Using the Bathroom in the Beast

I went whale watching yesterday and saw 5 humpback whales eating together and breathing and swimming with their sexy selves-- and even a baby calf breaching a bit. I was lucky...and they served beer. I was very lucky.

On our way back to Brookline we had to find a bathroom, and the only public one available was at Borders. I felt conflicted. I decided it would be good research. I thought I'd check out their poetry section. After 7 minutes of ardently hunting for it I finally asked a nice bookseller to help me find it...which after some difficulty she finally did. The section wasn't as cool as ours ( I am of course biased) and it looked like it needed some serious love.

I had to keep myself from straightening it up. To address my compulsive shelving inclinations I thought I'd check out their psych section...which I had to again ask for help in locating. Turns out they put sociology downstairs and hide psych upstairs....weird. Strike two...mostly self help books and strange guys lurking in the aisles doing god knows what in their sweatpants. Finally I went to look at their staff rec's section...and this is the thrust of this particular post....it was awful. Every book the staff had recommended was already a best seller! Whaaaaaaaa? Where were the funky obscure titles someone wouldn't know about otherwise? Isn't that the heart of a bookseller's job?--to champion the unseen and give a book that Oprah hasn't touched a chance?

I felt sad...because of the uninspired selection...but also because I shoulda been thinking about whales. The point is, thank you for choosing our store. I would be a different person if I worked in a beast.