In no particular order:
- Staff in book shops don't get to read on the job.
- Staff in book shops do, however, make use of the employee discount and most of their earnings end up right back in the shop.
- The odds of getting your book published are put to shame by the odds of getting your published book on the front table of a book shop. And that's where the majority of people shop.
- Non-fiction outsells fiction by a lot.
- Romance readers buy by the basketful.
- School librarians buy by the trolley full.
- Staff generally know what titles are on the Booker shortlist, but don't expect them to tell you which one you'd like. Most of them probably don't read much literary fiction.
- Women buy books for men, men buy gift cards for women.
- "Have you read this?" surrounded by over a hundred thousand titles is like saying "oh, you're from Sydney! Do you know so-and-so?" And still, every once in a while the answer is yes.
- Selling books is a business, like selling anything else. People in that business spend all day crunching numbers, putting up displays and running money through tills. But at the end of their day, the vast majority of them go home and relax with a book. This is true even for the ones in management or head office.
- Some people can't remember where they picked up a certain book, so they leave it on top of a random shelf or a chair. This is annoying. Others can't remember, so they leave it in amongst some other books in a completely different section. This is much more annoying.
- There are more readers than writers in the world. Trouble is, most of them are reading the same books as each other.
- Children read far more books than adults (except maybe romance readers). It might be time, or it might be education, but somewhere along the way reading stopped being a priority.
- Book-lovers scorn television. Television lovers do not scorn books.
- You never know where you'll meet your future spouse.
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