Happy Belated Thanksgiving

I've been in the process of moving for the last few days so I apologize for the belated Thanksgiving (to all those in the United States, a very, very belated Thanksgiving to all you Canadians, and to everyone else, happy weekend). Between getting the house ready to move into and trying to weed through four years of accumulated stuff, blogging has been the last thing I've had energy for. Once we get internet at the new place though we should be back up and running.

Can’t see the Books for the Trees: A bookstore experience

I’m hanging out in a bookstore the other day, waiting on a car swap when I happened to overhear a cell phone conversation going on a couple sections over. A woman with serious cell phone voice* was talking to her daughter.

“What table was it on?”

She asked this about three times as she circled some display tables.

“I don’t see it, what was it called again?”

More circling of the tables before wandering into the children’s section.

“Honey, I don’t see any book by that title.”

Back when I was bookselling this would have been my cue to pop over and ask if she needed help finding anything, but as I was no longer bookselling I just continued to eavesdrop as it was obvious that the daughter WANTED THIS BOOK (yes, the caps were necessary).

“Honey, I just don’t see a book called Twilight anywhere. Are you sure that’s the title?”

Suddenly it was all becoming clear—but even clearer then the daughter’s need to read the book all of her friends had was the huge display of Stephanie Meyer’s books on one of the tables the woman had looked at. I’m talking gigantic, with the books in a water fall display down over the side of the table to the floor with Twilight in both paperback editions playing a central part.

“I just don’t see it. You’re going to have to come to the store with me next time and we’ll look then.”

Call it latent bookselling syndrome or whatever, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed a copy of the trade sized Twilight** off the table and walked over to where the woman was still talking.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I think you’re looking for this.” I held it out to her in a manner—now that I think of it—reminiscent of the book’s cover with its apple. As I walked away I heard her tell her daughter:

“Some girl heard us talking and just found it for me.”

She also handed you the more expensive copy, lady, but bookstores can use all the up-sells they can get right now.

*Cell Phone Voice: the phenomenon where cell phones users voice automatically becomes three decibels louder when they are having a conversation on their phone. Note: Studies have shown that Cell Phone Voice is not necessarily a reflection of the quality of reception the user is experiencing.

**I’m anti Movie Tie in (MTI) covers as for the most part they are ugly. The Twilight MTI cover makes me think that Robert Pattinson is contemplating eating my face.