Hello and welcome to the final Receipt from the Bookshop for 2023!
I’m not really sure if it should be #26 or #27 because Tuesday’s Bonus Bits from the Bookshop should count in the series - thanks for all the sweet comments and messages on that one, by the way, I really appreciate them - but let’s go with #26 today, because that also makes it Half A Year. Half a year with me in the Bookshop, telling you all about the things I’m selling, ordering, recommending, eating, wearing, wrapping and unwrapping! Thanks for joining me this year, you’ve been great company. Let’s do one more day before I sign off my Birthday and Christmas…. ho ho here we go!
In windy news there’s a Yellow Weather Warning across St. Annes today, so customers are being blown right past the door and all the leaves are flying into the shop. Lots of people are braving the gale to come and collect their books though. I’m hopeful for a good day of sales after the damp squib of the start of the week. We’ve got a lot of Christmas stock left and still a stack of Britney Spears! I can’t believe more people did not want this book - I Ginuwine-ly think about it all the time fo' shiz fo’ shiz!
Top notch phone calls this morning
Him: Hello, can you tell me when you’re actually open because I keep trying to come and you’re always closed.
Me: We’re closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Him: Well, I tried to come yesterday!
Me: Yesterday was Wednesday.
A lady phones to ask if we could possibly open up for an hour on a day that we’re usually closed so she can visit with her family between Christmas and New Year because she’s been disappointed to find us closed the last two years.
I’m stunned, but I think I hide it well. Thank god Business Mum didn’t answer the phone. Lucky for me and the customer, the way the days have fallen this year means BM had actually already decided to be open on the date in question this year and I don’t have to find a way to say… well, I don’t have to say it, so I won’t.
You’re having a book for Christmas, whether you like it or not.
A lady comes into collect Heartstopper 5 for her daughter’s Christmas. I say well she might open it and not speak to you for the rest of the day, she will be so desperate to read it! The lady says this is her Secret Santa gift that is on the dinner table - which honestly, sounds ideal; finish dinner and then slope off with a highly anticipated book for dessert. Obviously also have actual dessert.
Fabulous customer comes in an accepts my recommendations for several family members and then asks for something for herself. She describes the type of thing she wants and I prescribe this, a book that is unlike anything you’ve read before but one that you might think about every day for the rest of your life. SOLD. When I ring up her purchases I see she’s spent enough with us to redeem her loyalty discount, which she kindly, but firmly, refuses. I don’t need any money off, but I need you to stay in business. I’m not crying, you are.
A lady looking deeply into the bookshelves suddenly says “Hi” - I assume she wants my assistance, “Hi!” I reply “Do you need some help?” She does not reply, because she’s wearing earphones, and has just answered a call.
Substacker
has a book out today - it’s The 1% Wellness Experiment and she’s sweetly sent me a little package here with bookmarks, postcards, a pencil and a biscuit that I had to wrestle out of my daughter’s small hand so that I could take a photo of it with the book. This sounds like a great way to start a new year - taking just ten minutes a day to improve your mental and emotional health. Good luck with this one, Gabrielle!If I get a book, do I have to read it?
(Kid, I am living proof that the answer is no.)
THERE IS A GREAT DANE CALLED TONY IN THE SHOP. TONY THE GREAT DANE IS SO LARGE HE CAN LOOK OVER OUR (TALL!) COUNTER WITHOUT LIFTING HIS PAWS OFF THE GROUND. TONY THE GREAT DANE IS SO HANDSOME AND SWEET. TONY IS AS BIG AS A BEAR WHEN HE STANDS ON HIS BACK LEGS. TONY IS AS BIG AS A HORSE WHEN HE DOESN’T. I LOVE TONY.
