Thursday, January 11, 2007

Favourite conversation overheard in the past week (at the Oxfam bookshop in Canterbury); very small person aged about four, with parent:

"Mummy, can we buy a DVD?"
"No, sweetheart, we don't have enough money for a DVD."
"But Mummy, if we don't have enough money for a DVD, how come we've got enough money for books?"

Labels:

5 Comments:

Blogger MissMiller said...

Haha, Books should always take priority. Working in a bookstore, I've seen the reverse which is disheartening. Sometimes it's the parents who don't understand why their children want to read!

12:22 am  
Blogger Elaine said...

and what answer did the mother give??? or was she struck dumb. What a wonderful story!

9:28 am  
Blogger The Traveller said...

Because, small child, one ALWAYS has enough money for books! When my parents moved house, my dad said I had too many books and he was going to throw some away so there was less stuff to move. I told him he could throw my bed out instead. The books stayed.

10:49 pm  
Blogger Debi said...

Warms the heart, doesn't it?

A bookseller friend told me about a man who came into the shop, looked round and said, 'Hmm, books. My wife likes those ...' Good to know she's not the only one!

2:38 pm  
Blogger equiano said...

Acquisitionist - welcome! An article in yesterday's INDEPENDENT reported on a recent UK study - apparently 53% of children up to the age of 4 are read to every day or night by their parents. This is higher than I had thought, and is encouraging. Unfortunately it drops off steadily after that.

elaine - made me smile for days. There was a pregnant pause, while all the other customers in the shop snickered quietly. Then "mummy" gave a really good explanation on marked down books and supporting charities, which the child seemed to find perfectly acceptable. She was allowed to choose two books for herself and had a long conversation with the lady behind the till about all her favourite books - extremely articulate child: must be all that reading!

Traveller - your story makes me laugh! Good to know where your priorities lie, even as a child!

Debi - that's hilarious! I'm firmly with the wife on this one.

1:16 pm  

Post a Comment

<< Home