"Overheard in a Bookshop"
To celebrate Independent Booksellers Week earlier this summer in Britain, the country's booksellers were invited to share some of the funniest things they heard from their customers.
The winner, which comes from Scarthin Books in Cromford, Derbyshire, is a perfect study in frustration for a retailer:
Customer: Hello. I recently bought a wooden boat and wondered if you had a book that tells me how to go about restoring it?
Bookseller (having recently acquired several boxes of second hand boating books): Actually, we do ... We have one called How to Restore Your Wooden Runabout [Boat] by Don Danenberg.
Customer: Mmmm ... That鈥檚 not quite what I was looking for鈥�
My favorites, however, on the list of 12, were Nos. 3, 4, and 6. They run as follows:
3. Said by one elderly lady to her companion as she was browsing the gardening section鈥�
鈥淭he first time I was kidnapped鈥︹��
5. A customer, on seeing a copy of "Great Expectations":
鈥淟ook, they bring books out on all the TV programs now.鈥�
6. 鈥淐an you tell me if Anne Frank wrote any other books?鈥�
You can see all twelve examples of unintentional British bookstore customer humor by . As for a US version 鈥� I'm not sure that I want to know!
Marjorie Kehe is the Monitor's book editor.
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