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by Jen Campbell
Customer: Have you read every single book in here?
Bookseller: No, I can't say I have.
Customer: Well, you're not very good at your job, are you?
A simple Twitter question posed by John Cleese - "What is your pet peeve?" - inspired Jen Campbell to start a blog collecting all the ridiculous conversations overheard in her bookstore, everything from "Did Beatrix Potter ever write a book about dinosaurs?" to the hunt for a paperback which could forecast the next year's weather; from "I've forgotten my glasses, please read me the first chapter" to "Excuse me ... is this book edible?"; and from "Can books conduct electricity?" to "My children are just climbing your bookshelves: that's ok... isn't it?"
If we didn't know it already, this irresistible book is proof positive that booksellers are heroes, the world over.
"So funny, so sad... Read it and sigh." - Neil Gaiman
"This collection of outrageous conversations showcasing the most unusual and uproarious comments overheard by booksellers now includes a miscellany of hilarious additions from some of the best North American bookstores." - The Overlook Press
"The entertaining anecdotes read almost like jokes, each one as incredible as the next. They make you burst out laughing or groan in despair or drop your jaw with incredulity. The thing is, having worked in bookshops and libraries over the years, I can vouch for Jen’s credibility, as well as that of others who submitted to Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops. Believe it: people say the weirdest, also sometimes rudest, but also sometimes sweetest things to retail staff." - Bella's Bookshelves blog
This information about Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jen Campbell grew up in England and graduated from Edinburgh University with an MA in English Literature. She is a published poet and short story writer. She works at a bookstore in North London.
My Darling Boy by John Dufresne
The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.
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