Monday, April 17, 2006
(12:03 AM) | Anonymous:
Monday Picture Blogging: Books Can Be Cute Too.
This is a section of the bookstore I work at. I always thought I'd like working a bookstore, but it is still retail and carries with it all the horrors that any retail shop near a major sports arena/yuppie drinking spot would. I have a set of phrases that I use to get me through each transaction:
Customer walks up to counter. "You all set?"
Take books, ring up. "That will be $10.90. Out of $20.00?"
While making change. "Would you like a bag?"
Hand them change. Bag books."Thanks so much. Have a good night."
If at any time the customer attempts conversation I do one of two things: 1)If it's something I care about and the person isn't insane I will talk to them about it. 2) If the person is the other 98% I mumble something incoherently until they are uncomfortable and leave. It's worked so far.
These are my bookshelves that hold all my philosophy, religious studies, theology, and assorted other humanities books. Before Hayley packed them up we had another bookshelf that had most of our fiction and some of her social work stuff. I kept some of it out for me to read in some fantasy future (Gabriel Garcia Marquez mostly). I noticed the other day that I don't refer to this set of objects in the world as a library but simply as "my books". I wonder why that is. This may not be big enough to be a library yet, but I also feel like, with many of these books, I've poured a lot of time and energy into them. Maybe this has allowed them to take on a kind of singularity that I don't want to reduce to the collective "library". Or maybe I just don't want to sound like a pompous ass. At least until I get that red smoking jacket and leather chair.
