As some of you may already know, I work in a bookshop. It is not the sort of bookshop where we are encouraged to be silent and let people browse as they wish. Instead we are meant to engage with customers and talk to every single one of them. I personally think this is excessive - I really hate talking to staff when I'm shopping - but then of course working for someone else is only a temporary arrangement. The Dream is to run my own little bookshop somewhere, and I really don't think that's an impossible challenge. I'll have experience, enthusiasm, and the ability to live on very little money, which is what bookselling is really all about, right?
There I was at work, chatting to a couple of really lovely ladies. I assumed they were sisters; as it happens they are neighbours. We had a very long chat indeed - we discussed A S Byatt (this was a while ago, at least when I was still trying to plough through The Children's Book) and the merits or difficulties of historical fiction. One of the ladies recommended a book to me, and although I was interested, I really didn't think of the conversation much after they left.
How lovely then, to be at work on Sunday, engaged in a really boring task like stickering, when one of the women came back into the shop. She headed right in my direction, and we greeted each other warmly, because she recognised me. She insisted that she was in a hurry and that she could only pop in briefly. Well, if only - she had come in solely to lend me a copy of the book she had been talking about: The Sisters who would be Queen by Leanda De Lisle.
The story looks pretty interesting. I've only read a couple of pages, but it's an era of history that I'm into, so pages should be turning quite easily. As much as I'll find some delight, I'm sure, in the book itself, this little episode has made me so happy for the non-tangible side of things. How lovely that she should think of me again, that she should lend me her possessions, that she should trust me to look after it, that she should care what I think of the book, that I should be interested in talking to her again, either about this particular book or another one. After much thanks I explained that although I would start reading it quickly, as I only work on Sundays, it would be likely that I wouldn't be able to return the book soon. She said she already knew that I only worked on Sundays, as that's what I'd told her last time, when she came in with her friend. How lovely!
I suppose to some people, this might just read as an anecdote about a girl getting excited because someone lent her a book. On the most superficial level, that reading might work. This exchange is important to me though, because it illustrates so much more. It shows books can, and should. bring people together - it shows that sometimes we take the lessons that we learn from books, and do try to become better, nicer people.
Work was also exciting because I had a chat with a chap who's just published his first book. Hopefully I'll be able to arrange an event for him to promote that, which'll be ideal for the both of us. More on that as it happens; I'll plug it here, of course!
Today has been a great day: I've been thinking about this lovely lady lots. I also saw a tutor today, who told me I should do a PhD as my ideas for my dissertation have been so interesting; he said it would definitely be a great topic for a book. How lovely of him! I'll probably do a post about that soon, just to see how it goes down (this means that you have to give me some feedback). I'm super excited about writing it, so I hope that comes across when I summarise it for y'all.
Much love xxx
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