
Confessions of a Bookseller - never-the-bride
https://literaryreview.co.uk/me-my-shelf-i
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Jun8
“A bookshop owner is unqualified to be a literary critic. It’s more useful to
know the distinguishing features of the first edition of The Pickwick Papers
than to have read the bloody thing, and it’s always best not to bandy lit crit
across the counter.”

I strongly disagree! In fact I would say for typical customers this is
_exactly_ what’s expected of the bookseller.

To find examples of great booksellers not from this mold I suggest two
wonderful books: “The Seven Stairs” and “Medium and Rare”.

~~~
mistrial9
as an avid small bookstore customer, in a university town where every genre of
book and bookstore existed, I came to know well one successful bookseller,
worked for him on special assignments, then worked at his estate. He was
literate, mercurial and absolutely a scoundrel about money. The most
important, basic, recurring issue of the day was money in every form. Every
opportunity to get something for one price and sell it at a higher price, was
the priority and the topic and what was important.

What the customer expects, how the customer buys and how the customer thinks
the bookseller is in character or otherwise, is open to manipulation at every
turn.

This particular was fellow probably genius material, but make no mistake, you
are a tool as a customer, and that is utterly different than the stuff of
reviews and taste and literary movements and craftsmanship and collectability.
Now that the word appeared, yes, collections and valuing of collections came
to the fore over the years. Special rare books that are collectible became a
better trade for an aging trader. This was all before Amazon.com appeared.
Your mileage may vary. I doubt this sort of person, absolutely real in the
West for centuries, is able to be in business now. Bookshops are closed one
after another in that town now. There used to be fifty in a two mile radius
from campus.

~~~
GlobalFrog
I would go even further : your description of the bookseller is the same as
the one I would do. Focus is on money and on the appearance of being a
cultural persona, even if a bookseller does not read more than most of their
clients. To be fair, they must focus on money as the book business relies on
very thin margins (no pun intended). They can give advices based on what they
have read, but I completely disbelieve now that their opinion on any book has
more value than anyone else. Moreover, I trust much more any author or any
publisher on their blogs than a bookseller in front of me when they give
opinions on books. I have seen more than once booksellers lying about a book
to avoid ordering it for a customer (because it costs them money and the
returns are not high enough). I don't believe also that it is only Amazon that
crashed the bookshops and led to the disappearance of the bookseller as a
cultural anchor point for communities. Those who were really literate and
honest had more capabilities to survive and some are still there today, but
those who were just posing as cultural figures are gone now. To sum up,
bookshops are businesses and their main activity is to make money. If I want a
cultural advice, theirs is still interesting but very low in my rankings.

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dusted
Sounds like the premise for Black Books (2000 to 2004) :)

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petecooper
>Me, My Shelf, And I.

Peak book title. Superb. Hats off to whoever thought of that.

~~~
skizm
Peek

e: oh no, I've been using peek and peak wrong my whole life...

~~~
Finnucane
Pique.

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freezing_coffe
Ohh, how nice it is to be greeted with a subscription modal

~~~
billfruit
How annoying, I thought the age of obnoxious pop up ads was behind us, but
they have reappeared in a big way. I fail to understand the reasoning behind
why designers would want them.

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gnome_chomsky
I don't think designers want them. The data probably shows that it increases
conversions or whatever metric, so the product owners and business pushes the
designers to jam in the dark ux patterns.

