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I Can't Remember the Title but the Cover is Blue

Sketches from the other side of the bookshop counter
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( 620 ratings, 142 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
I Can't Remember the Title but the Cover is Blue by Elias Greig offers a humorous peek into the world of bookselling through a collection of quirky and entertaining anecdotes. Readers enjoy bizarre customer interactions, peculiar book requests, and the oddities of working in a bookshop. It highlights the challenges and joys of retail life with wit and charm.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you appreciate tales full of quirky customer interactions and humorous insights from the world of bookselling. Elias Greig shares entertaining and relatable anecdotes from the front lines of a bookshop, capturing the daily joys and challenges with charm and wit.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Hilarious, unpredictable and, at times, touching, this compilation is the perfect gift for fans of Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops and The Diary of a Bookseller.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

As any retail or service worker will tell you, customers can be irrational, demanding, abusive, and brain-scramblingly, mind-bendingly strange. They can also be kind, thoughtful, funny, and full of pathos. Something about the often-fraught interaction between customer and worker, with the dividing line of the counter between them, loosens inhibitions, and has a kind of hot-house effect on eccentricity.

In I Can't Remember the Title But the Cover is Blue, veteran bookseller Elias Greig collects the best, worst and downright weirdest customer encounters from his years working as a Sydney bookseller. From ill-behaved children to nostalgic seniors and everything in between, this hilarious and unpredictable book is the perfect gift for anyone who's ever been on the wrong side of a counter.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781760529451

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 28 November 2018

Country: Australia

Imprint: Allen & Unwin

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 146.0mm

Height: 178.0mm

Weight: 220g

Pages: 240

About the Author

Elias Greig was born on the North Coast of New South Wales, and moved to Sydney for university, completing a BA, MA, and, recently, a PhD at the University of Sydney. All this study was funded and made possible by over a decade of retail work, first as a shoe salesman, and later as a bookseller, his current occupation. These long years on the wrong side of the counter have proved surprisingly helpful in Elias's other career as a casual tutor and sessional lecturer at the University of Sydney. Elias's writing has appeared in Hermes (which he was proud to edit in 2010), Contrappasso, The Conversation, and, most recently, in Overland, where he discussed the Fair Work Commission's decision to cut Sunday penalty rates as a symptom of the wider disregard for and invisibility of retail and service workers. He has made several appearances on ABC radio program Overnights, discussing Romantic poetry, and the work of Stevie Smith.

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