Surprise! Receipt-readers, it is I, your relentless local bookseller and I’ve changed my shift this week. Usually I’m here in the bookshop on a Friday but I’m away this weekend so I’ve swapped for today, meaning this receipt is coming to you just a few days since the last one. Hope this doesn’t cause you as much confusion as it’s bound to cause me come closing time when I think I’m going home to settle in for the weekend only to find I’m on the school run tomorrow.
To be honest, I don’t have high hopes for today’s bulletin; if you think I’m clutching at straws for material on a Friday then I dread to think what we’re going to get out of a wet Monday. But I’ll do my best.
If you want to catch up on previous receipts you can find them all here. Super huge thanks for all the likes, restacks and recommendations from the last couple of weeks here. I really appreciate your support and enthusiasm.
First person at my door this morning is the locksmith. One of our locks is no longer accepting keys so he’s here to give it a good talking to. He’s going to fit a new one and I say “great!” but he says “it’s just a shame to replace it, because it’s a nice lock” and then I feel sad for the elder lock which I’d never shown any respect, having not been aware of its credentials, and some disdain for my new lock, which is shiny and smooth…flashy…crowd-pleasing.
Oh my god, I thought nothing significant was going to happen today but the first actual customer this morning is THE SPECIFIC WOMAN. I was on my best behaviour in my bid to make her feel bad for saying that thing to us nearly thirteen years ago but somehow I ended up apologising for the lights in the back of the shop which are getting so dim it looks like the entire area is off-limits and she agreed, and somehow I still ended up feeling guilty. Blah!
Next customer purchases one of the greatest books of all time - Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and I do my high and mighty everyone knows the story but there’s nothing like reading the actual book spiel, which I can say about this book because I’ve actually read it. More than once! And I love, actually, it too. This same opinion goes out the window when anyone suggests it of Russian novels that are a thousand pages long, for which a BBC adaptation full of extremely handsome actors will do me just fine, thanks.
Can’t believe Uniqlo have the audacity to email me (me! a bookseller!!) and suggest I ‘layer a turtleneck under my outerwear’ to ‘keep warm this winter with this winning combination’. I’m not going to say the thing about egg-sucking because it’s one of those phrases that makes me feel a bit nauseous… and I like eggs!
Business Mum calls into collect her new key and the delivery turns up at the same time and because she cannot help herself she unpacks it even though it is her day off and my dad is rolling his eyes are her because they’re on the way to buy a fridge. Speaking of fridges, there’s no milk in ours. “There is soup.” Mum says. Which honestly, would be disgusting in tea.
In the delivery is this truly stunning tome about Dolly Parton which has the brilliant title Behind the Seams; my life in Rhinestones. More fool everyone else for having a life all too lacking in rhinestones. She says, wearing fleece socks.
MIDDLE AGED MAN ON A SCOOTER FLIES PAST THE DOOR WHEEEEE
A nice customer I haven’t seen in a few years comes in and we talk through my respective small beloveds (daughter; not a baby anymore, dog; still too mad to bring to the bookshop). She buys a lovely card and collects a book that she had loaned to Business Mum after buying it and loving it SO much she brought it back to the bookshop to insist that Business Mum read it herself. Business Mum subsequently selected it for her book club because she also loved it so much. This is that book.
Advent calendars finally on the move today. Everyone’s scared now the date has got a 20 in it now. Sold a few of our Angela Harding calendars today and this Mr Men extravaganza. Had two enquiries about the Harry Potter one but no one’s ready to seal the deal yet.
Have actually been busy-ish with customers for a couple of hours. Three of them paid cash money! Tis the season. The Grandads with their wads of notes. I am always so impressed by a money clip. What do you do with your change? Just throw it down the drain? Have taken loads of orders for people who are organised enough to be buying Christmas presents and not just more stuff for themselves. Customer orders today include books by Dolly Alderton, Wendy Erskine, Wayne Barnes and Saki. Customer ordered Complete Saki but when I was searching the catalogue I was quite taken with this title, so I’ve ordered it for our next window display.
