New illustrations

Banned Book Week

It's that time of year again!

I can honestly say I take more pride in being a Bookseller this week than most other weeks. It's Banned Book week. (Yes, that's still a thing.)

So for those of you who don't know what banning a book means, it is when some crazy person decides they don't like a book and thus start a petition to get that book removed from public spaces such as libraries and public school systems. The reasoning can be anything from the use of less than desirable language to the undesirable depiction of women in potions of power (which is why The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was originally banned. No, not joking.)

So of course, as a sane member of society, I absolutely abhor this practice with a fiery burning passion of a thousand super novas. Don't get me wrong, there are some books that frankly should never see the light of day and I will use what ever means necessary to keep from reading those books. And that's the point. It's so I don't have to read it. There is a very simple way in order to make sure a book does not affect your life or bring influence into it:

Don't. Read. It. You. Idiot.

 "I don't like what this book has to say. Of course, the most logical action to take is to make sure no one else reads it either since I have the universal opinion on everything ever."

WRONG

"I don't like what this book has to say. Of course, I will just put it down and find another book which I can read in delight and then share that delight in order to make the world a better place."

RIGHT

No one will ever have the right to tell another functioning human being what they should read based on personal preference. (I use the word functioning here to mean a person who is not wholly dependent on their parents. Looking at you teenagers. Listen to your parents until you move out and can read whatever you like.)

So, here is the link to more information to banned books. I'll be writing every day this week to talk about a different banned book that you should read, just because someone doesn't want you too.

http://www.ala.org/bbooks/

The Next Generation

There are very few things that make me as happy as when kids come into the bookstore. And kids kids, not teenage kids. Teenagers suck the intelligence out of everything they touch like idiotic sponges. (Disclaimer: I'm sure there are smart teenagers out there someplace. Well hidden and biding there time before they blossom into humans and shed their post pubescent shell of ignorance and triviality)

But when KIDS come into the store.
Win.
Because they get so excited! Grown ups, while yes they love getting new books, love getting suggestions, love hunting the shelves for a new life changing tome, and love the society that bookstores bring into communities, I have NEVER seen an adult jump up and down when finding "The biggest dinosaur book ever!"

Not only that, kids go in HOPING to get a new book. Adults go in to get one. Yea they are hoping to find something new, but chances are, they are set on adding something to the stack next to their bed. Kids however are playing a shell game. Do I ask for this book? 20$ isn't a lot of the monies, right?...

"MOM! CAN I GET THIS PLEASE?!?!?!"

And then there's the answer. (The 10% chances the parent will cave in and give their child the gift of intelligence and literacy.)

CONVERSATION OVERHEARD IN BOOKSTORE:

"Mom look! I found the biggest dinosaur book ever!"
"You did?! That's awesome!"
"Can I get it?"
"Yes."
"...................... What?"
"I said you can get it."
".......BEST DAY EVER!!!!"


That is why kids > adults. There is no end to excitement at getting a new book. Doesn't matter what the book is, as long as it is book-ish.

Fantasy Illustrations

This is a anthropometric Smilodon. (Anthropomorphic means humanoid)Here we have an elf

This is a water spirit

How about a cyborg? And a ginger?

This is an albino... Fox... Thingy:

Anyone say action shots? 

And last but not least... Dinosaur:

Hope everyone likes them. I will be making a lot more sometime soon :) (I used pictures of my friends for the base face, and did digital painting to actually make them. Except the dinosaur. He just sorta happened.)

More chalk board/ dry erase board illustrations

Well... That's awkward.

"Have you read this?"

"No but I've heard it's really good."

"What can you tell me about this one?"

"Not a lot. I haven't read it myself but have spoken to a few people who have and they loved it."

"Do you even read?"

"...."

Ok so that last one never really happened. But the other two happen, saddly quite a lot. And it is awkward. When someone asks you to give a recommendation for a specific book and honestly, you've never seen that book in your life :/

Worse case scenario: you lie and give some rushed feed back based on what you can glean from the synopsis on the back. (Also happens more than it should.) 

