Book 37 of 2014: Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops by Jen Campbell

I’ve reviewed this book before, but as I’m working my way through all the books that I read last year (rereads included) I figured I might as well make another mention of my thoughts on this book. I’ll preface this by saying I’m probably slightly biased because I’m friends with Jen and I knew all about this book from it’s early inception, but also that it’s an awesome book and anyone who has to work with the public and has ever visited a bookshop should read it.

Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops is a fairly quick little read featuring a selection of some of the weird and wonderful things that people have said in Jen’s bookshop, as well as a number of others that people have said in other bookshops around the world. It’s illustrated with fantastic little cartoon illustrations by the Brothers McLeod.

I read this while I was waiting for my copy of Jen’s latest book, The Bookshop Book, to come in to my local bookshop. I’d just finished my mammoth read of The Three Musketeers and wanted something fairly light-hearted and quick to tide me over until I got my hands on The Bookshop Book. This actually ended up being a much quicker read than I was expecting and so I had to go on to read More Weird Things Customers Say In Bookshops right afterwards.

There are some ‘humour’ books which are less funny the more times you read them. There are a few that I’ve owned in the past or have looked at in bookshops which once you’ve read them, they become less entertaining. One which springs to mind was the ‘Cake Wrecks’ book. The photos and commentaries were funny the first time, but less so after the second or third read. I don’t find that so much with this book.

Although I’m really familiar with some of these quotes, having heard about them before the book was even published, I don’t find them any less funny. I can’t help but marvel at the things that people say (and remember some of the weird and wonderful things that people have said to me during my interactions with the general public). I’ve got my favourite quotes and I always look forward to them.

It’s been a little while since I last read this book and I’d forgotten a lot of the illustrations. I always wish that more of the quotes had illustrations to go with them. As with the quotes, I’ve got favourites there as well.

As I said above, once I finished reading this one, I moved straight on to the sequel. I’ll share more of my thoughts on that next week.