Say What??!

You may not have heard, but the UK has been having some pretty nasty weather lately.  Normally around this time of year we'd be getting the two weeks of sunshine traditionally called 'the summer', but instead we've had nearly a month of strong winds, torrential rain and temperatures so low you need to lie on the floor to see them.  My dreams of sitting in the cautious spring time sun and getting some reading done have been replaced with afternoons on the sofa with a blanket, warm drink and hot water bottle!

'Weird Things Customers
Say in Bookshops'
by Jen Campbell
(Constable & Robinson, 2012)

It was on just such an afternoon last week that I read 'Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops' by Jen Campbell (Follow her on Twitter: @aeroplanegirl).  Unusually for me, this is a current bestseller - I read the title in a book chart and decided to take a closer look the next time I was in a bookshop.  That shop turned out to be Tenby Bookshop and the look led to a purchase.

(Tenby Bookshop is a bit of a quasi-misnomer really - it is a shop in Tenby, but only about a quarter of the shop floor contains books.  It's mainly quality gifts, which struck me as a bit odd.  I'm used to seaside bookshops really being newsagents with a few holiday reads in, so Tenby clearly attracts a higher class of clientèle!  Oh, and me!)

'Weird Things...' breaks the rules and does exactly what it says on the cover.  It's a collection of funny and frightful things said in bookshops in the UK and around the world.  The first two sections represent things said in the Edinburgh Bookshop, Edinburgh, and Ripping Yarns, North London, while the last chapter covers everywhere else.

This book really brightened up my afternoon.  I literally laughed out loud while reading it, much to the annoyance of Prince Charming who was trying to watch telly at the time.  Most of the quotes are funny, but there are also many which make you gasp at the audacity of some people.  I'm sure that most booksellers are lovely people, but surely its preferable to leave your children with a trained childminder than an otherwise-occupied shopkeeper?  And the number of heartless bastards who asked shops to make recommendations before openly stating they would be going online to buy was unbelievable.  I was stunned that some people can be so self-centred that they think this sort of thing is OK.

I have a lot of friends who work/have worked in retail and this collection is a surprisingly accurate reflection of the sorts of stories they've told me, which was reassuring as some of the things said were almost too mad to be true.

This collection was very well selected.  It could easily have ended up taking the mickey out of stupid customers, but fortunately this doesn't go too far.  It's also of a very good length.  It's long enough to offer variety, but not so long that it starts to get severely repetitive or dull.

Due to its popularity (and probably an abundance of source material!), I'm suspect 'Weird Things...' will have a sequel.  I may not buy it myself, but it would be a great stocking filler (Hint for Prince Charming!).  I think the fact that this book wasn't published with the usual deluge of Christmas stocking fillers in November/December has actually made it stand out - it could easily have been lost amongst them and deserves better.

So, if you want something to cheer you up in these dark days of rubbish weather, double-dip recession and goodness knows what else, I'd buy yourself a copy of this.  But from an independent bookshop please!  I'm led to believe that there are a few left...