A day at the bookshop in a random reportage.

2 young boys bought "Doing it" by Melvyn Burgess and could not hide their blushes, awwwww.

A dad brought in his 2 kids (aged 5 and 2ish). The 5 year old struck up an excited conversation with me about Art Attack and going into year 1 whilst the 2 year old opened up a gift box and extracted from within the rubber duck. He kept squeaking it and I said "Oh, you have our rubber duckie, I wondered what that sound was." in a loud, bright voice designed to alert his dad to what was happening. I turned back to the counter to serve someone and when I looked round again the kid was standing (STANDING!) on 2 ducks. "Please don't stand on my ducks" I said "They are still for sale." I told his dad who didn't even have the grace to apologise.

A huge man demanded that I recommend something amazing to him. I asked what sort of thing he liked and he said that was irrelevant, he wanted to know what I thought was brilliant as after all that was my job. I am delighted, and smug, to report that he left the store with 7 books!

There is a new temp at work. He checked on our computer for a book. The computer showed we had 2 in stock. He looked on the shelf before informing the customer that we had sold out. When the customer had moved away from the counter I quietly told him that if the computer showed more than 1 copy it was a fairly safe assumption that we did in fact have the book. No, he said, it's not there. I checked the screen and informed him that as it was in our latest campaign it was probably on the ground floor. No, he replied, it won't be, unless there are5 or 6 copies it won't be downstairs. Jeez. I have, what, 7 years experience with this organisation and this boy has 3 weeks. Whatever, I'm a Saturday assistant now, I can't be bothered. I carry on shelving some stuff but return to the till point in time to hear him say to the ground floor staff "Oh, you do, right, no, it doesn't matter."
He did say to me that he hoped never to be so stupid again. Tee, and indeed, hee.

All my friends are superheroes by Andrew Kaufman

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1846590000/qid=1155044787/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_16_1/202-4444388-9384622

This is utterly irresistible. It's a slim volume, with an intriguing title and cover. It is so sweet, without being in any way saccharine. I feel like I don't want to give too much away but the central concept is that everyone that Tom is friends with really is a super hero, but their special powers are not what you would guess. I know several people who have read it (it is a read in one go kinda book) and men and women alike adore it in equal measure. Nobody has had a bad word to say about it at the bookshop, which is rare. It is the sort of book to give as a gift, but you'll need one for yourself too!

Starry (ish) starry (ish) day.

In a bid to rival the very cool Bookseller to the Stars (his link is over there on the right, he's good!) I would like to announce that today in the Bookshop by the Sea I served Preston and Chantelle. She giggled a lot and had bad hair. I assume they were with his parents and he was too busy chatting to his dad to do me the courtesy of saying thanks when I handed him his bag of books. Far far more amazingly an hour later Jordan aka Katie Price, Peter Andre and their children came in to the shop. I didn't serve them myself, but did peek at them from behind a post! She obligingly posed for camera phone pics with some of our customers (taken by Mr Andre.) I believe they totaly trumped the earlier slebs. Katie P is tiny, and pretty, and Peter is actually quite handsome. Hurrah.

Ooh, we also got to see Barbara Windsor waving from a Pride float. What a day, almost like Heat magazine had come to life!