Customers 36

A mom and her grown son approached the counter. She was wearing a pink sweater and jeans, he was wearing a white t-shirt and grey shorts.

The mom put a copy of 50 SHADES OF GREY on the counter next to the register.

"Is everyone and their mother buying this?", asked the son.

"Well, not everyone and their mother," I replied. "It's pretty..." I hesitated.

"...hot and heavy?", the mother said, finishing my sentence.

"Yes." I said.

The son replied, "You're getting my wife hooked on crack, Mom," the son said, blushing.

The mom's face turned as pink as her sweater. "Yes, well," she said, and grabbed the book, handed it to her son, and said, "I just think she should read it." The son, still blushing, shook his head as they walked out.

"Have a good day," I said.

*******************************

I answered the phone at the bookstore...

"How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a book? I can give you the author? The author's first name is Leo, the first name is Leo. The last name is, um, here, I'll spell it for you..."

My first thought was Leo Buscaglia, not being an easy name to pronounce.

"So the first name is Leo, and the last name...it's T, as in Tom, O - L - S, as in Sam, - T, as in Tom, O - Y. Tolstoy? And the title of the book is, um, Anna, um..." She trailed off.

"Karenina?", I finished for her.

"Yes! You know it? Oh, that's great!"

"Yes, I do know it. We have several different versions in the store. It's published by many different publishers and has different formats and different translators, translating it from the Russian."

"Different translators? Oh, I didn't know...I don't know which one I need. It's for my book group."

"They all tell the same story, and usually book groups aren't particular about having the same exact version. Classes for school often require a specific version."

"I don't know what they want. Oh dear. I'll have to get more information from the group. Oh, thank you for your help! I'll have to call you back!"

"Sure, good luck!"

*****************************

A customer called and asked for the book, NIGHT WEASEL. The book he wanted was NIGHT, by Eli Wiesel.

Several of us from the store where I used to work are on a weekly trivia team. Each team has a name. We are the Night Weasels.

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Please, Keep Reading!

When I taught third grade, one of my goals every year was to get my kids to read more. To this end, I scheduled 20 minutes every day for the class to read. I had a classroom library where kids could find a good book to read. As homework, I also required that they read for one hour over the week-end. The parents loved this. Some of the kids loved this.

Some kids did not love this. They weren't big readers, so sitting for 20 whole minutes with nothing to do but read was torture. They'd squirm. They'd fidget. There was sighing. There was eye rolling. I told them they had to find something to read, something they'd enjoy reading. They could get a book from the classroom library, they could read a comic book or a magazine. But they had to be reading for those 20 minutes.

I had the philosophy that getting kids to read anything, even if it wouldn't be my first choice of reading material for them, was a good thing. They could get into the practice of reading and later we could work on the quality of their reading material.

As the year progressed, even these reluctant readers would settle in and read. They even started liking it.

When Harry Potter came out, even though I was no longer teaching, I was thrilled. This series got kids reading, and reading a lot. Talking about the books and the characters. But mostly it got kids wanting to read more. Rowling did an excellent job in creating a magical world, and kids devoured it.

And then there was Twilight. Yes, people (often young girls) were reading, and reading and rereading these books, so I should have been happy, right? Kids were reading.

But Bella is such a poor protagonist. She broods. She pines. She puts her life on hold to wait for Edward. "I love him. I know he's dangerous and loving him could hurt me, but I love him." bleah.

And now there is the 50 Shades of Grey craze. People are reading. Lots of people are reading.

People come into the bookstore for the first time ever (they tell us this) looking for this book. People for whom this will be the first book they've purchased (they tell us this too) and the only book they purchase - unless, of course, they buy the rest of the series.

Is this a good thing?

Here again, people are reading. So many people are reading this series. This poorly written, unhealthy portrayal of women and relationships is taking the country by storm. (see this article for a great explanation of why I do not like this series: http://screencrush.com/50-shades-of-grey-movie/)

What bothers me is that so many of the people reading 50 Shades of Grey are not readers. And they are adults. This is their only idea of a literary romance. This is their idea of a good book.

My previous philosophy would hope that people might get started reading, even if they are reading books I think are rather less than good quality.

I really hope that people reading 50 Shades of Grey keep reading. I sincerely hope that this series is not their only vision of a literary relationship.

