It’s Follow Friday! Yes, again. A new one comes ’round every week, I’ll have you know. Come see what Twitter account we think you should be following this week: Waterstones on Oxford Street!
What It Is
Waterstones is sort of like the British equivalent of Barnes and Noble, which operates 288 different stores across the UK and Europe. Though they have an official twitter for the whole company, some locations also have their own account as well, including one very special Waterstones on Oxford Street in London.
Why you should follow
“But Victoria,” you’re probably saying to yourself. “I don’t live in the United Kingdom. I am nowhere near Oxford Street in London. Why should I care about what one specific location of a bookstore chain that I will most likely never visit?” Because for some mysterious and wonderful reason that science can’t get explain, Jonathan O’Brien, who runs the social media profiles for this pleasant little store, gets to do whatever the heck he wants.
As a result, the Waterstones Oxford Street Twitter feed is often hilarious, surreal, and incredibly relevant to whatever else is happening on the Internet. If you’re a fan of books, dry British humor, long-winded and oddly abstract stories told entirely in 140-character bursts, and Twitch Plays Pokémon references, then you need to be following this bookstore on Twitter.
Great recent tweets
‘Bookseller!’ the books shouts. ‘It’s #WorldBookDay! Make us a sandwich!’ ‘But you don’t eat,’ I say. ‘SANDWICH,’ they reply.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) March 6, 2014
BOOK FACT: The word ‘book’ originally comes from the word ‘bookington’. In fact, no, it didn’t. That’s absurd. Sorry for wasting your time.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) February 28, 2014
Some kid in a red cap just walked in. Then out. Then in again. Then walked into a shelf. He keeps on muttering the word ‘Helix’ to himself. — WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) February 18, 2014
And here’s one of those lengthy stories we told you about earlier:
I’m having one of those work days when you regret creating hyper-intelligent human-bird hybrids to do your job for you.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) January 23, 2014
At first it’s great! Everyone’s smiling, the creatures are flying around getting books for people. All healthy and wholesome fun. But then..
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) January 23, 2014
Then the hybrids start to want lunch breaks and payment. When you say no, they start grabbing people and taking them to their sky lair.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) January 23, 2014
The next thing, they turn the people they’ve taken into hideous monsters which they use to invade London. And everybody blames Waterstones.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) January 23, 2014
Well, I’m sorry if, in trying to improve customer service, I’ve doomed us all to a life of slavery to the monstrous Bird People. I’m sorry.
— WaterstonesOxfordSt (@WstonesOxfordSt) January 23, 2014
Aw, that’s okay, Waterstones. You tried your best.
(via Waterstones Oxford Street on Twitter)
- Last week we recommended Abigail Harrison, who hangs out with astronauts
- Then we were down with Phil Plait, the “Bad Astronomer”
- Before that it was John Scalzi, writer/awesome person extraordinaire