Even worse case scenario: it's the author of that book trying to be sneaky O_O (has happened once. Lucky I wasn't the one helping them. )

The sad truth is: we can't read everything :/ and that's not from lack of trying. In my store alone we carry 30,000 books. That means that, from the day I was born, I would have needed to read 3.5 books... A day. Every day. Not including the 500 or so new books published a day (that number has gone up dramatically with self publishing.) 

Well... Frankly, that's a lot. 

I do read a lot. I promise. Making my way through 5 books right now, one of which is a non-fiction. Beat that! (Here is a little cartoon of my pain)

If someone were to come in and say "can you recommend a book that's great for _______" I can normally ramble off 10-15 books that I have read. :) be proud. I know I am. 

So yes... Don't think poorly if your bookseller has never heard of a book. Chances are it is just sitting in the pile next to their bed at home. 

Must read!!

So as most of you know, I am not the biggest fan of the Evil Empire of Amazon. (And this is, of course, an understatement. I am, in fact, not a fan at all, let alone just not the biggest one.) Recently, they have been trying to strong arm Hachette (a publishing office) into accepting their terms of sale. Amazon is refusing to sell these books in rather childish ways, such as having the book up but removing the BUY button, or even better, having an automatic redirect to a DIFFERENT book (Both actions bring back childish remembrance of saying "look but don't touch" and "Are you SURE you want a cookie when you could have this CARROT!"). The unfortunate point being, that if Amazon wins, they will be the ONLY ones who get any sort of money. Where as the book binders, publishing house, printers, and AUTHORS have to fight over what's left. Think of it like someone taking your cookies, saying they will return with adequate compensation for the cookies (this person is also carrying around a thesaurus), and the eating them all. Followed by the only compensation you receive was that they assure you, the cookies were REALLY good.

Now this article (which I am in the process of figuring out how to link it :/ ) is a great answer to the AMAZON question: "Where do we get books if not from online O_O?"

Well, read this article, and you'll have an answer.

Also, sorry for the rant... Really don't like amazon. BOOK STORES FOR LIFE!

Also Happy Fathers Day :)


LINK (haha! figured it out):
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/how-to-shop-in-a-bookstore?%3Fsrc=rss

June 10,2014

A new job!

No, I'm not quitting the books store :). But I DO have a new job IN the bookstore... well I say job... more like they allow me to continue doing something that I randomly started doing anyways.
It is now my great privilege to draw on a chalk board and dry erase board in the kids section of our bookstore!!! Frankly I can't think of anything else I would better suited for. Sadly there isn't a lot of call for a illustration background when working at a bookstore... Which you would think isn't the case.

Bookstore = creative
Creative = Art like stuff
Art like stuff = Illustration....

I'm pretty sure my math is right.

But that's not the point. Now I have the opportunity to flourish and to show off my skills with chalk and dry erase board markers :).

So each one is taken from a children's book (Or at least that is the aim. As you can see, there is a JRR Tolkien quote here too.)

This one sadly only lasted about 3 days. It looked as though the colors excited a small child. And the only way to relieve said excitement was to make sure all the colors were destroyed. That's ok though. These weren't meant to be permanent.    

 I think this one by Roald Dahl might be my favorite so far.

 People in the store were pretty impressed that I could draw typewriter font.

I'll keep posting them as I make more. And hopefully newer and greater ideas will keep this practice going for a good long while. 

 

Busy

I know it's been a while since my last post. However, school is now out for summer which means it's nothing but me and my bookstore for the next few months. :D 

It's also the return of our busy season. 

I know I've made comments in the past that people usually like rainy day bookstores, but not NEARLY as much as they like summer bookstores. We go from maybe 40 or 50 customers a day to maybe 200, all because it's nice out :). Which I appreciate. A busy bookstore is a happy bookstore. 

Right now I'm sitting on the bench right outside our front door (I'm opening ad walked a little fast to get here) and I'm a bit jumpy at the prospect of so many people showing up, and it's only a Tuesday!!!

