We talk to the very lovely Dani Solomon, bookseller at Readings Carlton, about her favourite books, life working in a bookshop and the elusive ‘True Fiction’ section.

Why do you work in books?

It really is as simple as I love reading books, so what better place to work than a place that sells them?

What’s the best book you’ve read lately and why?

I really enjoyed Steve Hely’s How I Became a Famous Novelist. It appealed to my natural cynicism of ‘bestseller’ books while at the same time allowing me to still secretly love them.

What have you noticed people buying lately?

George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series. It despairs me that some people refuse to class sci-fi and fantasy as literature, so I’m always very happy when they sell well.

What’s the strangest experience you’ve had in a bookshop?

I once had a customer refer to the biography section as ‘True Fiction’, a phrase which I love and have taken on as my own.

What’s the best experience you’ve had in a bookshop?

Every time I serve a customer who buys a book I like!! 

What’s your favourite book of all time and why?

Not so much a book as an author. Terry Pratchett taught me you can say far more with a dragon and a magic sword than you can with a human alone. Before I got into his Discworld series I left sci-fi and fantasy alone, thinking it had nothing much for anyone over the age of 16. Now most of my favourite books have a little bit of magic in them somewhere!

Name a book that has changed the way you think – in ways small or large.

I find if I read Sherlock Holmes stories for too long in one sitting, it changes the way I think about everything! I can’t look at anyone without trying to deduce their entire life story from a tiny scuffmark on their right shoe. Everyone’s a suspect!

What was your favourite book as a kid?

My first ever favourite book was Emily Rodda’s Pigs Might Fly. This was the first time I became aware that books are doorways to other worlds and it is the book directly responsible for my continued love of reading today.