Confessions of the Bookstore Clerks: We Hate What You Read
If you sell it, who’s the prototypical Fifty Shades of Grey buyer in your store?
The brunch crowd was really into Fifty Shades of Grey, which was awesome because it brought new people into the store. And a ton of our regulars read it as well—that book just skipped right across demographics like they didn’t even exist.
What’s your all time favorite book?
I don’t know how anyone can pick just one, honestly, but at the top of the list is Nick Harkaway’s The Gone-Away World. Very few people could pull of an apocalypse novel in which the weapons hinge on a philosophical concept (and which also includes ninjas), and yet he somehow managed it.
All time favorite Brooklyn book:
I really loved Haley Tanner’s book Vaclav & Lena, which counts twice— it takes place in Brooklyn and she lives near the store.
Are you a writer? If not, do you have a side gig besides the bookstore?
Nope, I’m a born reader/recommender. I do some freelance (mostly data entry and book reviews) as well.
The relationship of cats to bookstores: discuss.
Cats and bookstores have a long history. On the one hand, a lot of people expect it. It’s part of that stereotype of the bookstore as cozy and stuffed with books. On the other hand, a lot of people are allergic. I once worked for a bookstore that had been open for over 30 years. In the first 10 years of being open, they had a cat. After that cat died, they never got a new one, but a decade later people still would say “Oh, I can’t go there, they have a cat.” We were pretty sure the dander was all gone by that point, though.
