An Old Bookshop on a Quiet Street — Calm English Listening

Transcript

Introduction

A: Hello, and welcome.

A: This is slow, calm B1 English for a quiet afternoon or evening.

A: Today you’ll hear two gentle stories about old bookshops on quiet streets.

A: Between them, we’ll review ten phrases. Then there will be some quiet practice and a slower final pass.

A: You’ll hear six of the ten. Three now: secondhand books, the smell of old paper, and to browse the shelves.

A: And three more: to flip through a book, the top shelf, and to put a book aside.

A: If you miss a word, let it go. Another one will come.

A: You can practice the phrases in Recursio another day. The link is in the description.

A: For now, just listen.

An hour before closing

A: The shop is on a street where almost nothing happens.

A: A locksmith, a dry cleaner, a place that repairs bicycles, and then the bookshop.

A: The window has no display, only books lying on their sides in the sun until they go pale.

A: The name is painted on the glass, and half of one letter has come off.

A: Nobody has repainted it, and by now nobody wants it repainted.

A: The regular customers would notice a new letter immediately.

A: Inside, it is one long room with a second, smaller room at the back.

A: The shelves go up to the ceiling on both sides, and the aisle between them is narrow.

A: Two people can pass each other, but one of them has to turn sideways.

A: The shop sells secondhand books, and only secondhand books.

A: The prices are written in soft pencil inside the front covers, in the same handwriting Teresa has used for twenty-five years.

A: Nothing costs more than nine euros. Most things cost three or four.

A: There is the smell of old paper in the room, and it is the first thing many visitors notice.

A: It is dry and slightly sweet, a little like dust and a little like wood.

A: Some visitors smile and say they love it as soon as they enter.

A: It is half past five on a Thursday, and Teresa is behind the counter.

A: She has owned the shop for nineteen years and worked in it for six before that.

A: The shop closes at half past six, so this is the last hour.

A: In her experience, more books are sold during the last hour than in the whole morning.

A: In the evening, people come in on the way home and take more time. In Teresa’s experience, they often leave with a book.

A: There are three customers in the shop.

A: A man in a raincoat is standing in front of history, not moving, reading the spines.

A: A student is on the floor in the back room with three books open around her.

A: And a woman near the door has come to browse the shelves without looking for anything specific.

A: The woman has been in for twenty minutes and has not taken a single book down yet.

A: When she came in, Teresa asked, “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

A: “No, just browsing, thank you.” Teresa left it there.

A: Teresa is not worried about this. It is what the shop is for.

A: You can browse the shelves here for an hour and leave with nothing, and nobody will mind.

A: The man in the raincoat comes to the counter with a question instead of a book.

A: He is looking for a book about how the railways were built, published in the seventies.

A: Teresa knows the one. She had it two years ago and sold it in a week.

A: “It is out of print,” she says. “It has been out of print for a long time.”

A: He nods slowly, the way people do when they already knew.

A: But she takes his name and his number and writes them in a notebook with a soft cover.

A: The notebook has eleven names in it, some of them three years old. Once or twice a year, Teresa finds one of the books and calls someone with good news.

A: She does not promise the man anything, and he does not ask her to.

A: He thanks her and goes out into the street.

A: The woman near the door has finally stopped in front of the poetry.

A: She begins to flip through a book with a thin gray cover, moving from back to front.

A: She reads two lines somewhere in the middle and puts it back.

A: Then she takes it down again ten seconds later, which Teresa has seen a thousand times.

A: The top shelf, above the reach of most people, is where books go when nobody has asked for them in a year.

A: There is a small wooden step behind the counter for anybody who wants something from up there.

A: The student comes out of the back room with three books and a worried face.

A: She can afford two of them, and she has been doing the math for half an hour.

A: Teresa offers to put a book aside for her: the third one.

A: She writes the date on a piece of paper and puts it inside the front cover.

A: Then she stands the book behind the counter.

A: “Come back for it when you can,” she says. “It will be here.”

A: The student promises to come back for it on Monday, and she means it.

