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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Aibu to do this in bookshops?

97 replies

Twinning1 · 03/09/2018 22:07

I love browsing bookshops and could spend hours looking at the shelves thinking about all the books i need to read.

I have a confession to make. Sometimes, In book shops, I make books I love more prominent. I’ve been known to make mini displays of them. Or move a copy to the bestseller display to fill a gap. If there’s a pile of them on a table, I separate the piles so it fills a greater area of the table. Don’t get me wrong... I don’t mess up my local bookshop but I might “accidentally” put the book back in a different place.

I feel somehow like I might make a tiny difference to sales (even if it’s just a few copies). My dh thinks I’m crazy but it really does give me great satisfaction that I might have helped a shopper find a hidden gem of a book that they otherwise might have missed.

Does anyone else do this? Aibu to give my favourite authors a little help every so often?

OP posts:
crosstalk · 04/09/2018 14:07

@Schadenfreude new books ... hmm ... but old books yay! I can tell the books I've inherited from grandfather (Gitanes) and father (Neville Shute etc, damp Far East, lots of foxing). Nowt wrong with Kindles in their place. I now travel with one small bag of clothes and a Kindle. Before it was suitcase of books, knapsack of clothes. I still buy books.

chasinggarlic · 04/09/2018 14:12

Oh I never get caught doing it!

You are dreaming if you think staff don't notice. Yes they will think you are a bit mad. You don't rock up at Tesco and start placing your favourite products prominently Confused

Figmentofmyimagination · 04/09/2018 14:25

I once picked up a lovely book to buy, carried it around the wonderful independent shop, propped it on a shelf to look at something else and accidentally posted it through a gap in the floor-to-ceiling fitted shelving. I felt pretty bad but I didn't own up. Someone will find it in years to come, I guess when it ceases to be a bookshop anymore.

Figmentofmyimagination · 04/09/2018 14:31

It used to really irritate me, when my children were young, that children's books are shelved according to age categories.

For some children, it is super-undermining to discover that their fave choice "belongs" a category aimed at a "younger" audience e.g. "9 to 12". And sometimes the classifications were just plain wrong.

I don't remember actually hoofing them out and moving them to another shelf however.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 04/09/2018 14:44

Rosetti

I love that Mark Thomas!

SchadenfreudePersonified · 04/09/2018 14:46

You disappoint me crosstalk

And kindles are the work of the AntiChrist . . . [need a devil emoticon]

LadyRoughDiamond · 04/09/2018 15:04

I used to work in book publishing. Here's the thing OP - most of the "charts" that you see in stores, or those "book of the week" slots, have been paid for by publishers. The higher the chart position, the more the publisher has paid. It's nothing to do with how many books have been sold unless it's using something like The Times bestseller list. Smaller publishers and lesser-known authors don't have the £££ behind them to do all this and so what you're do I g is a great way to redress the balance!

Havaina · 04/09/2018 15:12

This thread is making me want to watch You've Got Mail...

TabbyM · 04/09/2018 15:46

I don't think I've ever put anything face out but I do make sure a series I like is in the right order - both shops and libraries have a nasty habit of putting the newest one to the left rather than the right in 1,2,3 order. I also move things into sci fi if they are wrongly in crime eg Paul Cornell books.

crosstalk · 04/09/2018 16:01

So sorry Schadenfreude especially since I've always loved your posts . Normally I've travelled with books but quite frankly without a car (and a long way from any public transport) currently it's not possible given how many books I read. So my Kindle carries my trash (which I wouldn't buy anyway) and classics.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 04/09/2018 16:38

Thank you for the accolade crosstalk* .

I have every sympathy with you, not having the use of a car most times, and reserving your kindle for the "fast food" equivalent of "real" books - (we all need a bit of chewing gum for the brain occasionally - I do myself ; something that is light, doesn't require critical faculties to be engaged, but entertains and relaxes the "little grey cells" and which we'd be ashamed to be seen reading in public).

Under the circumstances I can only forgive your very human weakness - I've been there myself, and doubtless will be again, as I can't NOT have a book to hand - any book - even Dan Brown if there's nothing else, God help me . . .

But I digress. Like you, I LOVE books, I love new books and old books and second-hand books and strange books that I find abandoned - I often buy trash, read it with guilty pleasure and then pass it to the charity shop for some other addict stuck without reading matter on holiday. We are a close and supportive community . . . Grin

As long as we know the difference between literature and reading material, I feel we can still hold up our heads (when they aren't bent over a book, obviously . . . Grin)

ShartGoblin · 04/09/2018 16:41

I have definitely bought a few books that I assumed were accidentally left in the wrong place. Now I'm thinking it wasn't so accidental...

If it was you then thanks! I've discovered some great books this way.

TatianaLarina · 04/09/2018 22:51

Not done this - but I sniff books. I’m a book sniffer. I sniff books I’m not even going to buy.

Sometimes I put my nose in deep between the pages and just breathe.

IHeartKingThistle · 04/09/2018 22:56

I like this Grin

Aibu to do this in bookshops?
IHeartKingThistle · 04/09/2018 23:04

Oh. You have to see the whole picture for it to be funny!

AndBabyMakes3 · 04/09/2018 23:06

@IHeartKingThistle love it! Grin

I also love sniffing books, new and old. But I confess I also have a kindle...great for when travelling but much rather curl up with a real book to flick through (and sniff!)!

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/09/2018 23:17

Not done this - but I sniff books. I’m a book sniffer. I sniff books I’m not even going to buy.

Sometimes I put my nose in deep between the pages and just breathe.

Can I ask where you buy your undies from, please? Just so I can make sure I never ever set foot in there again erm, wave if I see you there.

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll · 04/09/2018 23:20

I did a book-signing at my local bookshop last week.

I managed to sign nearly 200 before the staff caught me and insisted that I leave.... Grin

stayathomer · 04/09/2018 23:56

WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll BadumdumdumGrin OP I might agree with the someone might lose a sale and that's a pity but other than that I love your intentions and second the people who say you should work in a library!Csn I also ask what you read?
Reanimated what sort of thing? What genre did you write?
Everyone, Kindles have their placeBlush

dogaregreat · 05/09/2018 00:24

Your not hurting anyone so go for it haha

Writersblock2 · 05/09/2018 00:33

This is the best thread ever. Books, lovely books. I buy more books than I can ever read, but it’s such a worthy cause.

ReanimatedSGB · 05/09/2018 01:54

@stayathomer I write erotica. I still do it now but not many bookshops will take small-publisher erotica any more.

WhatToDoAboutWailmerGoneRogue · 05/09/2018 03:54

YABU. It’s creating more work for the staff and messing with the arrangements they’ve no doubt carefully laid out.

BarkTwain · 05/09/2018 04:24

@daffodillament

What a scream ! ...

Straight from Mallory Towers

OP, I don't think you're crazy, funny, clever, unique. You're just trying too hard to get a laugh or pat on the back.

stayathomer · 05/09/2018 05:25

Reanimated That's a pity and well done. I know a few people who self publish but with a view to selling e-books more than getting into book shops and I think you're right, book shops don't neces want that kind of book, but I think the masses in Amazon land do!!

Barktwain That's a little harsh