the day-to-days

So, I have a job now. I imagine that this is one of those things I should have mentioned in my travel-ish blog when it first happened, but. Y'know.
I work at a bookstore in Islington. Every morning I get to the neighbourhood a little bit early so I can get myself a spearmint-green tea and sit and read or write until it's time to head to work. Then I spend the day shelving or working the till or (best of all) helping people find things they're looking for. Today I spent a long time helping a pre-teen girl find the perfect edition of Oliver Twist to read, and explaining to her why some were in the Children's section and some were in the Classics, and why there were so many different versions (if you're interested: once an author has been dead for 100 years, their works become public domain, and anybody who wants to can publish them.) I also recommended New York novels to a woman who was going to be travelling there (Paul Auster's New York Trilogy and The Brooklyn Follies, Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, Colm McCann's Let The Great World Spin, Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.)

Yesterday I helped a woman attempt to hunt down these two books: "I don't remember the title or the author's name, but it's Danish and he was serving in Afghanistan and wrote an expose of what life's like over there and it caused a huge controversy. I don't know if it's been translated into English yet." and "It's Swedish and the original title translates to something like The Hundred Year Old Man Who Stepped Out Of The Window And Disappeared. I can't remember the author's name, but can you tell me if it's been translated into English yet?" Some of my coworkers get annoyed with requests like this, but I have a lot of fun. I love helping people, and helping people find books they're looking for is a bit like a treasure hunt.

I work with a bunch of amazing people. There's boy-Aussie, who was living in a garden shack for free and working as a freelance illustrator and musician before he moved over here; girl-Aussie, who wears rockabilly-style head bandanas and is a qualified architect and designer; the Thespian, who's already becoming quite a good friend of mine, is a full-time uni student as well as taking acting classes and volunteering at her theatre, and is going to show me around London and take me to see Hamlet; the Lifer, who has worked at Waterstones forever, loves books and literature and is as well-read as the most passionate English teacher and is the friendliest man I've ever met, who was heartwarmingly delighted to have the chance to spend the day hosting Howard Jacobson when he came in to sign books the other day; Miss Rose, who dresses in the most beautiful, dainty outfits and looks like a painting of the Petrarchian ideal, and who is incredibly intelligent; and the two Kids section veterans who have been showing me the ropes, who both have the most energy I've ever seen - there's the Lady, with her short bob and collection of jumper-style dresses who rushes around keeping the area clean and organised, and the Lad, who loves to sit and read to the kids, or put on impromptu puppet shows with them.

There are several others that I'm just starting to get to know, too. I can already tell that I'm going to become very attached to all of them.