Comments on: I Have an Odd Request

By: Christie

Christie — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 21:12:08 +0000

Customer: I need a nice little picture book for my 5-yr-old granddaughter who is going into the hospital to get her tonsils out.
Me: My mother gave me Curious George Goes to the Hospital when I got my tonsils out when I was 5. I loved it!
Customer: But my granddaughter is really SMART.

Ouch.

By: Davin Kimble

Davin Kimble — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 19:22:14 +0000

In most prisons you cannot directly mail a book to an inmate due to security risks. They require the book be mailed directly from the seller. Hope that clears that question up.

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:16:17 +0000

Years ago, I was in a gigantic used book store in Cleveland. I thought I’d look for an old book I had read long before but didn’t own and couldn’t remember the name or author. I went upstairs to the science fiction area, where there were so many books and so many shelves it was difficult just to walk through it. I found an employee and asked him for “that book about a big ship in the sky where everything was all in threes.” The man went straight to a shelf, removed the first two layers of books and pulled out “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clark. He was right.

By: CGS

CGS — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 18:07:52 +0000

We used to get a lot of requests for “The Anarchist’s Cookbook” when I worked for Books-A-Million, but no one ever refused to give us personal information when ordering it. I did, however, have a customer decide to not order “Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture” by Steve Preisler, AKA “Uncle Fester”, when I told him I would need his name and phone number.

By: PKJ

PKJ — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:38:10 +0000

As a bookseller, I was once asked to settle an argument for a young couple. The question? “You know that story about the girl who sells her hair to buy her boyfriend a present and then he sells his watch to buy her a present? Is it from the Bible or Shakespeare?”

By: Jessie

Jessie — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:55:50 +0000

Two of my favorites:

-At the counter: “I’ll have a small vanilla scoop in a dish with chocolate sauce, and…” [me interrupting] “I’m sorry, sir, we don’t have ice cream. This is a bookstore.”

-”Do you have any books that I haven’t read yet?” [This customer turned out to be Mia Farrow!]

By: Robert Goodman

Robert Goodman — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:52:01 +0000

Quite a few years ago, I listened to a mousy-voiced customer ask a clerk: “Do you have the book ‘Change Your Voice, Change Your Life?’”

By: booklover

booklover — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:46:21 +0000

“Where is the non-fiction section?”

“What is the Dewey Decimal System number for books on the Civil War?” As that is an interest of mine, I told her. “Then why can’t I find any Civil War books?” Still not sure what one had to do with the other.

“Do you have Computers for Dumbasses?”

And my personal favorite….”Do you sell lawn furniture?”

By: Jane

Jane — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:29:30 +0000

I had a small bookstore, and we had a “Sexy Books” section – Taschen’s sexy books and that kind of thing. A guy brought one of those books to the counter and said, “Could I just borrow this for about 20 minutes? – I’ll leave you my watch.” No, and you can’t use the store bathroom, either, mate.

Another good one was, Christmas Eve, “I need something for my mother-in-law.” What does she like? “I don’t know. Something that looks expensive.” Okay, I can help you with that…

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:20:28 +0000

I find the one about mailing books to prison not odd at all. I worked at Barnes and Noble for years and we would do this for a small charge all the time. Prisons prefer it that way actually b/c they know that it’s not going to include contraband.