Shaun Bythell owns a used bookshop in Scotland. Writing a book making sport of his customers doesn't seem like a sound business strategy, but that's what Bythell does here. Perhaps he can get away with it because often he writes about those people who visit his shop without buying anything and those who try to sell him old books he doesn't want in his store.
Yet the author even disparages those who do buy books, such as those who try to bargain for lower prices and those who seek out fine old books he hasn't yet had the chance to raise the prices on.
Bythell groups customers in the way a biologist would group animal species, complete with Latin names. Senex cum barba, for example, translates as "bearded pensioner." In this chapter he discusses the retirees with time on their hands who spend too much of their time in his shop. Unfortunately he devotes several paragraphs to lamenting the annoying driving habits of elderly people, as if that has anything to do with his bookshop.
Then he breaks down each species of bookshop customer into subspecies. In the retirees group, for example, he includes Downsizers, who try to sell him their old Reader's Digest books, and the Lycra-clad, who annoy the shopkeeper simply by what they wear.
Occasionally Bythell says something witty or something kind, but this doesn't happen often enough to make his book as much fun to read as you might hope
No comments:
Post a Comment