And it is quiet... I mean yes there are sounds of cars going by and a few people walking, but it's cold and crisp and peaceful. I know inside it's going to be unusually warm and there will soon be a bustle of buyers with bundles of books. 

Hoping that soon there will be more situations to blog about. This post is just to let you know I haven't forgotten about you. 

Books 4 Life. 

Thinking about writing, through writing

Something that will always be synonymous with being an indie bookseller is a fascination with anything dealing with the written word. Whether it be writing our own breakout novel, letters (because yes, those still are a thing), or journals that get a little prosaic at times. If any of you walked into a REAL bookstore, which does not include big chains of bookstores as I’m still in doubt as to if any of them actually read -_-, then nine times out of ten you are going to find most of the employees consider themselves, not only avid readers, but avid writers.

I’m no exception. The ability to craft words into real meaning, real emotion, is a gift in and of itself. But the pleasure that goes with it. The reading a sentence that you just scrawled down and feeling it ring in your ears because life could never be truer than that sentence right there… addicting. Being able to say things better when writing them than speaking them, however, is a huge downfall for me. I get in an argument: “Wait, and let me grab a piece of paper!” A friend needs advice or needs to be cheered up: “Hold on, I’ll I.M. you in a second with an answer.” I need to explain something in a presentation: “Let me write this down first to organize my thoughts.” Writing is easier. You can always backspace and erase, and delete that sentence that you REALLY want to send to someone… but know it really is a bad idea.     

I appreciate that not everyone is going to feel the same. Writing is also very intricate and time consuming. People generally don’t have time to think out and type the sentence “I would, of course, accept the invitation to your blue-hippopotamus bonanza.” To make sure it sounds OK. It’s much simpler to just let it fly out your mouth and hope for the best. And frankly, why wouldn't you want to say that out loud a few times a day, anyways?

But my point being, writing is by far a way of life. More specifically it is my way of life. I will always find it more comfortable to write to someone what I’m thinking in a letter then attempting to do it face to face. (This is not to say that I am uncomfortable with talking face to face with someone. It just takes me a much longer time to organize my thoughts if it’s without a keyboard or a fountain pen.)

That was the point, all thought it wasn't a very good one. Recap: Booksellers are in general also writing enthusiasts (I have no met all of them so I have yet to verify). I am one of those writing obsessed ones. I think much better when I am typing than when I am speaking. We all need to have blue-hippopotamus bonanzas. That is all. 

Illustrations of Alice

I have always been a fan of Lewis Carroll (more of his poems than his stories, but that's a whole other post). I even went as far as to adopt the pseudonym of "The Mad Hatter" for various circumstances. (Like my instagram Hatter_Halftone. It's not that exciting of an instagram, so it's not the focus of this post.)
The focus IS, however, Alice in Wonderland. These are a few pictures of an illustration I did for a friend. I tried to make them as true to the time period as I could, while still adding my own style into the mix.

This is where I was originally going to stop. I really enjoy things that are grey scale, and thought that it made this illustration that much better. But as it was not my project, I needed to get their opinion on it first. And of course, they wanted it to be colored. Thankfully, it still looks pretty good. 

 

Vallese Photography and Prehistoric Thoughts

Hi everyone!
I wanted to share a few of my friends sites, because I want everyone to know how interesting they are as well.
The first being lady who has been my friend for quite a few years now (although, funny enough, I have never actually met her!) She is an amazing photographer and artist, and I had the honor of designing her logo who she started getting her business set up. Enjoy!
http://www.vallesephotography.com/

The second is one of the smartest guys I know (which is saying a lot). He is my friend, and also one of my roommates, along with a paleo wiz. He can spout off dino facts like I can spout of reasons people should read a Fitzgerald other than "The Great Gatsby".
If you enjoy posts on the subject of the natural world, this is definitely the one for you.
http://gtmeitslise.blogspot.com/

