Book Assault is a Very Serious Charge / part 2
the customer was nowhere near as cool as this guy A while back a guy came up to the desk, his trendy man-purse (really—man-purse; it was a third the size of your average messenger bag, so it was a...
View ArticleSo You Want to Work in a Bookstore: Lesson 1 | Joan
I pick up the phone. I know the customer’s voice. She likes to call and talk about RL Stine’s ‘Fear Street’ series and to ask about Lois Duncan novels. Once we tell her what couple of titles for...
View ArticleSo You Want to Work in a Bookstore: Lesson 2 | the Captain
A customer who looks like an emaciated Wilfred Brimley comes up to me. I have a stack of about a dozen books in my hands. I’ve just picked them up after trying unsuccessfully for an hour to shelve...
View ArticleSo You Want to Work in a Bookstore: Lesson 3 | the Chief
This guy looks a lot like one of my little league coaches, the one affectionately referred to as ‘Chief Swings-the-Bat.’ Think Gary Farmer if you ever saw Dead Man. No? The Score? C’mon, that was...
View ArticleSo You Want to Work in a Bookstore: Lesson 4 | the Captain (again)
This is the Captain: the Prequel. Christmas 2012. My first experience with the legend himself. If I asked a few of the booksellers I’ve worked with over the years, I’d probably have more stories...
View ArticleSo You Want to Work in a Bookstore for Xmas? | Here’s to Re-Reading the Wimpy...
If you’re not going to listen to what I tell you, then why did you ask me in the first place? This one’s for all those customers that will ask for a book and then question everything I do to find it...
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