their time to volunteer for a stint behind the counter and engage in a variety of activities to remind shoppers exactly how important it is to have a nifty bookshop in their community. This year seemed to be a bit of a frenzy, with Brisbane’s Avid Reader making a notable contribution by cleverly incorporating social media into their busy Saturday. Throughout the day I was able to follow what Susan Johnson, Matthew Condon, Nick Earls and many others were up to in-store thanks to frequent Twitter and Facebook photo updates. It was almost like being there.

Melbourne’s flagship indie bookstore Readings Carlton was a hive of activity too, with Andrea Goldsmith, Catherine Deveny and Helen Garner reading aloud from their favourite books as a bit of a treat for punters. I was over at the lovely Sun Bookshop in Yarraville, struggling with an EFTPOS machine alongside Josephine Rowe (who actually works there) and William McInnes whilst Andy Griffiths entertained eager troops across the road in the Younger Sun. McInnes was on top form, haranguing one customer who was foolish enough to try buying Fifty Shades of Grey. In a curious coincidence, McInnes informed us that his wife was once arrested in Tarcutta, the town in the title story of Rowe’s new collection, Tarcutta Wake, and banned from ever returning after a night in the clink. Naturally she defied this order and every time they passed through on the way to NSW made sure to stop, leap out of the vehicle and shout, “I’m back!” A new novel from McInnes, The Laughing Clowns is due out October.

Having worked in bookstores for many years (by bookstores, I am referring to the now defunct Borders, whom I worked for in Scotland and Australia) I have found a perverse delight in writer and bookseller Jen Campbell’s already highly successful title, Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops. Every person who’s ever stood behind a counter could write their own chapter on the bizarre and hilarious fruitloops who wander into shops, and there are some absolute gems on Campbell’s blog. Here’s a little selection:

Me: Ok, so with postage that brings your total to £13.05. One second and I’ll get the card machine.

Customer: No. No, absolutely not. I demand that you charge me £12.99. I will not pay for anything that starts with thirteen. You’re trying to give me bad luck. Now, change it or I will go to a bookshop who doesn’t want me to fall down a hole and die. Ok?

Customer2: Do you have this children’s book I’ve heard about? It’s supposed to be very good. It’s called Lionel Richie and the Wardrobe.

Customer3: You know how they say that if you gave a thousand monkeys typewriters then they’d eventually churn out really good writing?

Bookseller: …yes.

Customer3: Well, do you have any books by those monkeys?

Whilst touring the book, Campbell encountered the following gentleman at a book signing.

Man: picks up a copy of Weird Things and reads the front out loud: Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops, by Jen Campbell.

Me: Yep.

Man: You wrote this?

Me: I did.

Man: Cool. What’s your name?

Me: …Jen Campbell.

Man: And what’s the book about? Is it a thriller or something?


 

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Comments

by Lily Mae
01 Oct 12 at 10:57

Hahaha, monkeys.

I’d love to see a bigger series of this.. weird things said in galleries ( I got a few .. no, many ), weird things said in camera stores, weird things said in any profession that deals with the public. It would be awesome.

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