In the early 1960s, my husband was due to be the best man for a friend. Not sure of his duties, he asked in the local library for a book on wedding customs (Letters, 21 September). The librarian went pink and said: “We keep those sort of books under lock and key.”
Christine Supple
Edgmond, Shropshire
• Searching for a copy of the Bible in my local bookshop while living in Philadelphia, I asked the sales assistant for help. Looking puzzled, she replied: “Who’s the author?”
Sarah Kingdom
Oxford
• The irascible owner of our bookshop in Clifton once replaced the “mind, body, spirit” classification with a single shelf marked “mumbo jumbo”.
Barney Gardom
Bristol
• In 1979-80, I found the book Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister placed impishly under “fantasy and science fiction”. I relocated it under “horror”.
Ian McNay
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
• I once heard of a reader who asked in the local library if they had Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation. “What’s it about?” queried the assistant.
Richard Walker
West Malvern, Worcestershire
• If only secondhand bookshops would stop putting astrology books next to astronomy in the science section.
Don Taylor
Cheadle, Staffordshire
• I finally found books on sailing in my local library under “swimming”.
Steven Bowditch
Carlisle
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