Confessions of the Bookstore Clerks: We Hate What You Read
If you sell it, who’s the prototypical 50 Shades of Grey buyer in your store? Notably different from your usual demographic?
Mostly woman, in their 30s, 40s, 50s, though I have sold it to a few men “who are picking it up for their wives.” Pretty much everyone who buys Fifty Shades will also buy other books and wedge it between those other books so when they walk around the store it’s less obvious.
What’s your all time favorite book?
Too hard to answer. John Williams’s Stoner is the best thing that I (and most of the people who work with me) have read this past year). It’s just solid from start to finish.
All time favorite Brooklyn book:
Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. It’s seedy and sick and brilliant and I love every part of it.
Worst Brooklyn book?
It’s not really about Brooklyn, but I’m sick of selling Goodnight, New York City (a rip off from Goodnight, Moon) cause it looks dumb.
What books make you immediately scornful of the buyer?
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back. And travel guides.
What books make you immediately crush-out on the buyer?
Comic books.
What’s the bookstore clerk equivalent of spitting in the food of a difficult customer?
We gift wrap, so if you’re a jerk I will wrap your books poorly and won’t use ribbon.