{"id":19856,"date":"2016-12-15T10:00:34","date_gmt":"2016-12-15T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19856"},"modified":"2016-12-15T10:00:34","modified_gmt":"2016-12-15T15:00:34","slug":"what-i-wont-miss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19856","title":{"rendered":"Things I Won’t Miss When I Leave"},"content":{"rendered":"

As many of you know, at the end of the year I will be retiring from the bookstore to pursue the next phase of my professional life. That I will miss the bookstore, my customers and the family of my staff is beyond an understatement. I can barely think about my life post-Flying Pig without tearing up, or in some cases, just flat-out sobbing. There will be several more heartfelt posts between now and the end of year but today I thought I’d list some of the things about bookstore life that I won’t miss. Booksellers, please feel free to add to this list in the comments.
\n– The endless wait at the counter while someone decides if they really need a bag.
\n– Customers who call in a special order request in the morning and then come in the same afternoon expressing dismay that the book is not in yet.
\n– Customers who stand right next to me sighing, as I rip open box after box of a distributor order looking for their one book.
\n– Eating lunch at 4 p.m., every single day.
\n– Publisher emails on the 20th of the month threatening me with credit hold if they don’t receive my check by the 31st.
\n– Having three double shot lattes before noon in December.
\n– Any document that says “This page intentionally left blank”
\n– Irritation that only Ingram puts the content list on the outside of every box.
\n– Multiple daily robo phone calls from Ashley at the Google Network.
\n– Publisher emails on the first of the month that tell me I’m hold because they have not received my check yet.
\n– Ribboning packages. I do it but I’ve never really liked it and often still hurt my thumb.
\n– People who are surprised that the book they ordered,\u00a0The History of the Penis<\/em>, is in fact about penises.
\n– Customers trying to return books they’ve finished but didn’t enjoy.
\n– The endless hunt for that book with the blue cover that someone heard about, once two years ago, on NPR.
\n– Someone asking about a book we had a display in our old store 15 years ago.
\n– Parents who are mean to their kids.
\n– Baker and Taylor boxes.
\n– Not being able to sleep in December because of the lattes.
\n– Cardboard cuts.
\nIt’s been a wonderful 20 years, truly. This list of irritants is nothing compared to the total joy I’ve had at the store. Please do add other little things that are maddening about bookstore or library life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaving a job is always fraught, but often there is a small silver lining. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19856\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}