Bookstore Moment

The phone rings. I pick it up, give my usual greeting. I'm juggling an armload of history books and watching more customers walk in the store with things to sell back. It's been crazy all day, and I'm stressed and sweaty and sore and I really need to get downstairs to check these history books because there are stacks of other things to be looked at and added up still waiting on the counter...and I'm really hoping that the customer on the phone just wants to know our hours or something because there's so much to do and I need to hurry up and do it...and do you know what the oh-so-pressing question is that this customer has? The question which was so important she had to call us up and make sure before she came all the way to our store?

"Do you carry John Grisham?"

...

Head + Desk = Satisfying Thud.

Yes ma'am, we carry John Grisham. In paperback and hardback, and in multiple copies. Or would you like a free collection of Grisham novels someone donated to the store this morning? Or perhaps the collection someone donated yesterday, which we've already thrown in the dumpster out back? (For that matter, check the dumpster down your street. Grisham novels have been known to spontaneously appear there.) We are, after all, a bookstore.

Bookstore Moment

So, I've always heard tales of people requesting odd books, getting titles wrong in strange ways, and in general getting literary information very, very mixed up, but I've never really had to deal with these bizarre mistakes myself.

Well, I guess I can't really say that anymore. Today I was shelving a stack of graphic novels (all very mediocre and cheap) when a woman walks up to me and asks if we have a book by "Alex Scrub".

"Alex Scrub"? Well, needless to say, I'm not familiar with the author, so I ask if she knows what "Alex Scrub" writes. I'm assuming young adult, but she doesn't seem to know- she's looking for the writer for her brother. Ok then, we'll go ask the computer. Let's see what books "Alex Scrub" has written so I can help her find them.

Well, an Amazon search for "Alex Scrub" doesn't turn up any hits, so she calls her brother to make sure she has the writer's name right.

"Alice"? Alice? Alice in Wonderland? Is she looking for a title, not an author?

"Oh, no, no, Atlas!" Atlas? What? "Atlas Shrugged! Do you have a book called Atlas Shrugged?"

"Upstairs in classic literature, ma'am. You'll see it first thing on your right. Have a good day."

Most Beautiful Bookstores in the World

I found this link on Bookfinder.com's journal. I think my favorite is the bookstore in Portugal (it's the one shown above)!

http://www.miragebookmark.ch/most-interesting-bookstores.htm

That link also lead me to a link for the most interesting libraries in the world. Here's one in Seattle.

http://www.miragebookmark.ch/most-interesting-libraries.htm