I am an antiquarian bookseller! Kind of.

Well it did not go badly at all! I can see myself being very very happy there!  (I have NOT been told to never come back for one thing!)

I only talked to Mr Sokol briefly since he was not around for most of the day but two assistants (who have a lot of experience and expertise unlike me) looked after me. Unfortunately I was first given what they themselves admitted was a very dull and menial task, that of copying the catalogue from one database to another. (There was a reason for all this.)

However I was told that after I had done this, they wanted me to do something more 'interesting.' It seems that 'interesting' can roughly be translated as 'nearly impossible' since the task was to look at a very early 17th century book and work out the content, who it was intended for and other details. This may not be too hard if it weren't for the fact that the book in question was in German.  In gothic script. Handwritten. 

I was worried that I would not understand the German words. It seems that worry is a luxury; what I should have been worrying about is whether I could make out the letters.

Dear me!

However fortunately they do understand I have only done German A Level and one of the assistants, who cannot understand German but can make out the letters, said she will help me and make it a joint effort. Also they said not to worry if I cannot make head nor tail of it.
But really, that was rather intimidating.

However perhaps the most frightening thing was the great display of C/conservatism. A poster saying 'fight the ban' was nailed outside, which admittedly is not frightening but when one walked in, one was greeted with a stuffed head of a snarling fox, another of a mad rabbit and two huge antlers. In the office there was a huge stuffed head of a buffalo. 


...to..
........the...
*gulps*
the signed photo of Maggie Thatcher that stared right at you in the loo!

*faints*