Friday, April 14, 2006

Booksellers of the world unite in laughter!

Found via Booksquare:

Stop Me If You've Read This*
(Publishers often repeat book titles, which can be confusing.)

No, really? There are books out there with the same title? There are new books out there with the same title? I hadn't noticed. Nope, not at all. I mean, it's not like I didn't have to deal with this at least FOUR times today (and I wasn't even out on the floor that much) or anything.

Sheesh.

Reason # 6,271 why you should always come armed with the title and the author for the book, so some bookseller isn't left reading off a page or nine of the same title.

(And telling me that it is also blue doesn't help in most cases.)

The sad part of this is that after I stopped laughing I remembered all the times when customers have given me a title and I've taken them to the book only to be told, "That's not what I'm looking for."

They then wander around the store for awhile only to appear later with a book of a similar title (not the same, mind you, but one sharing some of the words) and say, "This is the book," in a way that really says, "Gee dumbass, this is clearly what I said and you screwed up and wasted all this time for me. I had to find it myself, you incompetent cur!"

Oh joyous, joyous retail.


*I am highly amused by the story of the guy who tried to sue over the use of "his" title. I wonder if someone should tell him that he can't copyright ideas either.

2 comments:

lady t said...

I hear you,BSC-I've had the pleasure of trying to explain to someone"There are about ten different books with that title-do you know the author's name?"

"No,but it sounds like/begins with/a woman wrote it...."

Subject doesn't always help either,since certain genres tend to use similar titles-trying finding just one mystery novel that has "death" in the title and I'll eat my hat:)

jaunty said...

Sorry if it upsets your paradigm but I honestly can't tell you how many times I've found the "magic book" in question by asking my customer "What color is it?" Yes it's a holdover from my days in used book-land but it works for me.

And again, sometimes you just get lucky. One of my fave scores ever happened in Dec 2004, when a customer described the "magic book's" title as "something & something." I already had my coat on i.e. leaving for the day, but I took a look at the customer, thought for a moment & asked "is it Kavalier and Clay?"--& it was.

Bless the happy accidents...