Early Morning Bookstore

     It's one of the best times to work in a bookstore. Early morning. It's not the same forced wakefulness, gotta be up to get money, kind of early morning either. You are alert, you are happy, and you are ready for anything the day is going to throw at you. You feel invigorated at the idea of all the new books you are going to find in your own store, and a smile lingers on your face. I feel like shouting "Bring it on book-lovers! I will recommend so many books today! Not to mention all the amazing displays going up later on!" (Of course I won't actually yell this, as yelling has adverse effects on quiet.)
     And it is very quiet. You look around the bookstore and no one is here yet, all the shelves are neatly stacked and ready to be mangled by hordes of bibliophiles. The only thing that breaks the silence is that odd humming light (which you learn to drown out) and the occasional vehicle driving by. And quieter than both of those is the voices.
     Not in a creepy way "voices". If you work in a bookstore long enough, you learn that there are voices in each and every hardback, paperback, pop-up, and board book. They chat with each other in the morning too, as they wake up, ready to be bought and start their lives as endless entertainment. You learn to love it, I know I do. It is calming. And it is what makes a bookstore so amazing, if you can hear the voices, that is. So yea, I guess that sounds kinda creepy (and it can be at night) but not as creepy as the ghost who lives here.  (And there is a ghost. That's a subject for another post).
     So bookstores in the morning. Everything is clean, it's warm, it's quiet, tidy, and mellow. You know in a few hours it's going to be so busy that it would be a miracle if the store was ever empty again. You know that there will be books to put away and messes to clean up. Shelves to polish and sections to alphabetize. But it is worth every second of multiplex chaos for the few minutes of  quiet contentment with the voices of the books and the ghost that haunts upstairs.
   

 

A long fought battle against an evil empire

A not-so-long time ago, in the bookstore where I work....

It is a period of civil war. Local

booksellers, striking from a  small town, 

have won various sales

against the evil Amazon Empire.

During the holidays, Local Booksellers managed

to sell more books to people who actually read, 

the customers, and

sales where high enough that they hoped they'd have the

power to destroy an entire cooperation.

Pursued by the Amazon's sinister discounts,

Booksellers races to work at

bookstores,  hopeful for a chance

to save indie booksellers and restore

freedom to the bookworld...

Ok so this may have been a bit of an over exaggeration. Yes, amazon has amazing deals and they provide a lot of jobs to various towns dotted around the globe, as long as those towns don't collect taxes from Amazon. If so, than to bad. 

But unfortunately it is the sad truth that Amazon is forming a monopoly over the book industry (Yea. like the board game. Still illegal now a days too.) And even more unfortunate than that is the fact that Amazon is practically tho only one making money off of their sales. Their discounts are so low that the publishers, editors, book binders, even the authors, get very little profit. 

Various well know writers have vowed to only sell their books in indie bookstores (though I am growing more accustomed to acknowledging various chain bookstores as... well... bookstores now. Mostly out of hate for amazon.) This helps a lot because it means the people who actually know books, can help you buy books. Not having book worm booksellers is like buying a car from someone without a drivers licence. 

So here is the point of my rant: Booksellers dislike Amazon in almost a religious passion. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't come into our stores and then tell us how you're just looking for something to order online later. 

Honestly I have never been closer to kicking someone in the teeth than when I hear someone say this. 

Go into a nice restaurant, order something, and when it arrives, look at it then say you'll go home and make it yourself. 

Same thing.  

End of rant.

I GIVE YOU...PICKLE BABY!!!

Here is an illustration that I am quite proud of! Though I can't take all the credit. I did the face, and my 7 year old niece did the body. I added a few finishing touches and colored that baby in! (pun intended).

