There was a fine independent bookshop by our market square until the online booksellers and a rapacious landlord forced it out. Its former premises are now occupied by our largest non-supermarket bookseller, W H Smith.
“Sorry?”
“The Misogynist by Piers Paul Reid.’
“Has it been out a long time? Only we don’t carry many old books.”
“No, just a couple of weeks. It’s been reviewed everywhere.”
Silence.
“The author is very famous.”
Silence.
"It’ll be in hardback.”
“Oh, we don’t carry many of those.”
“It’s by one of our leading writers.”
“Like, you mean, a novel? Only we don’t carry many of those.”
With an encouraging smile, “Just out, you say? Well, if we’ve got it, it’ll be there,” pointing to shelves heavily polluted with loose stool water.
“I’ve looked. It’s not there.”
“Well we haven’t got it, then. Sorry.”
The old shop used to have a book-ordering service. You know, like a bookshop.
Use your local library, then. That's what I do.
ReplyDeleteA book-ordering service?
ReplyDeleteLike Amazon, you mean?
So what are you waiting for?
And, indeed, your local library will usually be able to order books for you, whether new, or from another branch, or if their system is any good, from another consortium.
ReplyDeleteUse your library or lost it