A: Teresa keeps books like this for a month, giving each customer plenty of time.

A: At six, the light outside fades and the street lamps come on, one after another.

A: Inside, the shop gets warmer and yellower and the corners go dark.

A: This is Teresa’s favorite hour. The nearly empty shop feels warm in the dim light.

A: The woman with the gray book comes to the counter at last.

A: She says she was not going to buy anything today.

A: She says she decided to read the first page and knew she wanted the book.

A: Teresa smiles and reads the pencil price inside the cover.

A: Four euros. The woman gives her five and does not wait for the change.

A: By twenty past six, the shop is empty.

A: Teresa straightens two shelves while she waits for half past six.

A: She pushes the poetry back together, where the gray book used to stand.

A: The student’s book stands behind the counter with the date inside it.

A: Tomorrow, somebody may come in and say the shop smells wonderful. Teresa will thank them and give them time to look around.

A: At half past six, she turns the sign. Then she turns off the lights at the back first, and the front last.

A: The window goes dark, and the books in it go on getting paler, slowly, for years.

Phrase review

A: Now, slowly, the ten phrases.

A: Secondhand books. Books somebody has owned before, and then sold again. Usually cheaper than new ones, and often called used books.

A: “Most of my books are secondhand.”

A: The smell of old paper. The dry, slightly sweet smell of old books in a room.

A: “I love the smell of old paper in that shop.”

A: To browse the shelves. To look slowly along the shelves without looking for one particular thing.

A: “I browsed the shelves for half an hour and bought nothing.”

A: To be out of print. The publisher does not print the book anymore, so there are no new copies. You can still find old ones.

A: “That one’s been out of print for years. You’d have to find it secondhand.”

A: To flip through a book. To turn the pages quickly, looking at a little of it here and there.

A: “She flipped through the book and put it back.”

A: The top shelf. The highest shelf, usually above your head and harder to reach.

A: “I can’t reach it. It’s on the top shelf.”

A: To put a book aside. To keep something separately for later. In a shop, it means keeping a book for one customer so nobody else buys it. You may also hear, “Could you hold it for me?”

A: “Could you put it aside for me until Friday?”

A: To come back for it. To return later and pick up something you left or reserved.

A: “I’ll come back for it tomorrow.”

A: To read the first page. To read the beginning, often to decide whether you want the book.

A: “I read the first page and knew I was going to buy it.”

A: Anything in particular means anything specific. In a shop, you may hear this question: “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

A: It asks whether you want one specific thing or are just looking.

A: “Are you looking for anything in particular?” “No, just browsing, thanks.”

Saturday, in a different town

A: Now a different shop, in a different town, on a Saturday morning.

A: Peter is forty-two and has forty minutes before he has to be somewhere.

A: He is early for a dentist appointment, which almost never happens to him.

A: The bookshop is between the parking lot and the dentist, and the door is open.

A: He has walked past it perhaps two hundred times and never once gone in.

A: The smell of old paper meets him at the door, and his shoulders begin to relax.

A: He was ten the last time he was in a shop like this, with his father, on a trip.

A: He had forgotten that completely until this second.

A: His father bought two books that day. They may still be in a box somewhere, waiting.

A: A young man at the counter says good morning and then leaves him alone, which is exactly right.

A: After a minute, he asks, “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

A: Peter says, “No, just browsing.”

A: “Take your time,” the young man says, and goes back to his screen.

A: So Peter goes along the shelves with no plan at all.

A: Travel, then cooking, then a section of old maps that he did not expect.

A: All the books are secondhand and cheaper than he expected.

A: He flips through a book about the sea for the photographs, then a book about trees.

A: At home, he usually reads on a screen for a few minutes. Here, he has both hands full of books and time to explore.

A: On the top shelf, above the maps, there is a row of small hard books with no titles on the spines.

A: He cannot reach them, but he decides not to ask for help today. “Next time,” he thinks, surprised that there will be a next time.

A: In the corner by the window there is a chair that is clearly not for sale.

