A rant and an encouragment

I've been reading 'Can You Forgive Her?' by Anthony Trollope the prolific Victorian novelist and inventor of the Pillar Box. It's a book I've had for years and is actually a proof copy I acquired when I used to work in Waterstones in Glasgow.

I was telling a friend this and we got chatting about bookshops and how they differ and which we prefer. It made me sad to remember that when I started as a weekend unpacker in Waterstones it was still owned by Tim Waterstone. The place was a tip with piles of books on top of tables with still more underneath waiting to be discovered by the discerning customer or, indeed, waiting for a member of staff to happen upon them and think: 'These are good books! Folk would buy these. I'm moving that pish off that table and putting these beauties there instead.'

Then we moved to the mega store in Sauchiehall Street having been bought out by EMI or Dillons, I can't remember which faceless corporation it was and it all got a bit stale. At my interview I turned up with 'Jude the Obscure' hanging out my pocket and had to critically discuss the last book I'd read. It was a scholarly work on The Beatles songs and the manager loved it whereas I thought it was a lot of pretentious nonsense filled with trivia that any self respecting fan of the fab four should already be familiar, nay, intimate with.

Go in to Waterstones now and ask a cashier what their favourite book is and they'd probably grunt at you.

Bookshops are not the only casualties of commercialism. Music fans in HMV? Sportsmen in JJB? Carnivores in the butchers?

I'm not saying that vegetarians should be debarred from selling meat but I would prefer the people who work in a place to give a damn about what's sold there. Travel agents sample hotels and in my local the barmaids have tasted the beer and wine so as to be able to give a qualified answer to any questions from any customer. Ignorance is bliss? I disagree. Discovery is bliss. Yes sometimes it doesn't always work out and you buy a gash novel or a vinegary wine but at least you went looking for quality and at least you knew enough to recognise your mistake.

Get out there and ask some questions. Explore. Discover. Try something new; something you've never tasted, done, listened to, read, thought, watched, whatevered before.

More tomorrow...