Adventures in bookselling

Anthony Bonanza decided to try his hand at selling books one time, but unfortunately for him, he really wasn’t cut out for the job:

wo middle-aged ladies wandered in to a branch of a well-known booksellers. Helmet-coiffed and enthusiastically made up, they marched straight up to the counter.

“We’re looking for Caring for the Suicidal.”

I looked down at the grubby keyboard. My fingers tapped and there it was: Caring for the Suicidal. It was in print, but we would have to order it.

“How long?” the second lady asked.

“Two weeks.”

They looked at each other and then at me. “Too late,” they chimed and walked out.

Read on for more odd encounters, especially when Jilly Cooper shows up to sign books. And as for anecdotes like the above one, well, I’ll never forget the guy who wandered into the store during my second or third shift there and asked for books about how to be a hitman. I replied that we didn’t sell those–we were a mystery novel bookshop, after all. He looked rather disappointed and left. And I always wondered afterwards….