A: An older woman is sitting in it with a book and a cup of something, entirely at home.

A: She looks up once, at nothing in particular, and goes back to her page.

A: Peter decides he would like to spend his Saturdays like that when he is older.

A: At the end of the second aisle he finds a novel he read at nineteen and never owned.

A: It is not the cover he remembers. It comes from a different decade, and somehow he likes it more.

A: He reads the first page standing up, and it is exactly as he remembers it, which is rare.

A: Three euros in pencil inside the front cover.

A: He takes it to the counter with eleven minutes left.

A: “It’s a good one,” the young man says. “I know,” Peter replies. Neither of them says more.

A: The book goes into a paper bag that is a little too big for it.

A: Outside, the street is bright and ordinary, with people enjoying their Saturday.

A: The dentist is two doors down, and he is still early.

A: He stands in the sun for a moment with a paper bag in his hand and no reason to hurry.

A: After the appointment, he will get in the car with a book on the passenger seat.

A: And on some other Saturday, he will come back for whatever is on that top shelf.

Quiet repetition

A: Now a few quiet questions. Try them in your mind, or just listen if you feel sleepy.

A: What do we call books that somebody has owned before and then sold again?

A: Secondhand books.

A: What do we call the dry, slightly sweet smell that meets you at the door of an old bookshop?

A: The smell of old paper.

A: The woman near the door moved slowly along the shelves for twenty minutes and took nothing down. What was she doing?

A: She was browsing the shelves.

A: The man wanted a book from the seventies, and the publisher does not print it anymore. What is it?

A: It’s out of print.

A: She turned the pages quickly, back to front, looking at a little here and there. What did she do?

A: She flipped through the book.

A: What do we call the highest shelf, above your head, where the poetry books are?

A: The top shelf.

A: The student could only afford two books. What did Teresa do with the third one?

A: She put the third book aside.

A: The student said she would return on Monday and pick it up. What did she say she would do?

A: She would come back for it.

A: The woman was not going to buy anything. Then she opened the book at the beginning and read what was there. What did she do?

A: She read the first page.

A: What does someone behind the counter ask to find out if you want one specific thing?

A: “Are you looking for anything in particular?”

An hour in a bookshop, more slowly

A: Now that hour again, more slowly. Nothing to remember this time. Just listen.

A: It is half past five, on a street where almost nothing happens.

A: You go in, and the smell of old paper is the first thing.

A: Dry and a little sweet. A little like dust, a little like wood.

A: One long room, with a smaller room at the back.

A: The shelves go to the ceiling, and the aisle is narrow.

A: Everything here is secondhand, and the prices are in soft pencil inside the covers.

A: Somebody asks you once, and then leaves you alone.

A: “Are you looking for anything in particular?” “No, just browsing, thanks.”

A: So you browse the shelves with no plan at all.

A: You take a thin gray book down and flip through it, back to front.

A: You put it back, and ten seconds later you take it down again.

A: Above your head there is the top shelf, where the poetry lives.

A: Books go up there when nobody has asked for them in a year.

A: There is a small wooden step for anybody who asks.

A: At the counter, somebody is having a book put aside.

A: The date goes inside the front cover, and the book waits behind the counter.

A: The student will come back for it, and it will be there.

A: At six the street lamps come on, one after another, down the whole street.

A: Inside, the shop gets warmer and yellower, and the corners go dark.

A: You were not going to buy anything today.

A: You had no plan, and nowhere you had to be.

A: Then you read the first page.

A: Four euros, in pencil, in a handwriting that has not changed in twenty-five years.

Final phrases and goodnight

A: The ten phrases, one last time.

A: Secondhand books.

A: The smell of old paper.

A: To browse the shelves.

A: To be out of print.

A: To flip through a book.

A: The top shelf.

A: To put a book aside.

A: To come back for it.

A: To read the first page.

A: Anything in particular.

A: That’s all for today. Thank you for listening.

A: If you’d like to practice these phrases later, the link is below.

A: Enjoy the rest of your afternoon or evening, wherever you are.