Best on a rainy day

There is always a voice in the back of a readers head that, on a rainy/ devil powdery (snowy) day, when you look outside, it screams in bloody jubilee at the prospect of blankets, tea/cocoa, and fluffy chair sitting happiness that can only be brought on by diving head first into print.
Yes, the rainy day. Every bookie's ideal day. Some times it is important to go outside and splash around after reading really uplifting poetry or watching "Singing in the Rain" (because lets face it, if you love books and you are carbon based, you love that movie). But in general, it is the best weather for a book. Any book. You could have a sudden urge to grab that copy of "Cheese and Culture: A History of Cheese and Its Place in Western Civilization" that your mother in law got you a few birthdays ago. (Real book. Look it up. Not a bad read.)  Whatever the case, rain + books= ahhhhhhhhhhh yeeeaaaaaaaaaa. (Snow depends on how much you hate it. Snowy days makes me want to make a blanket fort and hide for days).
Now, I have established that little voice inside your head, that sees the rain or smells the petrichor (look it up) and goes insane with paperback fanaticism. Why then, is it, that on a rainy day, I can go HOURS and HOURS without seeing a single soul in to purchase the object of their next mild obsession?
The point of this post, rainy days + book store = an unnecessary amount of dusting/ alphabetizing. Not only that, we also see and smell the rain. And so we also have a maddening desire to tear into the nearest novel. So we spend our time organizing, and dusting, and re-organizing, and re-dusting, and OH THERE'S A CUSTOMER, and dusting one more time (just in case).
And then there are the times when we finally accept that if we dust anymore, we will become lemon scented for the rest of our lives, and we have also memorized the YA section on accident. At this point we have two options: meander aimlessly to make it appear like we have some eloquent book-selling task at hand, or we can stand at the front desk and try and research more books to recommend.
Now it may be different for other indie bookstores, but at mine, we unfortunately don't have a very loud radio. So, if you are far enough away from it, there is a persistent hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm coming from one of our lights...
Torture I tell you. Torture.
And then, unfortunately, we attack the next customer with frantic zeal because here is a living person to commune with.
So, what we should all have learned from this is, customers of any local bookstore, make sure you do your booksellers a favor and next time it rains and you have a spare minute or two, pop in to chat, as we love a good chat.

Poem #1

In light of my poetry class (yes I am still in school), I have decided to share every now and then things that I have written, most to shake things up a bit.
We were asked to write 10 lines in Iambic Pentameter on death, which this isn't even close. Really it's only ten lines and about death (yes, morbid. But an assignment is an assignment). So I only slightly fail, but also win at the same time.

When I fall, it will be to child's laughter.
My moiste and dry, empty skin will litter
an unwarry field or yard for here after.
But my fall may force souls to embitter.

Why waste my verdant complection on death?
Just when a rose colors me do I court dread.
I will fall at the kiss of frozen breath
and signal, during flight, that decay will spread.

My family will follow soon on this yearly decent
and others will celbrate this morbid event.

Inspirational Parent for the Win

Me: "Will this be all today?"

Customer: "Yes, thank you. You have a wonderful bookstore."

Me: "Thanks. We try."

Customer's Husband: "Wait! Get this too!"
(Hyper warp speed run up and Micheal Jordan slam dunk of a book of Celtic lyrical poetry straight onto the counter followed by a look of deep satisfaction on the face of said slam-dunker.)

Customer: "Okay. Can we get this as well?"

Me: "Of course!"

Customer Husband: "Great!" (turns and looks at young girl child who is also with them. And by "young girl child" I mean 10-12 yr old.) "You are going to read this to me while we drive!" (Beaming smile).

Young Girl Child: "What? Why! I wanted to read the new Percy Jackson!" (Now a beaming smile from yours truly).

Customer Husband: "Because it's poetry, and you need to know how to read it."

Young girl child: "But why? It's just poetry."

Customer Husband: "Nope. Poetry is never just poetry. You are going to read it to me, while we drive."

Young girl child: " :( "

Customer Husband: "Come on! It will be good for you! Like eating brussel sprouts!"

Young girl child: (look of terror)

Customer/Customer husband: "Thanks again! This really is a great bookstore!"

Me: "No problem! Thanks for coming in."


