I spend quite a bit of time mooching around bookshops – I can always find something to engage my interest even if I have no intention of actually buying anything.
One of my favourite sections is where the shop’s staff have reviewed books and posted their recommendations onto the book jackets. It’s a great idea that adds a personal, local touch to the huge corporate chains that have now taken over the High Street, and it also provides an alternative way of discovering a hidden gem. That is – so long as the reviews are genuine…
I am a big fan of Armistead Maupin’s ‘Tales of the City’ series, and had completely missed the release last year of ‘Michael Tolliver Lives’ – the latest instalment in the life of ‘Mouse’, the well-loved character at the centre of the San Francisco-set ‘Tales’ series.
Helpfully, ‘Jon’ from the branch of Borders in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre, has recommended this particular book with a brief paragraph attached to the front of the book. It’s quite interesting, so I took a snap of it:
The suspicious review in Borders
As you can see, there has been a slight error in the review, as the author is credited as being Alexei Sayle, the well-known comedian and writer who was part of the ‘alternative’ comedy scene back in the 1980s.
Of course, such errors are easily made – except that the error is carried over into the text of the review, which removes all possibility of it being a transcribing error. The book is in no way “full of that Young Ones sense of humour” (a clear reference to the writing style of Alexei Sayle, as he played multiple characters in the classic 80s sitcom). So what is going on?
Clearly that particular recommendation has not been composed by anyone who has actually read the book – which throws up a number of questions:
Are these reviews really written by local staff or are they a cynical marketing ploy?
How much pressure is put on staff to do these reviews?
Does Jon really exist?
I would really like to know what’s going on here. Until now, I’d assumed that these reviews were evidence of a team of staff passionately commited to the written word, who have embraced the opportunity to differentiate their own store with some personalised comments that the customer may find useful.
The idea that it’s all been thought up by Tim at Head Office, who is tracking the resulting sales figures on an Excel spreadsheet, is simply too much to bear.
So are we being taken for a ride? I think we should be told.
