Possible Job # 2: Work in Bookshop

I have always found the thought of working in a shop very attractive. When I was a child I would set up shop and try to sell things to my siblings. Then again, I also wrote magazines and newspapers and tried to sell them too (which reminds me of the time I sold a year's subscription for a monthly magazine that was only published twice!), but that is beside the point. Maybe I am a shop girl at heart, and working in a bookshop/DVD rental store or cinema would certainly bring me closer to the things I love. If I worked in a bookshop I might even be able to persuade them to sell my books or host a themed book night once a month (don't ask me what that would entail, it has only just occurred to me, but it sounds like a good idea). However, there are downsides. Having never worked in retail, I would enter at the lowest end of the wage scale and the hours would be long and demanding, as working with the public all day is draining. This would leave less time for writing with less pay off on the money end. I also imagine that the reality of working in a bookshop would be very different from my fantasy (which entails rummaging through boxes of old and dusty books to find magical treasures and spending coffee breaks discussing the deeper meaning of the spider in Richard Matheson's The Shrinking Man). And I have yet to find a book shop that is hiring (although I haven't looked very hard).