About once a week I get people who know I own a used bookstore tell me that it is their greatest dream to own one too. For those people I offer the following, which I tell you from experience is not an exaggeration:
A man owned a small bookstore, with living quarters upstairs and a couple of rooms in the rear, in Mississippi.
The Mississippi State Wage & Hour Department claimed he was not paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent out to interview him.
"I need a list of your employees and how much you pay them," demanded the agent.
"Well," replied the store owner, "there's my stock clerk who's been with me for 3 years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. The Internet listing clerk has been here for 18 months, and I pay her $350 per week plus free room and board. Then there's the half-wit who works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of all the work around here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of bourbon every Saturday night. He also sleeps with my wife occasionally."
"That's the guy I want to talk to...the half-wit," said the agent.
"That would be me," replied the bookseller.
Showing posts with label used books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label used books. Show all posts
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The Myth of Bookstore Owners
I think most people believe that used bookstore owners are highbrow readers who read and re-read classics only. In my case nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, truth be told, my favorite genre is historical romance. I often say that what history I know I learned in historical romances and not in school.
This is not to say I never had the intention of reading classic works of literature. While in college I promised myself that after graduation I would read all those great works of literature that I didn’t have time to read before because I was so busy reading for school. That promise lasted until about halfway through Wuthering Heights; then I went right back to reading 20th century fiction and historical romances with a lot of chick lit, a few mysteries and some action/adventure novels thrown in for good measure. I did feel a bit guilty about this because I was sure that I was missing out on something really good since it was so universally agreed that the works of Dante and Hawthorne and Jane Austen and the Brontës are some of the best writing in history. Then one day I stumbled across an article or some sort of item in a newspaper or magazine which explained that while these books may be great literature they were written for people of a different time -- people who had fewer distractions in their leisure time than we do today. The people in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and before, didn’t have the distraction of TV or video games or movies or even radio; and they also enjoyed reading out loud to each other, consequently much of the literature was written to be read aloud in groups. So there it was. I was vindicated and released from any obligation to make myself a more well-read person than I already was.
Maybe someday I’ll go back and pick up the classics again. But who is to say that some of the work of today’s most popular writers won’t be considered classics in the future?
This is not to say I never had the intention of reading classic works of literature. While in college I promised myself that after graduation I would read all those great works of literature that I didn’t have time to read before because I was so busy reading for school. That promise lasted until about halfway through Wuthering Heights; then I went right back to reading 20th century fiction and historical romances with a lot of chick lit, a few mysteries and some action/adventure novels thrown in for good measure. I did feel a bit guilty about this because I was sure that I was missing out on something really good since it was so universally agreed that the works of Dante and Hawthorne and Jane Austen and the Brontës are some of the best writing in history. Then one day I stumbled across an article or some sort of item in a newspaper or magazine which explained that while these books may be great literature they were written for people of a different time -- people who had fewer distractions in their leisure time than we do today. The people in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and before, didn’t have the distraction of TV or video games or movies or even radio; and they also enjoyed reading out loud to each other, consequently much of the literature was written to be read aloud in groups. So there it was. I was vindicated and released from any obligation to make myself a more well-read person than I already was.
Maybe someday I’ll go back and pick up the classics again. But who is to say that some of the work of today’s most popular writers won’t be considered classics in the future?
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