Tony’s Owner (pleasing to say) is super nice and has come to buy one of our lovely Pigeon letter sets because she’s going to meet up with someone IRL tomorrow for the first time that she’s been talking to online and she wants to suggest that they write each other letters instead! Squeal! I love a proper letter, I think there’s something quite specific about the act of writing a letter that can shortcut to the truth. It’s the out-of-timeyness of it; it isn’t an instant message, you can’t really be sure when it will be read or responded to. Why wouldn’t you write what you really felt? Speaking of Letters;
is really incredible, isn’t it?A little boy from my daughter’s class at school pops his head in at the door of the bookshop. Grins at me for a while, thrilled to have seen me somewhere other than the school playground. Children are always impressed by me when I’m not in the location they have seen me previously. Ta-Dah, the bookshop lady is in the supermarket! Ta-Dah! That mummy from the playground is in the bookshop!
Alex T. Smith is such a cracker he sends us a beautiful poster to the bookshop at Christmastime. He also sends a separate one to my daughter, whose envelope is marked c/o Her Staff - ha, so true. Here’s this year’s gorgeous artwork for your eyes to look at. Look at that tiny chick with a gingerbread man! I love it so much. Thank you Alex @
Parent: No, I’m not going in that shop.
Child: Well, I am!
A lady comes in for a recommendation - her sister-in-law is at Cambridge and is also writing a YA novel. What would be a great, smart, YA novel for her to enjoy? I select this based on the fact I wish I was mates with the author, and also insist the customer immediately add the same author’s podcast
to her podcast app. I think she downloads an episode while she’s still in the shop. The best way to spread Christmas cheer isOne of the things I like at Christmastime in the bookshop is when a family visits, potters about for a while gathering gifts for various family and friends… and then an hour later the husband returns alone, to buy a book for his wife that he couldn’t buy when she was there. So sneaky. How did he excuse himself to come back out alone and how surprised his wife will be when that book she noticed just a day or two ago should appear on Christmas morning. Santa-work.
A lovely excited Grandma buys some books for her Granddaughter… she’s five weeks old. I love that so much and so will that lucky baby. Merry Christmas to that tiny girl.
Cruise Mum transforms back into Business Mum tomorrow afternoon so all of her friends can come in and gossip with her about her holiday. I’ll be opening the shop but skedaddling off when we swap over - we’re almost never here together, like ships passing on a Christmas Cruise. I’ll probably pop into to the shop again on Saturday when I realise I need some extra pressies for someone I hadn’t realised I would see forgot and then on Sunday I’ll absolutely not be here because we don’t open on Sundays and also it’s my birthday. Business Mum has decided to throw a tinsel-covered spanner in the works by deciding that actually we should be open for a bit on this particular Sunday because it’s Christmas Eve and she’s been on holiday all week and feels guilty about it. If that guy who was confused about our opening days turns up he'll be furious! But I suppose it’s helpful for anyone who left things really…really…really last minute.
Super dark, cold and windy now so I’m shutting the door. I’ll have to wave frantically at anyone perplexed by the concept of handles for the next half an hour. I’ve got some teacups to wash up so I’ll send this out with a big, huge, THANK YOU for reading the Receipts from the Bookshop this year. I hope you all have a mega Merry Christmas and that you get books, and book tokens and some time to read over the festive week. I’ll be back in the New Year for some more posts from behind the till - expect more grumbling because Business Mum is immediately going on holiday AGAIN and it is not as cheery being here in Tragic January.
There’ll be a Betwixtmas post for paid subs at some point - maybe even on that day that That Lady asked me to open the shop especially for her because I will NOT be here (Business Mum will, obvs). Until then… have a good one!!!
with love from the bookshop,
Katie
You can support my bricks and mortar bookshop by buying your books via this link, and you can support me as a writer by taking out a paid sub to this Substack.
Shares, recommendations and restacks are on both my Birthday and Christmas list! Thanks.
Cruise Mum here just waiting to get off my ship in Liverpool. Business Mum will be back in the Bookshop this afternoon. Thanks for minding the shop.
This is so lovely, just what I needed after today. A picture of Tony would've been even better!