A Book-Snob Moment
I just finished calling around my used bookstores asking if they had copies of 2666 by Roberto Bolano, Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri or Netherland by Joseph O’Neill. While on hold with one guy, another picked up the call and said, “You were looking for Stephanie Meyer?” I laughed, said no and told him what I was looking for to explain why I thought it was funny. He didn’t laugh, and put me back on hold. The guy who’d been looking for me picked up again, told me they didn’t have any of the three (natch) and when I told him about the Stephanie Meyer question, he didn’t laugh either.
This is the kind of exchange I would’ve loved when I worked in a bookstore. Am I overly amused at my book geekery, or is it too esoteric?
March 12th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Ha! No, I would have laughed too! Then again, I am probably a book geek, so my validation here is probably not worth much…
March 12th, 2009 at 11:59 am
I’d have thought it was hysterical myself. I’m just about done with the Lahiri, which I really like, but now am anxious to read City of Refuge. I started Netherland, but it was just meh for me. Fortunately I got it from the library.
My brother is a high school English teacher, and over winter break he read Twilight. I asked him why he’d do such a thing, and he said he had to, so that when all the girls in his classes would start talking about what a great book it was, he could knowledgeably argue with them. Now that’s a devoted teacher.