But you don’t need any more books…
Me in Bernie Sanders coat, I am once again asking for you to understand the concept of books.
Am surprising and delighting customers by being here on the wrong day. Some of them haven’t seen me for a few years and yet one customer’s name came to me as soon as she entered the shop. I think it freaked her out a bit that I remembered her name. I do understand it can feel wrong to be memorable. I think when someone has a very sing-songy name and you always think of it with both parts, it stays with you. For example, Ben… Harvey. Forgettable. Disparate. (Apologies to any Ben Harveys reading this - I just took the parts from books I can see from where I’m sitting.) Whereas something like Phil-lipa-Brad-bu-ry, so bouncy! I’ll see you in three decades and know your name.
3.20 and the temperature has suddenly fallen off a cliff. I’m braving the open door for a bit longer because I have an extra jacket to employ, but my feet are really cold. Radiator boost for a quick blast. Thought about taking my boots off so I could put my feet on the radiator for a bit but can’t be bothered to unlace them, also potentially embarrassing if I need to come out to the other side of the desk. Are those socks… fleece?
Text from Business Mum: What a lively afternoon it has been!
Me (in a freezing bookshop that has no milk): Why? What happened?
Business Mum: I meant lovely. Just making some scones.
Two people have been in to enquire about Harry Potter and the Expensive Advent Calendar today, but it’s third time lucky for a customer who also snapped up our last signed copy of Terry Hayes’ The Year of the Locust, so even though her bill was more than £50 she went out feeling like a winner. Phew. Really hoping that the first two enquirers don’t come back now to say they’ve changed their mind… but also sort of hope they do. You’ve got to buy it when you see it, folks! *maniacal laugh… maniacal laugh*
I’ve enjoyed being here on my surprising Monday. Let’s see the scores on the doors: 14 books sold, three advent calendars and some other bits and bobs. A bunch of orders taken. Not bad. Mum had a cracking day on Saturday sales-wise, but she did also hear someone saying “Who buys books nowadays!?!” at the door. Well, 14 people did today. Ish.
The next receipt won’t be until a week on Friday but I’ll be back with a double bill of Receipts because I’m manning the shop on both Friday 1st Dec and Saturday 2nd Dec while Business Mum is in Panto (Oh yes she is!). I’ll see you then - I know it’s a bit of a wait but please don’t unsubscribe in the meantime. (Paid subs will get a post in the interim too.)
So excited to turn the new lock tonight, but I’m thinking thoughts and good wishes for our dearly departed former lock, now lying in our bin, special in his craftsmanship, but never showy about his achievements. RIP that nice lock, “They don’t make them like that anymore.”
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Question, Katie: what's your stance on "the casual browser"? There's a lovely local bookshop near me and sometimes I just want to go in to browse the books to consider what my next purchase will be (secretly I have extensively researched online of course, but I want to feel the texture of the pages and witness their glistening covers before a final decision can be made) but I won't actually purchase on that visit. However, I find myself paranoid that the shopowner just looks at me and curses the fact I'll likely walk in and walk out without a book in hand.
I’m so delightedly confused by your open-door policy! Is this normal for British businesses? I feel terrible for your poor toes but also, aren’t the customers cold while they shop? Wouldn’t they like to come in and be toasty on a cold day, potentially staying longer and browsing more thoroughly and even, potentially, purchasing more due to their subconscious gratitude for the respite of warmth you’ve provided? I live in a cold and rainy place (Oregon), and I don’t recall ever visiting or even seeing a shop that keeps its door open in the winter (or anytime, actually). Do British customers assume a business is closed if the door is closed? Can’t they just look in and see the lights on, and/or an open sign on the window? Sorry for the clueless questions! I just keeping ruminating on your freezing feet, probably because cold toes are one of my least favorite conditions, with which I am completely unable to enjoy my day.