a bookshop job

i love my job, love working with books and getting to meet customers and talk about books - especially working in the children's shop because kids are always REALLY EXCITED when there's a new book in their favourite series and aren't afraid to show it.

however, i'm not the most patient person in the world and working in retail really really grates sometimes. for example, it's taken A LOT of self-restraint today when i've offered to gift wrap a book for a customer to not scream in their face when they ask: "can you take the price off?" and i know...i know...on principle it's a totally fair question, but when it happens thirty or forty times a day i want to yell WHY WOULD I LEAVE THE PRICE ON, YOU A-HOLE or at the very least respond with a resounding DERRR!!!

and don't get me started on parents with prams (particularly GIANT PRAMS)
or unattended children
or sticky fingers
or coffee spills
or stinky nappies
or twilight fans
or stupid questions (though my friend m takes the cake on this: someone came into her bookshop, looked around then asked "do you sell trumpets?" derr!)

but then sometimes it only five minutes i remember why i love being here: i get a reading copy of the new john green/joanne horniman/patrick ness (can't wait til may!) ; the girls from teen bookclub make my sides ache with laughing as they talk w/o breath about talking pigs, hamish and andy, you tube and occasionally the book itself ; a customer comes in especially to tell me that the book i recommended was a big hit ; jenny comes in and says "where the hell have you been?" like i'm an important bit o' furniture here.

...aaaaand...cut. enough. mi scusi.