I hope that they get other ideas of what a relationship is. How about David Levithan's LOVER'S DICTIONARY? Or John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS? Or THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by Audrey Niffenegger? Or WUTHERING HEIGHTS? Or LOVE STORY by Erich Segal? Or STARDUST by Neil Gaiman? Or even, though his books are pretty sweet for me, Nicholas Sparks?

What other literary romances do you hope that people read?

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More 50 Shades of Grey

At the bookstore we occasionally have clearance sales on books and gift items. They are often items that haven't sold that well. Occasionally we might find something wonderful in the selection, but most often clearance items aren't all that exciting. Clearance items are marked with a large red dot sticker.

One day last week a woman came up to the register. She had brown hair, pulled up in a ponytail and was wearing cargo shorts. She was pushing a stroller with a baby in it and two boys, maybe aged three and four, were with her. She was carrying a boxed set of the 50 SHADES OF GREY trilogy. In a kind of whiny voice, I heard the oldest of the boys say...

"But Mom, you said that if you got something, then we could get something too."

The Mom responded, "Yes, I know, but honey, remember? We like the books that have the red dots of them, and they don't have any of those right now, so you don't get anything today."

The boy said, "Yeah. I remember." His shoulders slumped.

I thought it was kind of sad.

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50 Shades of Grey

I haven't really talked about 50 SHADES OF GREY on the blog yet. Ever since it was featured on the Today show, people have come in droves to the bookstore asking for this book. It has certainly been in my awareness.

Lauded and blasted, it, along with the two subsequent books in the trilogy, 50 SHADES DARKER and 50 SHADES FREED, feature a main character who gets involved with a very charismatic and attractive man. The relationship starts out as a dominating, S & M, and very sexual relationship, and evolves into one where Ana stands up for herself and has a Hallmark ending.

                 

Evidently, that is. I haven't read it. (Okay, I read one racy part - and it was pretty racy as well as some poorly written dialogue.) One of our booksellers started it, but couldn't finish; she said she couldn't get through the poor writing. She couldn't even make it to the sex scenes. One of our managers at the store read the set ("Way to take one for the team," said another bookseller when she manager told us she'd read the entire trilogy).

What's been my favorite part of this whole 50 Shades frenzy is having people come to the bookstore asking for it. Not everyone knows what the books are about.

Here is a recent customer interaction...

A young woman, long blond hair in a braid, green zip sweatshirt and jeans, maybe in her 20's, and a woman, who might have been her mother, with wavy blond hair, an off-white sweater with a matching lacy blouse, pearls, and nice make-up came up to the register. They were buying a wedding magazine and a wedding planner.

"Did you find everything you were looking for?," I asked.

"Yes we did...oh wait!", the older woman said. There is one other book I wanted to see...50 SHADES OF GREY. Do you know about it?"

"Oh yes," I paused.

"And...you're out of it?" She looked disappointed.

"Oh no," I said. "We have hundreds of copies. Would you like me to get someone to get one for you?"

"Well, I'd like to know what it's about. Do you know anything about it?", she asked.

"I do. It's pretty sexually explicit." I paused. "It has some S&M in it."

"What?? It is??? It does???" She stammered. "The woman who told me about this, a friend of mi...well, she's really an acquaintance...she didn't tell me that."

The younger woman looked at her and said, "Do you know what S&M is?"

"Yes. I know what that is," she said, eyes wide, looking shocked.

"What did your friend tell you about the book?", I asked.

"She said that it was great and that every woman should read it and I should go get it right away and she wasn't going to tell me any more about it," she said.

"Well, lots of people are buying it, that's for sure," I said. "But it has got the S&M aspect to it and some people are calling it mommy porn. The main character gets into a relationship where she is dominated. I understand that by the end of the third book she does come out of it and is able to stand up for herself..."

"Porn? That's not what I thought the book was at all," she said.

"What did you think it was from what your friend said?", I asked.

"I thought it was some sort of helpful book, that it would give you ideas for how to improve yourself or something, tell you how to do things or something."

"It might tell you how to do certain things," I said. "Did you want to take a look at it?"

"Oh no!", she said, emphatically. "I can't believe she told me to get that book," she said. "I guess I don't know her very well. And obviously she doesn't know me very well."

Clicking on the book covers will take you to Amazon's page for each book. Clicking on the underlined book titles may take you to Barnes and Noble's page for each book. The BN links have been temperamental. Purchasing through these links helps support the blog. And no one will know you bought these particular titles, even if you purchase them through the links here. Thanks for stopping by!