Moral of the story.
While I have never had brussel sprouts, I have had yams (hold on a second, it has meaning). Growing up, I hated yams. Sweet potatoes? Potatoes shouldn't be sweet. They should be buttery and mashed.  So obviously, I avoided them at all cost.
Then the magical day came when I actually tried them. (Yes, I was the kid who hated foods I had never tasted.) So, i realized that yams, with a little cinnamon, lots of sugar, can be pretty awesome. (No marshmallows though. That's sacrilege.)  
Poetry, is the same thing. You need to find the kind with your topping on it. You can find some spicy cinnamon poetry, or some gooey marshmallow poetry, some bitter, strong poetry with nothing added at all. So the moral is, try poetry cause it's good for you, listen to your parents, and it is never to late to buy another book.

Scent of booksellers nationwide

Common question: "Do you read when you're alone in the store?"
Common statement: "I could never work here. I would be reading constantly."
These statements are often followed by an uncertain, knee-jerk laugh from the customer, and a ragingly witty comment from yours truly. And this logic makes sense. I love books, I am constantly reading, and I am literally surrounded by thousands of books. It would be so easy to LOSE MYSELF IN A BOOK FOR A FEW HOURS AND BECOME INCREDIBLY HOSTILE TOWARDS CUSTOMERS WHO INTERRUPT ME WITH QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MOST RECENT VEGAN COOKBOOK.... All of this taking place in the most amazing pillow fort ever imagined.
So no... sadly I don't read on the job. Sometimes I'll pick up a interesting looking book and flip through it to get a generalized feel so if I get asked about it, I can say something other than, "Nice cover."

So I would like to introduce you to a booksellers best friend and worst enemy. It's used constantly because it is constantly needed. If there is nothing else to do, or even if there is other stuff you could be doing, this usually takes precedence.
I give you.... PLEDGE!

Now you may be thinking "Eh?" 

I understand. Pledge? That's weird. Isn't that for.... dusting?

Why yes. Yes it is.

Dusting! Books are dust magnets. Dusting the whole store, once a day, is usually not enough. As soon as you're done, it's dusty again. EVERYWHERE. It's even worse if the books are near a door that leads outside. 

So basically, pledge could pretty much be the "natural scent" of booksellers everywhere. Lemony, burns the eyes a little, stays on your cloths for days. Try it, love it, crave it. 

Illustration of the Week

    Here is my tribute to Brett Helquist, my favorite illustrator. Just me, typing a new something or other on my trusty green typewriter "Remington". More illustrations next week!

The Compendium Illusion

    There is a phenomenon in the bookseller world that occurs that I like to call the Compendium Illusion. The basis is simple: We as booksellers should know everything about every book everywhere twice. That's how we get questions like,"So I'm looking for a book. I saw it on an airplane and it had a red flower on the cover, or maybe the cover was just red, but it looked like it could be a flower. Do you have that?" (It ended up being "Devil May Care" by Sebastian Faulks).
    So while I am standing there, dumbfounded, trying to mentally search all books I can think of that either have flowers on them or are red, or possibly both, and coming up with both 100s of options as well as none at all, the customer is frustrated that it's taking longer than the 3 seconds it would take to refresh an Instagram page they want to be looking at. After that, I do some fancy searching on my handy dandy inventory system, and poof, book. While there are very few instances in which a book is not identified as being on this plain of existence I would like to iterate one thing...
    Don't believe in the Compendium Illusion.
    As much as I would like to think that I can recall with perfect accuracy the large number of books I have read, the sad truth is I can't remember the authors of a large majority of them. Another section of the ones I can remember, I can't pronounce anyways.Example: I was nearly slapped by a fellow employee because I said Proust as 'Pra-ow-st' and Camus as 'Cam-us' (which actually makes sense except... you know... french.)
   It also isn't as thought we don't know any books at all. Sometimes we just have no idea what you're talking about. At the same time, we can suggest 12 different books that you might not have ever heard of and very soon could never live without. Power.
    The point being is that I  love it when you educate me as well. I love hearing what readers are saying, what they like, what they hated, what they wished had changed, and what changed them. I love hearing about that one time you tried reading a YA novel on a dare and now own the whole series in autographed hard cover.
    I don't have all the answers, though am trying really, really, really hard to get to point that I do.
    Now I have realized that the beginning of this post really seems like I'm just complaining that people want me to be the best at my job. I will point out that while it is a bit frustrating that all someone can give me is that there is the letter "A" at the beginning of one of the words in the title and it sounded really cool, I also welcome the challenge.
   But again...
   Don't believe in the Compendium Illusion. 

