What is the thesis of George Orwell's "Bookshop Memories"?

Orwell's essay describes his time working in a used book store. Orwell disliked working at the store; seen up close and en masse, books by the thousands became "boring and even slightly sickening." Orwell also notes that "truly bookish" people were few and far between. In fact, much of the essay is about the kinds of customers that would come into the store. From his position as bookseller, Orwell got a first-hand look at the actual British reading public and the kinds of uses people had for books. What he found is that the psychology of reading, or of pretending to be a reader, is complex and has little to do with quality literature.

One example is the person who would find an expensive and rare book, invent a story about why they had no money to pay for it, and demand that it be set aside for them to pick up later, only to never return. Orwell wonders about the motivations of such people, who never attempted to steal the books but simply wanted to reserve them somehow—he says they enjoyed the "illusion of spending real money." Orwell also notes that it was useless to stock the store's lending library with classic English novels, since no one would want to read Dickens or Austen. On the other hand, it was "easy" to sell Dickens to people, who saw owning a set of the novels as a kind of emblem of respectability, but had no intention of actually reading them. Most people, he finds, do not want to be challenged in their reading.

What are your critical thoughts on George Orwell's "Bookshop Memories"?

In this essay, Orwell describes and comments on his time working in a secondhand bookshop in London. The essay is an assessment of the type of reader who frequents a used bookstore, the type of books they read, and the economics of the books business, as well the effect of bookselling on Orwell.

To write a critical essay, you would give a quick summary of Orwell's essay, as shown above, comment on its themes, and examine the language and style Orwell uses, finally evaluating the essay in your conclusion.

One of Orwell's themes is that many people have poor taste in reading, avoiding classic authors. He comments as well that bookstores attract strange people, whom he calls "paranoiacs," who are not really interested in buying books. A major theme that emerges at the end is that working in a bookshop ruins Orwell's love of books and desire to own them. You might note that he borrows this theme from Mark Twain's famous essay "Two Ways of Seeing a River," in which Twain talks about how his romantic views of the beauty of the Mississippi fade after he gets a job on a steamboat.

As for language, Orwell uses simple, straightforward prose that is easy to understand, and includes details that help place you in the scene. For example, he notes that bookshops are cold because otherwise the windows will steam up and people won't be able to see the books on display. He creates a pleasing sense of rhythm despite his plain language by using alliteration, placing words beginning with the same consonant close to each other: an example is when he writes that the shop is visited by people of all classes, from "baronets to bus-conductors," or when he notes in the first sentence "the rarity of really bookish people."

You might conclude that while Orwell, writing in the 1930s, uses some language that might seem racist—a reference to "orientals"—or sexist today, overall the essay holds up well as an entertaining and insightful slice-of-life commentary.