Choosing a Book to Donate

For our holiday book drive, we're asking customers to donate books that we will give to a school in the area that has been flooded several times.

One of my co-workers was talking to a man about the book drive, "The school was flooded, and we're trying to help them build up their library. I have some books here, and there are some back here..." she pointed to the shelves behind her, full of dozens of children's books.

"I'd like to donate, I'm just not sure which one," the man with greying hair, wearing a long brown raincoat and brown hat, said.

She pointed to the book closest to her register, "There's this one. They could learn about lightning."

      

"Sure," the man said, "that's a good idea. They already know about flooding."

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Customers 34

A woman, late 20's or early 30's, long dark hair and wearing a red sweater came to the counter to purchase two books. One was SEX 365 positions. The other was Melody Beattie's CODEPENDENT NO MORE.

             

"Is there anywhere else in the store where I'd find books like this?", she said, pointing to the sex book. "It's for a bachelorette party."

"You got this in the Sex and Love section?", I asked. "That's pretty much where those kinds of books will be. Our bargain section might have something like that and there is a wedding section and that has some bride and groom game kinds of things, but mostly related to weddings."

"No, it's for the bachelorette party," she said. "This will be great, I just wondered if there was somewhere else to look. This other one is for me. I'm getting divorced and this was recommended to me by my therapist."

"Well, it's a good one," I said. "Melody Beattie is really the pioneer on codependence." I paused.

"It's kind of weird that I'm buying them both together, isn't it?", she said, smiling.

"I guess," I said, smiling back at her. "Would you like a bag?"

"I'm going straight back to work, I need a bag!", she said, blushing a little.

As I put the books in the bag, I saw that the cover of the sex book was visible through the plastic. "Here', I'll turn this over so no one can see it."

"THANKS!", she said.

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

A woman with light brown hair, wearing a light blue shirt came to the counter. She had two children with her. She looked tired. She was buying a set of two mini lap desks, one blue and one black.

"If only they were the same color," she said.

"You want them the same color?", I asked. "With different colors then they can tell which one is theirs."

"No," she said, "With different colors they fight over who gets which color. Having them the same color is better."

"Now that you mention it, my cousin did that with beach towels. She got the whole family the same color and design, and that way she could easily scoop them up at the beach or the pool. It made it easier for her," I said.

"Exactly. When the kids were littler? We had all the different sets of plates? Some were Toy Story, some were Disney, some were Winnie the Pooh. The fighting never stopped. I got rid of those. Now? The dishes and plates are blue."

"Well, good luck with the lap desks" I said.

"Thanks," she said.

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April Fool's Day at the Bookstore

I do like to have a bit of fun at the bookstore on April Fool's Day.

This year I made up some customer holds and put them on our holds shelves for staff to find. Hold slips are printed out with the customer's last name printed vertically on a piece of paper, so that when wrapped around a book, the name reads down the spine. In addition, there are spaces for first name, phone number and email. I chose books where the name would (hopefully) be distinctive enough to catch the attention of other booksellers, as well as being appropriate to the book (or item) to be held. We also had to have more than one copy of the book on hand in case someone really did come in to purchase the book. Here are some of the holds that are on the shelf:

Tiger Woods has the book, GOLF TIPS, by Golf Digest magazine on hold.
            

Hermione Granger has the Hermione Granger wand on hold, under her email address: hgranger@hogwarts.edu.
            

Christopher Robin has THE COMPLETE TALES OF WINNIE THE POOH on hold, under the email: christopherrobin@hundredacrewood.com.
            

Bilbo Baggins has a copy of THE HOBBIT on hold.
            

Tyler Durden is holding a copy of FIGHT CLUB.
            

Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding a copy of STRENGTH TRAINING ANATOMY.
            

GRANDMOTHER'S BEST RECIPES is being held under "Nana".
            

Arthur Conan Doyle has THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES (in leather!) on hold.
            

Katniss Everdeen is reserving a copy of THE HUNGER GAMES.
            

Hugh Hefner has THE JOY OF SEX on hold.
            

BUDGET WEDDINGS FOR DUMMIES is on hold for K Kardashian (I figured that any one of those sisters could use this book).
            

Michelle Duggar has reserved TAKING CHARGE OF YOUR FERTILITY.
            

And Tony Soprano reserved a copy of THE GODFATHER.
            