The Bookstore

    Working at a bookstore has taught me three things; none of which could really be applied to a normal situation in life outside of a bookstore. But it's those kinds of lessons that we as humans like to ponder and see the deeper meanings.

    First, there is no such thing as too many or too few books. I have seen customers purchase a stack of twelve because they want some light reading for the next few days, and I have seen customers argue about why their friend is buying another book instead of just checking one out at the library, "You can only really read it once. It's always going to be the same beginning, middle, and end no matter how many times you read it. There isn't any point to owning books now adays."
    I will admit, that at hearing these words, two emotions pervaded my mind. 1: Shock and awe that anyone could say owning books isn't point-ful. 2: Mind numbing anger that would have lead to harsh comments if I wasn't in a place of my own employment.
    No point? But books are life! Books are how we pass on knowledge. It's the most pure form of entertainment imaginable. It's literally reading someone elses' mind, making the reader practically a super hero. No point... lies.
    Which leads me to lesson number one: readers are readers. E-readers may be just a little less of a reader, but that's a lesson still being learned. A reader loves a book. In the case of the second customer, berating their friend because of owning books, it is just apparently easier to not become emotionally involved with the book. But loving a book doesn't mean clasping it to your chest for dear life. No.
    Books are very "in the moment" objects. You can pick them up and put them down and loan them out and borrow them and lose them and forget about them and suddenly remember that that book changed your life. Any way you put it, a book's existence is dependent on you reading it, not it gathering dust on a shelf.

    Lesson 2! Now that I have talked about readers, and how we all love books and should thus be holding hands, singing camp fire songs, and discussing our favorite anti-heroes, I would like to point out that some readers just don't get it.
    "Excuse me, what else has 'Jane Eyre' written?"
    "Is 'The Beautiful and Damned' a sequel to 'The Great Gatsby'?"
    "Harry Potter was awful!" (This last one be fightin' words, bro.)
    I get asked these kind of questions every day and still don't understand why people don't know! I'm not by any means the most knowledgeable person when it comes to books. (Meet some of my co-workers. Some of them seem to have read each classic plus each new release fiction for the past 6 years. And can quote from them.) But at the same time, there are some things people should know when buying books.
    "No. 1984 isn't the edition of the book."
    Which leads me to lesson número dos. There is always more to learn about books. There are 300 new books published a day, not including self published ones. So if someone is confused and gets the facts mixed up (I still can't pronounce "Marcel Proust" right) then it's my job as a bookseller to educate, and then enlighten.

    Last lesson. Number 3. For those texters out there, also known as the curvy part on <3.
    Now some people, who shall remain nameless mostly because I don't know their names, hate books. I have had people come in and never once pick something up because they had only followed their friend in, and are too bust texting to notice the vast amounts of book-like heaven around them. I have overheard people say things like, "No I don't like reading. Really if it isn't in People Magazine, I don't really care."
    ...
    ...
    ...
    O_O
    ...
    Terrifying.
    Now, as you can obviously tell from the rest of this post, I'm in no way, shape, or form a judgemental person ( *wink*). But there are just somethings you don't say out loud.
So lesson three... Some people just don't like books, and really you don't need that kind of negativity in your life. So smile, move on, and purchase a new hard cover re-printing of the complete works by William Blake, because frankly, it's awesome.

   So class, the three lessons I've learned thus far in working at an Indie Bookstore. 1, readers are readers and we all love books differently. 2, some people need a little help, and those of us who can, should. 3, books are an essential part of life, even if you just enjoy reading instruction manuals. If you don't agree, you're doing it wrong.

Brio.