Everyone at Mr B's has an exciting new reading plan for the year and I'm going to join in, even if I am at home looking after Baby B most of the time. My first day back in the New Year and a customer (Mr R) came in to collect a book he had ordered, a wee little book called "All My Friends are Superheros" by Andrew Kaufman. It had just arrived in a big delivery which we hadn't yet unpacked and as sod's law would have it, it was at the very bottom of the very last box I opened (5 years as a bookseller should have taught me to always open the bottom box first!). The name and cover of the book looked entertaining and as I handed it over to Mr R he said "You really should read this, it's fantastic. This is the nth copy I have bought for friends and everybody just loves it". Not only is it immensely frustrating being surrounded by fabulous looking books all day, knowing I will never have the time to read everything I want to read, but double that frustration by adding to that the number of times I am told by a customer that I really MUST read something. So this year, I will make a dent in my recommendations list and read mostly customer suggestions, starting with Mr R's and will let you know how I get on.
I am in the shop most Wednesdays and will be on the listen out for some more tips on what customers think should be my next read. I've already been given a tip on twitter by @LaurenJJones called Under Fishbone Clouds which may well be next on my list - I will collate "must-reads" and flip a coin. So do let me know about any book you think I should be reading.
And to return the favour at the end of each book I will add a recommendation of my own. Today's is the grotesquely, darkly funny "Gould's Book of Fish" set in Tasmania at the time when we were sending all our convicts over there. Fantastic. (not for the convicts).
7 comments:
Asking for recommendations is dangerous, your list will be enormous! My "would like to read" list currently stands at over 200...
I will look forward to adding to it with ideas from Mr B's :)
I can feel the frustration. People expect that once you sell books you must/should have read this or that. I am also happy that you are setting out to reading all recommendations. That sounds fantastic. I would be reading your reviews of such books and if any falls within my reading domain, I would unhesitatingly grab it.
Err, just to make it clear, I'm definitely not setting out to read ALL recommendations - I'd never manage to sleep! I will put a bunch in a hat and pick one out one at a time and see how I get on. Get recommending!
Mrs B said "I will collate "must-reads" and flip a coin"
Why don't you number them ,put them on dog biscuits and get Vlashka to choose? Then every member of team B can have some input this year?!
Susanne on Adrian's log in.
A great idea Number 8 (aka Susanne). WIll do just that. Vlashka has lucked out. What's your current "must-read?"
I've only just read The Handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood which I would say is a must if there is anyone else in the world that hasn't read it. Scarily prescient for a book written in 1985.
Given that everyone is probably shaking their heads and saying "How can you not have read it?" the alternative is And the Land Lay Still by James Robertson - my best book of 2010. An amazingly well written book that I think will suck you in, even if you are not interested in the political history of Scotland in the last half of the 20th Century!
righto. I will add them both to vlashka's bowl of biscuits and see which one she will pick out! Thanks! Have loved the hilarious first recommended customer read and will blog soon to give you a proper review.
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