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NOT DEAD YET! |
 "Gee, what a letdown. I thought this was a love story about a guy whose name was Warren Pease, but so far it just seems to be about a bunch of Russians back when that Napoleon guy was still around!" |
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I thought the book business was dead or dying but I must be wrong. Big, well-lighted superstores are proliferating. What is going on here? Is this a backlash against our guilt for spending too much time slumped in front of the television? Are we finally becoming aware of our abysmal ignorance?
Simultaneously, private book clubs are springing up, but I have come to discount that trend. Guys tell me they are mainly useful as a good way to meet girls. Gals confide that they are an excuse for sipping martinis and discussing their husbands.
Oprah Winfrey seemingly leads the way in U.S. book selection and, according to a recent New York Times story, a British equivalent duo called “Richard and Judy” does the same there. Without doubt, the mass marketing of a small number of popular titles has come of age.
But finding real specialist knowledge in a bookshop is another matter. The big stores don't seem to love books. They are more concerned with moving packaged goods. You have to go instead to the independent bookstores, and I found one in Brookline, near Boston, that boasts a staff that actually knows the publishing business. Brookline Booksmith is an Ali Baba’s cave of new and used titles, sensibly chosen and clearly shelved.
My wife recently asked a clerk there for a personal finance book by “Susan Shapiro, I think.” Without missing a beat, the clerk reached across the aisle and pulled off "The Nine Steps to Financial Feedom" by Suze Orman. Exactly right.
It’s not always so easy for the staff to respond. The manager says the more common request goes like this: “I’m looking for a new novel I saw somewhere last week. It had a purple cover. No, I think it was green. Maybe it was a paperback.”
Hearing these stories, I wondered who these book buyers really are. Why are they wandering around in a fog of titles and authors? Do these books simply pile up uncracked by the fireplace? Isn’t there a better way to stop doors? Could Oprah and others be creating a market for unread books?
Lately I have been asking bookshop managers for their explanations but all I’m seeing is dollar signs in the eyeballs at the mention of Oprah or Richard and Judy. It’s proven now: sales spike after a show.
One London bookseller believes the book surge may reveal a backlash against the competitive society we have created. A little peace and quiet may be in order. “People crave time for themselves, and reading is one of the few activities that by definition must be solitary,” she told me.
Where the booksellers had something really disturbing to say was in the realm of favorite requests. The confusion over who wrote what reveals a book/reader relationship that is at best casual. All the following inquiries are guaranteed authentic.
A man with an apparent taste for the classics asked, “Do you have ‘The Red and the Black’ by Stendhal? If you do, I’ll take ‘The Red’ now and I’ll come back another time for ‘The Black’."
Someone with wife trouble knew approximately what he needed: “I’m looking for a book by Sigmund Freud, a man who wrote a lot about women.”
Another had heard something good about John Irving and asked, “Do you have that novel called ‘The World According to Carps’”?
Only slightly askew, another request was, “How about ‘The Name of the Rose’, eco version”?
A French bookseller insists he periodically gets inquiries for “Le Zizi dans le Metro”.
Poor old Alexander Solzhenitsyn is mangled with the best of them. One young lady in London asked for something by “Soldier Nitsin.” Another wanted “Goulash Archipelago.”
The French shopkeeper laughs about a man who wanted a copy of “Dangerous Lesions.”
One customer was sure he wanted to read “Cinzano de Bergerac”.
“Au Revoir Tristesse” was on another lady’s list.
In Arcachon, near Bordeaux, they’re still chuckling about the pregnant woman who said, “I’m looking for ‘I’m Expecting a Baby’ but I don’t know by whom.”
In the Russian fiction department, an avid reader was looking for “The Brothers Kalishnikov.”
Yet another had heard “Doctor Virago” was pretty good.
What becomes of these books after purchase is perhaps not worth worrying about. Books lying around the house have a way of creeping onto your radar. Getting a new reader to hold a real book in his or her hands is at least a first step toward literacy.
©2006 by Michael Johnson. The illustration is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Aug. 14, 2006.
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