Bookshop follies

[raven]

Last night at twenty-five past five, a customer came storming in and howled: "WHERE'S YOUR MANAGER?"

Assistant Book Monkey and I both looked up, startled, and chorused: "Manchester."

The man took a deep breath and yelled, "My daughter ordered her book and you BLOODY FLOGGED IT!"

Really, they could probably hear him in Manchester regardless. And I've had irate customers before, but this was the first time I've ever seriously worried one of them was going to jump over the counter and knock my head off. This bloody book has been demanded by thirty-two separate people, and it's out of print, and we're trying to get it whilst people like this guy come in and yell about how they were the first one on the list and why haven't we got it yet, blah blah etc.

Still, ABM did most of the talking while I fumed, and we managed to get him out before I broke something. After three days of people shouting at me, I'm a little tired of this. Assistant Book Monkey's theory is that people are so furious is because we are too good at what we do.

Pause here for gales of laughter.

But, I am very good at my job. Evidence in point: I still have my job. Same goes for everyone I work with. And we run an independent bookshop, so we don't answer to anyone - we can get books from whatever distributor, wholesaler or publisher we like. So we calmly, quietly, get books - from government departments, from obscure publishing houses in the middle of nowhere, from outposts in rural Canada, and as on one memorable occasion, from white supremacist brotherhood organisations. And then when we don't, people are so used to it that they howl.

That's the theory, anyway.

Okay, enough of that. Things about which to be happy:

1. Every time I refresh my flist, another story pops up on hawkfromhandsaw. So far, this ficathon has been much more painless than the last one (touch wood), unless you count the person who blithely told me to give everyone a week's extension. Er, horribly-rude much?

2. The shop printer ran out of ink today. I rummaged in the tea-and-coffee drawer for the spare cartridges and bemusedly discovered £120 in assorted cash. Some detective work later, it would appear that this is the same money that went missing, presumed stolen, six weeks ago.

3. The horrible books have actually arrived from THE. At least when people come in to shout at me, I'll have books to hand over.

(THE are a book wholesaler. In the continuing saga of my recent stupidity, ABM asked me today, "What's the website for THE again?"

"Why don't you google for it?" I asked.

He gave me his best what-is-wrong-with-you? look and said, "Why don't you try it and see?"

Er. I am stupid. Also today I fell off the kerb.)

4. Contrary to all supporting evidence regarding my intelligence, my LSAT score has apparently leapt by eight points. Whoop.

5. Thanks to a demented three hours last night, I actually have a story for my own ficathon.

6. And, finally, I'm going to Berlin on Friday to see the_acrobat, in what I am reliably informed will be the Visit of OMG 1.75. I've never been to Germany before. I can't wait.

So, yes, on balance, it was a good day. Hell, it's always a good day when you find money in your teabags.

Comments

[skipthedemon.livejournal.com]

Yay! LSAT score improvement. Was it the logic games? Are they getting better for you?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they are. For the first time, I'm getting more questions right than I would've got by chance, which is certainly an improvement.

[ra-sar.livejournal.com]

LSAT? I seem to be out of the loop - you're planning on doing the law thing?

Also, LSATs are evil. I took 'em for real twice and just thank many gods I never have to again. Two years in and I have yet to figure out how they have any bearing at all on one's ability to succeed or not succeed in law school.

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

Berlin! Yay!

Oh god you're actually thinking about What To Do With A BA In PPE and stuff *weeps*

[clubhopper15.livejournal.com]

Hey.. Congrats about your LSAT score! Which law schools are u applying to besides harvard?
And by the way..where else did you apply for PPE besides Oxford? I've noticed the other unis offering PPE are mostly mediocre.. Except for Warwick and Durham!!

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

*cough* When looking round I thought the Warwick Politics department was mediocre - unimaginative and didactic. May well have changed since. I really liked York's course, but then I only applied for PPE at half my choices so may not be the most useful random two-pence-giver. *wanders back into shadows*

[clubhopper15.livejournal.com]

Oh ok where else did u apply and what for?? Please don't wander back into the shadows! :)

[jacinthsong.livejournal.com]

PPE at Oxford, York and Manchester; International Relations at LSE (my backup); European Studies with Politics and German (or something like that...) at UCL; Politics and Economics at Sheffield (never visited, stuck a pin in the highly-rated departments). Not quite as tortuous filling out the UCAS form as Iona, but I still ended up a PPEist a little randomly :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure where I'm applying other than Harvard - probably Columbia and Yale.

For PPE, I only applied to Oxford and York, which are both good for it.

[clubhopper15.livejournal.com]

Oh cool, what else did u apply for and where else? I'm so lost..how did u manage to write your P.S. so that it applied for both courses?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Medicine at Nottingham, Bristol, UCL and King's. My personal statement is a long and painful story. Listen, why don't you email me? Address is iona.raven @ gmail.com - it'll be easier for me to tell the story over email.

[msilverstar]

Your #3 cracked me up. In another life, I do stuff with search engines and wow, that's a good example! I'm also fond of the French thé.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! THE's actual website is indeed the.co.uk, but I'm pretty sure it's not in the first thousand results!