The Book Mine is a used book store in Fair Oaks, CA (Northeast of Sacramento) has a web page with snippets of funny conversations with customers who are obnoxious, rude, or weird.
Do people donate all these books to you?
Yes. We show up for work every morning and there are boxes of valuable books sitting at the front door.
Wow, really! I could open a book store?
Sure!
If I opened a store, how would people know where to leave the books?
***
(phone call)
You buy books?
Every day
I’ve got something you’re really going to want
Lay it on me
It’s a set of Tom Sawyer
Really! Who wrote it?
I just said, Tom Sawyer
He was quite a guy. Who published it?
Beats me!
Could you look? I’m mildly curious
Wait a minute
(a couple of minutes of my life go by that I will never see again)
You still there?
Barely
Gosit and Dunlop
It’s a reprint set and a non-starter for me. Gotta go. Thanks!
***
Older guy comes in…
I’m here for an appraisal.
I charge for appraisals.
No, I don’t want to pay for nothing.
What do you have?
A book I wrote. It’s about gambling.
Has it been published?
No, that’s why I need a (sic) appraisal.
I only deal in old books.
Hey, gambling is old. It’s been around a long time.
I don’t think I can help you.
Yea I know, you’re really wasting my time.
***
(grown-up, looks around)
Do you have any real books?
Yes.
Well, not like the ones you have here. You know, real books!
I’m not sure what you mean.
You know, books that are real.
Sorry, none of our books are real!
[via]
(Image: I don’t have a photo of the Book Mine, so I used a photo I took last month at Bart’s Books in Ojai, California. It’s a bookstore without a roof!)