A Day in the Life

A woman in her late 40's or early 50's was checking out at the register. She was purchasing a book in one (of the many) teen vampire series. She looked at the Twilight graphic novel displayed at my register and she picked it up. "How can you beat Twilight?," she said. I've been reading these other series, but none of them come close to Twilight. I can't wait for her next book, I love her writing."

A young man approached me at the Information desk. "I'm looking for a book to read, do you have any recommendations for someone my age, 18 or 19?," he said. "What do you like to read?," I asked. He said, "Mysteries. Thrillers. That kind of thing usually." I showed him Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders, which is supposed to be a good read. Then I showed him Chuck Palahnuik which, while he doesn't really write thrillers, his books do seem to appeal to people his age. "He wrote Fight Club and Choke," I said. "And he's local. Super nice guy, does great book signings, if you get a chance to go. My son has read all of his books and really likes them." He seemed sort of interested, but not really. So I moved onto Christopher Moore. "Some of his books are about something, like A Dirty Job is 'about' death, and Lamb is 'about' religion but they are really funny and kind of wacky. I recommend taking whichever ones you're interested and starting to read them here. If you like them, then good. If not, then they aren't good for you right now." He came up to me later and asked to put the Matthew Reilly book and A Dirty Job on hold, and thanked me for my help.
Satisfying.

A woman in her 60's or 70's approached me...
"The people they talk about on channel 48 have some books. Where are they?" "I don't know what channel 48 is," I replied. "It's Fox News," she said. "Ah. Well, Sean Hannity has a new book that's at the front of the store, but most of the authors featured on Fox will be in Current Affairs, arranged by author," I said as I directed her to the section. She thanked me and headed to the section. About 10 minutes later she approached me again, this time with a sheet of paper. Randomly written all over it at all angles, in pencil, were what looked like authors and book titles. "I'm looking for a book called The Ultimate Solution by Joshua Cooper." I searched and searched, using key words, then exact titles, and couldn't get anything to come up by a Joshua Cooper. As I was searching, she kept saying, "Joshua. Cooper. It's Cooper. Ultimate Solution, by Joshua Cooper." I told her I was having trouble finding it, she said, looking down at her sheet, "Try this...The Age of the Unthinkable." So I did, and found The Age of the Unthinkable written by a Joshua Ramo.
So close, really. I don't understand how I couldn't find it before.

A co-worker came up and asked if I'd read any Stephen King. "The Stand," I said. "That doesn't help," she said. She said a kid asked her to find a Stephen King book that was blue and had a picture of an eye on the cover and it was about a ouija board. He didn't know any of the words in the title, and it was an old book. She was trying to google it, she was frustrated because she HAD read most of Stephen King, and didn't know which one it was. His books get reprinted all the time with new covers and new designs, which makes it really hard to find a book of his by the cover art, without knowing a little more about it. When I left her, she was still trying to find it.

One of the managers came up to me and said, "Oh, I hate it when people do that. They put books from one section in another section...this time they've put bibles and the Sarah Palin book faced out in the gay and lesbian section. Yep, that'll do it. There won't be any more gays or lesbians because they'll see those bibles and Sarah Palin books and change their minds. Yep."

A woman and a young girl were looking for a book about a particular dog. "H-a-c-h...and then something. It's that Japanese dog," she said. "Is it the name of the dog or the kind of dog?," I asked. "It's the dog's name," she said. A co-worker searched on the computer for Japanese dog and got Hachiko. The woman continued, "This dog met his owner at the train station every day when he came home from work. One day the owner died, but the dog kept meeting the train every day for ten years!" We did have one book about the dog, which she purchased. I looked up the story about the dog when I got home, sure enough, even though the dog was only 2 years old when his owner died, he waited at the train station every day for ten years, and died at that same spot. This was in 1924. There is a statue of the dog at the train station in Japan.
What a great story!