Paul Arden has a new book out - God Explained in a Taxi Ride - so I popped into our local book shop to buy a copy. First stop, New Releases. Nope. New Paperbacks then, a sub-section of New Releases. Surely it isn’t a hardback (New Paperback’s twin sub-section)…no not there either. Books for Christmas perhaps? Staff Picks? Non-fiction. Gotta be in non-fiction. Hmm. The nook that houses Advertising, Design and Photography - perhaps they put it in there? No. A last, desperate rush to the no man’s land between Language and Religion. Nothing. Right then. To the counter.

Excuse me, where do you keep the Paul Arden books?

The what?

Books by Paul Arden…y’know, the guy who wrote It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be? He has a new book out this week and I can’t find it.

Oh yeah. That book about taxi drivers. It’s upstairs in Books for Under a Tenner.

I hadn’t seen Books for Under a Tenner before. Full of funny-for-a-day gift ideas for those difficult family members, no doubt, but it made my heart sink. Almost the whole of the ground floor is categorised in this way. 3 for 2. Half Price Bestsellers (are they best sellers because they’re half price? Or are they overstocked best sellers from Oprah and Richard & Judy book lists of yesteryear?) It wasn’t there anyway. Who’d have thought a book about taxi drivers would be so popular? Perhaps I’m wrong and they’re right. Maybe people like to buy their books by the £ but it makes you think - where exactly do you file Paul Arden?

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