And then a customer comes along and makes me want to read, desperately. If you want to turn a bookseller like me on, catch me as I'm passing throught the Used Book Cellar and say this:
"If you have the time, can you tell me what I should read next? It's been long years since I've read books, and I just started up again with Middlesex, and I'm nearing the end and feeling a bit desperate from the thought of not having a new book to pick up when I'm done, but also from not having any idea of what the book should be. If you have a minute." Scanned the shelves for two minutes and sat down next to him and gave him one minute each on Martin Amis, Jim Crace, Henry Miller, Annie Proulx, Jonathan Coe, Gary Shteyngart, John Steinbeck.
That's the kind of thing that makes me want to put away my sketchbook and pick up a novel for the midnight bus ride home.
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