I work at a bookstore part-time and can't manage to sell books I would actually recommend or have enjoyed. Every time I've tried I am met with the same blank look, the same curl of the lip. They approach you looking for something different, something good. However, the deeper you delve the more you hear phrases like "something light", "not too difficult". They are looking for cotton candy, and I'm prepared to give them creme brulee. Disappointed, I automatically dim the lights in a certain part of my brain and begin offering up the latest bestseller or the one that everyone else has just loved. Don't get me wrong, every once in a while I want a light read and can be seen curling up with a Carl Hiaasen. However, I have discovered my taste in books gravitates toward fiction that doesn't always give you a happy ending or the resolution you may need. I crave memoirs, travelogues, and books classified cultural studies. I say all of this not to say my taste is better than anyone else's but more that I haven't found the right kind of customer. I guess you could say that I'm still looking for my reading soul mate.
On a side note, if you're a Chuck Palahnuik fan and have read Survivor, email me for information on our book group discussion this Friday at 8 pm.
i could totally be your reading soul mate. i was a member of a book club and it did NOT work out well for me. i couldn't stomach the titles my girlfriends chose and they hated the ones i picked. LOVE LOVE LOVE memoirs. lots of fiction seems contrived to me. maybe i just haven't read enough good fiction. i don't know. i'll take your recommendations, for sure.
ReplyDeleteserena, that is because most people are stoopid
ReplyDeleteWe need to have drinks again at this one.
ReplyDeletewhat really pisses me off are the high schoolers that come in and are like "i need a book about history before the 1900s."
ReplyDeleteThen I tell them about how good the Julius Caesar series is, or perhaps they'd like clan of the cave bear, then they go "ok, but do you have anything shorter?"
at this point i shove all the books that are on the cs desk off, jump over the desk and beat the shit out of them.
WHAT ARE THESE KIDS LEARNING?
Right there with you! Oh, would you mind emailing me some good read ideas? Sweet@sournsweet.com And I love me some Chuck.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me, what's the next book club pick?
ReplyDeleteVanessa
A "chick-lit" fan and proud of it.