1. Expectation: You'll develop a deeper love for literature.
Reality: You start to develop a deep, searing hatred towards humanity.
2. Expectation: Your interactions with customers will consist of intelligent discussions about books.
Reality: Most conversations involve having to explain why new releases aren't yet available in paperback.
3. Expectation: You'll spend spare time between serving customers reading a good book.
Reality: You spend your spare moments daydreaming about home time.
4. Expectation: The variety of books you sell will fill you with future reading recommendations and broaden your literary horizons.
Reality: Enjoy selling a million copies of Nicholas Sparks books, because that's 90% of what you're selling.
5. Expectation: You'll be handing out book recommendations to customers asking for your advice.
Reality: Most customers just want to know where the shelf of bestsellers is.
6. Expectation: You'll get to stock the shelves with beautiful and inspiring books.
Reality: You stock the shelves with more fucking copies of that celebrity autobiography that seems to be selling well.
7. Expectation: You'll get to order in a wide variety of books.
Reality: You'll be reordering more goddamn copies of Fifty Shades of Grey.
8. Expectation: You'll take a step back and proudly admire a book display you put together.
Reality: You spend the rest of the day anxiously waiting for some fucker to destroy your beautiful display, because humans are inherently evil and not worthy of beauty.
9. Expectation: Your artistic talents will be put to good use when you create a beautiful window display.
Reality: You set up dull, uninspiring window displays.
10. Expectation: You'll develop an encyclopaedic knowledge of where every book is located in-store.
Reality: You just end up searching for everything on the in-store computer.
11. Expectation: Every customer is a beautiful soul.
Reality: Some customers are the devil in disguise.
12. Expectation: You'll leap out of bed each morning excited to get to work and share your love of literature with the world.
Reality: Nope, you're just as lazy as before, but now you work in a bookshop.