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Little Messages

         IF YOU BUY THIS BOOK YOU ARE A
         CERTIFIED CONSERVITIVE ASS CLOWN


We found strips of cardstock with this message printed on it sticking out of several of our titles by conservative authors (and yes, on the strip the word 'conservative' was spelled incorrectly). This happens pretty regularly, though most often the little messages usually slam liberal leaning books.

We find religious tracts in books by liberal authors, or in the Gay/Lesbian section of our store. People will move copies of The Bible to The New Age section, or place a Bible in front of a book about a liberal president or politician. They might turn all front facing books of a particular title backward, so customers can't see the title. It's as though they think that their strategically placed messages will change people's minds. Or maybe it's just to get people riled up.

At the store, we find it kind of amusing to see what people come up with to try to get their message across. I have to recommend spell-check, though.

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...And More Customers

There's an elderly Asian gentleman that comes in few times a week to buy a New York Times and a Wall Street Journal. He's very soft-spoken, always gets the same thing. One day a very tall, not Asian man came in with a piece of paper. He asked for the New York Times and a Wall Street Journal. I told him I thought I knew who they were for. He said yes, he was buying them for a friend who was in the hospital. The not Asian man came in for several weeks, buying the newspapers for his friend. I told him to tell him that we missed him and that we hope he's doing better. A few days later the Asian gentleman came in, moving slowly, looking a little pale, but up and around. I told him how good it was to see him and hoped he was doing better. He smiled and seemed pleased to be remembered.

Since then sometimes it's been the Asian gentleman and sometimes the not Asian gentleman who buy the newspapers. This week it was the Asian gentleman. I hope he's getting better.

A middle-aged couple came in and asked for the death and grieving section. As we walked over to the section, they said they needed something about losing a child. I pointed out a few titles dealing specifically with the loss of a child. They said, "But our son wasn't a kid, he was 22." I said that he's still their child, and many of the books talk about losing one's child, and that the age of the child didn't necessarily matter. "He was killed in Iraq.", they said. "He was our only son." "I'm so sorry.", I said. They were crying. I was crying. I pointed out a few more titles, said I was sorry again and walked away. Their picture was on the front page of the paper the next day, sitting at their son's funeral.

A girl about 10 years old and her dad came up to the register. One of the books they were purchasing was a book about Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. The girl said, "That's for my friend. She has a brain tumor. She loves Twilight." I told her I thought it was nice of her to be getting her a book she knows she'll enjoy. "She named her tumor. She named it Fred. This is the second time the tumor has come back. She's in the hospital. She really likes Twilight. This'll be great." I told her I liked that she named her tumor. And that I hope she enjoys the book. "She WILL!"

A woman was looking for a baby book. She was looking for a particular baby book (that we didn't have). As another option, I told her about what another customer had done for Mother's Day. The other customer's sister was having a baby girl, so she bought 5 pink blank journals for herself and her mother and other relatives to write in about this new baby girl. I thought it was a marvelous idea. The customer yesterday thought so too, "IF people would write in it." She said her family members wouldn't write in it. She has four grandchildren and none of them have baby books. This new baby that's coming is the first one for this daughter. "She WILL keep a baby book. She's just one of those who think keeping traditions going is a good thing, so she will do it." She talked about how she kept baby books for all of her kids. Some of her kids ask her about their kids, "when did he start walking?", they'll ask her. "That's why you write it down", she says to them. She's thrilled that this daughter will be keeping a baby book, and she didn't seem to mind that we didn't have the one she wanted.

A young man wearing a leather jacket and carrying a motorcycle helmet was looking for a book for his mother. She likes thrillers, has read Michael Crichton and liked him. We chatted for a while about what she's read, how Michael Crichton kind of has his own niche, with almost biological thrillers. He then asked if I liked Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. "I loved it.", I said. "So did I." I told him that there is a sequel to it (World Without End); he hadn't known about a sequel. I told him I didn't like it, as it was set 100 years after Pillars of the Earth and all the people I liked in the first one died. I just couldn't get into it. He ended up taking Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol, which I liked and sounded to him like something his mom would enjoy.

Our store is doing a book drive for children in foster care. A young-ish man with long hair and a beard came up. He was purchasing two books of gay erotica. I told him that we're doing a book drive for kids in foster care, and asked if he'd like to donate a book. "Oh, wow, that's cool. I was a foster child." He bought Holes by Louis Sachar for the book drive. "This was my favorite book when I was a kid."