I thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you for linking to it Simon.
EXCEPT: 'If, on the other hand, he (and customers are almost always he) buys a book that his wife will find outrageously expensive by comparison, say, with a pair of shoes, or even a single shoe, he will ask the bookseller to rub out the price' – no no no! I don't know what bookshops he frequents, but a few minutes spent browsing the comments of Stuck-in-a-Book would have shown Mr Dalrymple what an erroneous statement THAT was. There are plenty of female bibliophiles, although the fact that they are sometimes less tweedy than Mr D may have misled him. And enough with the women and shoes trope please. [pauses for breath]
That is an entertaining column. My husband and I enjoy the hunt for books in used book stores, but they no longer seem to have a sound business model, as print books compete with ebooks.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, thank you for linking to it Simon.
EXCEPT: 'If, on the other hand, he (and customers are almost always he) buys a book that his wife will find outrageously expensive by comparison, say, with a pair of shoes, or even a single shoe, he will ask the bookseller to rub out the price' – no no no! I don't know what bookshops he frequents, but a few minutes spent browsing the comments of Stuck-in-a-Book would have shown Mr Dalrymple what an erroneous statement THAT was. There are plenty of female bibliophiles, although the fact that they are sometimes less tweedy than Mr D may have misled him. And enough with the women and shoes trope please. [pauses for breath]
That is an entertaining column. My husband and I enjoy the hunt for books in used book stores, but they no longer seem to have a sound business model, as print books compete with ebooks.