Instructions

Read the following passage and answer the questions.

When I worked in a second-hand book shop-so easily pictured, if you don't work in one, as a kind of paradise, where charming old gentlemen browse eternally among calf-bound folios - the thing that chiefly struck me was the rarity of really bookish people. Our shop had exceptionally interesting stock, yet I doubt whether ten percent of our customers knew a good book from a bad one. First edition snobs were much commoner than lovers of literature, but oriental students haggling over cheap text books were commoner still, and vague-minded women looking for birthday presents for their nephews were commonest of all.

Many of the people who came to us were of the kind who would be nuisance anywhere but have special opportunities in a bookshop. For example, the dear old lady who 'wants a book for an invalid (a very common demand, that), and the other dear old lady who read such a nice book in 1897 and wonders whether you can find her a copy. Unfortunately she does not remember the title or the author's name or what the book was about, but she does remember that it had a red cover. But, apati from these there are two well-known types of pest by whom every second hand bookshop is haunted. One is be decayed person smelling of old bread crusts who comes every day, sometimes several times a day, and tries to sell you worthless books. The other is the person who orders large quantities of books for which he has not the smallest intention of paying. In our shop we sold nothing on credit, but we would put books aside, or order them if necessary, for people who arrranged to fetch them away later. Scarcely half the people who ordered books from us ever came back.

Question 193

What does the author mean by "First edition snobs"?


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