Wendy works in a bookshop. Sometimes, customers come into the shop not knowing what they want to buy and ask Wendy’s advice. Listen to these two conversations she had recently with customers.
Customer one
Customer: I wonder if you could help me. I don’t really know which book to buy and I need a bit of expert advice.
Wendy: No problem at all. I’m happy to help. Are you looking for any particular sort of book?
Customer: Well, yes and no! I want to buy something for my nephew’s birthday. He isn’t a great reader, so I want to get something that will grab his attention. I don’t want to buy something that he will just put on a shelf and never open. He has enough computer games and gadgets and clothes, so I definitely want to buy him a book. Where should I start looking?
Wendy: How old is he? Does he have any interests apart from computers?
Customer: He will be fifteen next week. He’s a great football fan. He plays soccer and his room is full of football magazines and posters.
Wendy: Is he interested in British football teams?
Customer: That’s his passion. Get him talking about the FA Cup and Premier League and you can’t stop him.
Wendy: I think we might just have the book for him. It’s new and I only put it on the shelves last week. It’s a new history of Manchester United and it’s packed with photos. I’m not a football fan, but I had a glance at this book when it came in and I thought it looked great. Let me go get you a copy and see what you think.
Customer two
Customer: Can you help me please? I half know what I want - and half don’t. I’ve got a book at the back of my mind but can’t really remember the title. It came out about a year ago. I remember you had piles of it all around the shop. I should have bought a copy then and not waited.
Wendy: Let’s see what we can do. Is it fiction or non-fiction?
Customer: Oh, it’s a cookery book. About a year ago there was a series of progammes on TV about Italian food. The hosts visited different towns and regions and told you about the local food. I think there were about six programmes.
Wendy: I think I remember. It was Peggy Chan, a chef at the Premier Hotel here in Hong Kong. She travelled around Italy talking about the food and cooking traditional dishes. We sold lots of copies of her book. It was very popular when the series was being shown.
Customer: No, that wasn’t the programme I’m thinking about. It was a native chef who worked in Rome. He wasn’t from Hong Kong. The programmes were sub-titled. They weren’t in English or Chinese.
Wendy: You’ve got me there! Let me look on our computer. I’m sure I can find the book you want, and if we don’t have it in stock we can order it. I am sure it will still be available if the programme was on TV last year.