The Diary of a Bookseller

MONDAY, 12 JANUARY

Online orders: 4

Books found: 4

The printer ran out of ink after printing off two orders, so I replaced it with a non-proprietary cartridge that resulted in the computer freezing with a message from HP that the machine will only work with branded cartridges. I’ve ordered two more, but this means that these orders won’t go out until Wednesday, so will probably result in negative feedback.

The ‘mouldy’ book was returned in today’s post. It is not mouldy at all. I emailed the purchaser to thank her for returning it and told her that ‘mould is in the eye of the beholder’ and asked her what life on Venus was like.

Anna went to The Picture Shop to check up on Jessie and returned with the news that she is now in hospital in Newton Stewart. We will go and visit her on Wednesday.

I carried on trawling through Ewan’s books. It is such a strange mix that I felt compelled to ask him where they came from.

The mouldy book customer replied to my email:

Not too bad, but I did prefer living on the other planet, which unfortunately is gone now.

Here, we never see stars, days stretch for ages. The screensaver over our heads is orange red, disguising, and it does not change much … Something possibly went wrong with her Highness Ithess who is in charge here.

I have to go now; using computers is strictly forbidden outside of the Temple.

The Bookshop Band (Ben and Beth) have taken on the residency of The Open Book as its first proprietors. Anna, Eliot and Finn took the idea on and have set it up, so we had them over for supper, along with our good friend Richard. He and I grew up in Galloway and have been friends since childhood. He is an actor, based in London. The last time I saw him he was in a production of The Tempest directed by Sam Mendes in New York.

Till total £61.50

4 customers