Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops by Jen Campbell

Jen Campbell has written the VERY fabulous ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops’ and, today, to celebrate the launch, I’ve a copy to give away at the end of this post. But, for now, Jen tells us how the book (which I HIGHLY recommend) came about:

Some days bookselling is the best job in the world. Take today, for example. I work in an antiquarian bookshop in London, and I just got an email from a customer who ordered a book from us that she loved when she was a child. The book had arrived at her house that morning and she’d opened it to discover that it was actually her copy, with the gift inscription from her great-aunt inside. The book had been sold in a jumble sale forty years ago, and now she’s reunited with it. How wonderful is that? Stuff like that gives me the best kind of bookseller warm fuzzies. Lovely.

On the other hand, some days bookselling can leave a bookseller with a big ‘WTF’ expression on their face. One of these moments happened when I was working at The Edinburgh Bookshop a few years ago. It’s a wonderful bookshop in Bruntsfield, and I worked their part-time during the final year of my English Literature degree. One day, a customer came up to the desk and said:

Customer: Hi, I was wondering, did Anne Frank ever write a sequel? I really loved her diary.

Bookseller: Her diary isn’t fiction… it’s fact… She actually died at the end.

Customer: Oh, really? That’s such a shame!

Bookseller: Yes, it was –

Customer: I mean, she was such a good writer! What a waste!

I’m not sure what you can say to that, but after that, I started writing these things down…

Customer: Do you have a book that has a list of aphrodisiacs? I’ve got a date on Friday.

Customer: You know how they say that if you gave 1,000 monkeys typewriters, then they’d eventually churn out really good writing? Well, do you have any books by those monkeys?

Customer: I’m just going to nip to the supermarket. I’m going to leave my sons here, is that OK? They’re three and five. They’re no bother.

Customer: If my daughter wants to buy books from the teenage section, do you need to see some ID? It was her 13th birthday this weekend. I can show you the pictures of the cake. You can count the candles.

And so they go on. I started putting them up on my blog last May, and the links were thrown around Twitter, retweeted by Neil Gaiman and I was contacted by Hugh at Constable and Robinson asking if I’d like to write a longer version for a book. I’d just got myself an agent [Charlie Campbell, who works at Ed Victor] for my fiction, so my agent and Hugh had chats, contracts were signed, we brought on board the wonderful Brothers McLeod to illustrate the book and now, the book is here! It’s surreal to say the least. The book launch is tonight, so perhaps I’ll believe it more after that.

So, dear blog friends, I’ve a copy of ‘Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops‘ to give away. Simply leave a ‘please pick me’ comment by 3pm (GMT) April 11, then I’ll pop all names in a mug and ask a small child to select a winner. This competition is open to all.

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About the author: Jen Campbell can be found on Twitter, at her blog or on Facebook.

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?’

This full-length collection illustrated by the Brothers McLeod also includes top ‘Weird Things’ from bookshops around the world.