Thursday, November 11, 2010

Waterstones

I love books. Nothing beats a good book and whilst commuting to Nottingham and back this year a book of some description has been my constant companion. Often when I get chance I pop into Waterstones where ever I may be - I grab it, to peruse books which usually ends in me succumbing to temptation and buying one. This week whilst in Nottingham I had 30 mins to spare between going from one place to another so dropped into Waterstones.

I've had a mind for a while to read Lord of the Rings again, in the past I only ever got it from the library, read it and then returned it. I thought it would be good to have the three volumes for myself in some kind of hardback format as I know in the future I'll read them again or use them for reference. Ironically I did spy a nice set of them bound in a leather case in a local bookshop some months ago but when I got around to returning the bookshop had sadly closed.

So into Waterstones I went and found some lovely 50th anniversary hard backed ones with the covers made up of illustrations drawn by Tolkien himself. To my horror they only had the 2nd and 3rd volume. I searched in vain before asking an assistant. He checked the stores computer and then turned to me and said 'Sorry but we sold the last Fellowship of the Ring (1st volume) last September'. I stood and blinked and thought why haven't they bothered to re-stock it? It's not like it's an obscure book!? The chances of the other two volumes in the same range are surely unlikely to sell, so why have them out on the shelves?

I'm not angry at Waterstones (well maybe a bit) but surely in these days of technology stock should be better monitored?

No comments: