The things people say in bookshops

Of course there is. "I love the smell of bookshops."

I have worked on and off in bookshops since around 1966 and while I concede that bookshops selling new books do have a distinct smell, I am not so sure about secondhand bookshops. To me, normally the bookshop I work in doesn't smell of anything. I has occurred to me that this is because I smell the same as the bookshop; strangely no one has ever accosted me and said. "I do love the smell of booksellers!"

It's only around lunchtime and the strangest thing overheard in the bookshop so far today is. "It's got 44 lines to the page; I'm not a complete anorak"

While I am on this subject and for the customer who recently asked. "Where's your Dick?" we had some in, about 14 I think on Saturday, photos on the page showing the books we had in, put out on Saturday. Behold the link sorry about size, the link that is - Google Search won't recognise the page Google Blogger generates for mobile users if the link's too small.

Customer conversation participants; me = M customer = C a sort of MC unsquared

C   'Have you got any Henty?'

brain returns to about 1970 - when I last read Henty and slides across to bookselling but can't move forward in time

the page that come up in brain's terra incognita looks a bit like this.

C 'I haven't read Henty but have just read Sarum by Rutherford and someone suggested I read Henty.'

M finding some cheap Henty (£1.99 lacks frontis as customer mostly buys books priced between 5p and 50p) ' I think you would get on better with one of the later Folletts, Henty is a Victorian children's writer and may be a bit difficult to get into.'

C Opens "For the Temple", reads a bit and the says. 'I see, it's just like Enid Blyton.' ends up buying early Follett.

Another recent one. "Are the books in the window display real?"

I suppose the most common one is. "Is this a library?"

Dusting the art books recently someone said, "It smells like a florist in here."