Woman reading (1913) by Rik Wouters. Painting held in the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerpen, Belgium. Public domain.

I used to work in a bookshop. One day, a young woman came in and said, ‘I’m looking for a book with a green cover …’. She knew neither author nor title.

At another occasion, in another bookshop, a regular customer came past one day and said, ‘I’m looking for a book’. She paused — and I said, ‘You’re in the right place’. She laughed.