Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Profile Books (2020), Edition: Main, 144 pages
Description
"A wickedly witty field guide to bookstore customers from the Person Who Doesn't Know What They Want (But Thinks It Might Have a Blue Cover) to the harried Parents Secretly After Free Childcare. It does take all kinds. If you visit bookshops more often than the grocery store, you'll recognize the types. There's the Expert (with subspecies from the Bore to the Helpful Person), the Young Family (ranging from the Exhausted to the Aspirational), Occultists (from Conspiracy Theorist to Craft Woman). Then there's the Loiterer (including the Erotica Browser and the Self-Published Author), the Bearded Pensioner (including the Lycra Clad), the The Not-So-Silent Traveller (the Whistler, Sniffer, Hummer, Farter, and Tutter), and the Family Historian (generally Americans who come to Shaun's shop in Wigtown, Scotland). Two bonus sections include Staff and, finally, Perfect Customer - all from Shaun Bythell (author of Confessions of a Bookseller), the funniest sell-and-tell observer in the house of books. This is the perfect read for anyone who ever felt a bookstore was home. You've been spotted! Or have you?"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member shelleyraec
Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops is a short book, not quite 150 pages long, from Scotland’s best known bookseller Shaun Bythell, author of the popular titles The Diary of a Bookseller and Confessions of a Bookseller.
Bythell opines there are seven kinds of customers that frequent his
His tongue in cheek taxonomy includes the Genus: Peritus Species: Homo Odiosus capable of lengthy lectures on subjects he (often wrongly) believes he is an expert in, and which tend to offend; the Genus: Homo qui desidet Species: Homo Qui Opera Erotica Legit (Erotica Browser) who seem to be intent on an innocuous book which is later revealed to have been ‘recovered’; and Genus: Viator non tacitus which includes Species that whistle, sniff, hum, fart, and tutter.
Bythell’s acerbic sense of humour borders on the supercilious at times, but I think anyone who has worked in retail will relate somewhat. Booklovers will hope that they fit in none of these seven categories and instead are of the rare ‘Bonus’ Genus: Cliens perfectus (Perfect Customer).
A quick easy read, Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops would be a nice holiday gift for fans of Bythell, or bookstores.
Bythell opines there are seven kinds of customers that frequent his
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second hand bookstore, each of which he labels with a Latin genus, and then breaks down into species. He is careful to admit these are none too generous stereotypes, generalisations that contain a core of truth but lack nuance. His tongue in cheek taxonomy includes the Genus: Peritus Species: Homo Odiosus capable of lengthy lectures on subjects he (often wrongly) believes he is an expert in, and which tend to offend; the Genus: Homo qui desidet Species: Homo Qui Opera Erotica Legit (Erotica Browser) who seem to be intent on an innocuous book which is later revealed to have been ‘recovered’; and Genus: Viator non tacitus which includes Species that whistle, sniff, hum, fart, and tutter.
Bythell’s acerbic sense of humour borders on the supercilious at times, but I think anyone who has worked in retail will relate somewhat. Booklovers will hope that they fit in none of these seven categories and instead are of the rare ‘Bonus’ Genus: Cliens perfectus (Perfect Customer).
A quick easy read, Seven Kinds of People You Find in Bookshops would be a nice holiday gift for fans of Bythell, or bookstores.
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LibraryThing member TobinElliott
A fun, short, written-during-COVID book about the various people that frequent bookstores. Personally, I think he left a few out, and he was often much kinder than I would have been, overall (because, while 99% of bookshop customers truly are lovely people, that remaining 1% can drive you mad).
I
Good book.
I
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get a kick out of the reviewers who don't like Bythell himself. But, as a veteran bookshop worker, I can tell you that, aside from requiring a love of books, the owner or manager of a bookshop also needs a few other qualities, but mostly to not suffer fools, and all the survival skills that come with that. So, if he comes off a little asshole-ish, I think it's mostly justified. Personally, I get a kick out of him.Good book.
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LibraryThing member LARA335
A brief, quick amusing read. “The Tutter - actively seeking disappointment. Disappointing them is tremendously good fun.”
I wish Shaun was my boss.
I work in a shop and can vouch that the job satisfaction comes not with the paltry pay packet, but people watching, and playing
I wish Shaun was my boss.
I work in a shop and can vouch that the job satisfaction comes not with the paltry pay packet, but people watching, and playing
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silly-questions-customer-ask-bingo with my colleagues Show Less
LibraryThing member murderbydeath
Having read his first two books, I was surprised when this arrived at how small it was. But good things / small packages and all that. It may be a small, slim volume, but it’s spot on and hilarious. I’ve never owned a bookshop (yet) but I recognise these people from time spent in bookshops –
MT self-identified with type 3 of the Homo qui desidet or Loiterer, sub-type The Bored Spouse (though in his defense, he just buys his books way too fast). I was relived not to have identified with the American sub-type of Family Historian, since I leave all that stuff to my mom, who is a first generation American, so comes by it honestly, at least. I’d like to think I fall firmly in the bonus category of Cliens Perfectus as I generally enter a bookshop, talk to nobody, browse everything, and almost never leave without a stack, and the idea of haggling is one I find personally abhorrent, but then, doesn’t everyone think they’re the Perfect Customer?
All in all, a fun way to spend a few hours as long as you have a healthy sense of humor about humanity.
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and a library or two – everywhere. I found myself reading most of it aloud to my husband, and we took turns naming those we know who fit Bythell’s descriptions a little too well, inside or outside a bookshop.MT self-identified with type 3 of the Homo qui desidet or Loiterer, sub-type The Bored Spouse (though in his defense, he just buys his books way too fast). I was relived not to have identified with the American sub-type of Family Historian, since I leave all that stuff to my mom, who is a first generation American, so comes by it honestly, at least. I’d like to think I fall firmly in the bonus category of Cliens Perfectus as I generally enter a bookshop, talk to nobody, browse everything, and almost never leave without a stack, and the idea of haggling is one I find personally abhorrent, but then, doesn’t everyone think they’re the Perfect Customer?
All in all, a fun way to spend a few hours as long as you have a healthy sense of humor about humanity.
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LibraryThing member SarahEBear
Another enjoyable read and a rather funny book by Shaun Bythell. This bite-sized book offers his insights into the various types of customers he's encountered at his second-hand bookstore. I sincerely hope that I don't fit into one of these categories. A quick and easy read.
LibraryThing member wanderlustlover
This was an adorable little piece I used to knock out another piece of my Non-Fiction Bingo space. This is a sweet, funny fast read of a used book store owner breaking down on the many customers who fall into seven large categories. It's quite amusing and you'll recognize people from across your
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life. Show Less
LibraryThing member the.ken.petersen
What does it say, when one recognises oneself in each of these vignettes?
This is a lovely little read.
This is a lovely little read.
LibraryThing member BibliophageOnCoffee
Clever and amusing. You could swap out the word "Bookshops" with "Libraries" for the most part.
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2020
Physical description
144 p.; 7.24 inches
ISBN
1788166582 / 9781788166584