November 4, 2010

John Cleese, bookseller

by Dennis Johnson

If you’ve worked in a bookstore, you’ve been here ….

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

10 Comments

MJ at 12:31 am on November 4, 2010

This video reminds me of my very first foray into a “chain” bookstore… seriously, I’d never seen one before. It’s a true story.
I asked the clerk if they had “Virginia Woolf’s Diary.”
Clerk: Who wrote it?
Me: Virginia Woolf’s Diary [I repeated, inanely… sure I’d misheard the question]
Clerk: Yes, but who wrote it?
Me: Virginia Woolf… it’s her diary.
Clerk: I can’t look it up unless I know the author.
Me: She wrote it. Virginia Woolf wrote it. “Diary”… that means she wrote it. She kept a diary. And now it’s been published.
Clerk: What was the name again?
Me: Woolf. Virginia Woolf.
Clerk: How do you spell that?
MJ at 12:31 am on November 4, 2010

This video reminds me of my very first foray into a “chain” bookstore… seriously, I’d never seen one before. It’s a true story.
I asked the clerk if they had “Virginia Woolf’s Diary.”
Clerk: Who wrote it?
Me: Virginia Woolf’s Diary [I repeated, inanely… sure I’d misheard the question]
Clerk: Yes, but who wrote it?
Me: Virginia Woolf… it’s her diary.
Clerk: I can’t look it up unless I know the author.
Me: She wrote it. Virginia Woolf wrote it. “Diary”… that means she wrote it. She kept a diary. And now it’s been published.
Clerk: What was the name again?
Me: Woolf. Virginia Woolf.
Clerk: How do you spell that?
Phil Sheehan at 9:55 am on November 4, 2010

Ouch.
Yes, and almost that bizarre.
But most of the time and most of the people, lovely.
That was, however, twenty years ago, when books still were real, tangible, concrete objects. How many people today — young ones, of course — can even imagine a book store which is not a big box emporium with maps and gifts and toys and souvenirs and technical manuals and software and — way over there, in that back corner, a few works of fiction?
Phil Sheehan at 9:55 am on November 4, 2010

Ouch.
Yes, and almost that bizarre.
But most of the time and most of the people, lovely.
That was, however, twenty years ago, when books still were real, tangible, concrete objects. How many people today — young ones, of course — can even imagine a book store which is not a big box emporium with maps and gifts and toys and souvenirs and technical manuals and software and — way over there, in that back corner, a few works of fiction?
Nancy at 12:31 pm on November 4, 2010

Then there was the customer who came into the cahin where I first worked asking for the book “IBID”. She wanted to read it because it was cited in every book she had read. I am NOT making this up!
Nancy at 12:31 pm on November 4, 2010

Then there was the customer who came into the cahin where I first worked asking for the book “IBID”. She wanted to read it because it was cited in every book she had read. I am NOT making this up!
Imani at 4:54 pm on November 4, 2010

My personal favourite is the customer who asked me to recommend a “Christian kind of Harry Potter” for her little ones. After fumbling I suggested Chronicles of Narnia (of course) but she said it had too much sorcery. So I sold her a children’s edition of “Pilgrim’s Progress”. :-S.
Imani at 4:54 pm on November 4, 2010

My personal favourite is the customer who asked me to recommend a “Christian kind of Harry Potter” for her little ones. After fumbling I suggested Chronicles of Narnia (of course) but she said it had too much sorcery. So I sold her a children’s edition of “Pilgrim’s Progress”. :-S.
Cassandra Langridge at 11:39 am on November 5, 2010

I once had a lady who came into my store with a request for a very specific textbook, and not being an academic store, we didn’t tend to carry many titles like that. When I told her this, she briefly scanned the shelves around us, then turned back at me and asked, “But… don’t you have ALL the books?”.
Cassandra Langridge at 11:39 am on November 5, 2010

I once had a lady who came into my store with a request for a very specific textbook, and not being an academic store, we didn’t tend to carry many titles like that. When I told her this, she briefly scanned the shelves around us, then turned back at me and asked, “But… don’t you have ALL the books?”.