Reading Spa

Here is a thought: that you can't be a good shopper if you don't know what you are looking for. But what happens when you are looking to be inspired or entertained? How do you shop for ideas?

Seems to be that this bookshop has the right idea by overlaying the therapist's couch onto the proposition of book buying - and ending up with an intimate, guided customer experience.

And isn't the best bit of reading buying the book? The expectation of a beautiful cover, the smell of new pages, the tease of blurb… all that anticipation for a thrilling story - or maybe that is just me. Maybe this is a side effect of having worked in Publishing.

At Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath (what a name!), you pay £55 and in return you have 45min chat with an expert bookseller over tea and cakes who will help diagnose your needs - likes and dislikes, info on special gems and new releases - and make recommendations. You will walk out with £40 worth of books that you have chosen during the session.

Even better, you can then sojourn to the Reading Booth to get right into the act of reading, along with a few extra treats to extend the experience into your home - a mug and hot chocolate, music, tickets to a literary event. It could be the beginning of a beautiful new relationship with paperbacks.

Seems that this level of personal attention is hard to replicate in the digital world and that despite the empowerment of being able to make our own choices in a world of proliferated content - a cup of tea and a chat is still a valid solution to finding the best content for our needs.