{"id":24117,"date":"2018-01-04T08:00:06","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=24117"},"modified":"2018-01-04T08:00:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T13:00:06","slug":"heard-at-the-store-do-you-have-regular-books-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=24117","title":{"rendered":"Heard at the Store &#8211; &#8216;Do You Have Regular Books Too?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last week of the holiday season has its own peculiar atmospheric pressure, one that has been building, geometrically, in the hearts and mind of last-minute book buyers. This pressure results in unusual customer proclamations, which range from the amusing to the revealing and then back to the amusing again.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/16thseduction-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-24118 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/16thseduction-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"173\" height=\"265\" \/><\/a>What called this to mind was an unusually memorable question that was asked here on Christmas Eve. A man looked around the store for a bit and then marched up to me.<br \/>\nCustomer: \u00a0&#8220;Do you have regular books too? Like James Patterson?&#8221;<br \/>\nWe had a copy of the book he was looking for, <em>Sixteenth Seduction<\/em>, and he left happy, with his Patterson gift wrapped and tree ready. And I? I was buoyed by Charles II&#8217;s assurance that &#8220;God will not damn a man for taking a little unregular pleasure along the way.&#8221; Phew!<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nHere are some other lines heard at ShelfTalker stores in the week before Christmas. These four are from Cynthia at 4 Kids Books &amp; Toys.<br \/>\n&#8220;Will my kid understand <em>Wonder<\/em> if they haven&#8217;t seen the movie?&#8221;<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/charlottes-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-24119\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/charlottes-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"132\" height=\"196\" \/><\/a>&#8220;We are reading Harry Potter aloud to our four year old. Do you have any other chapter books that are suitable? No, not <em>Charlotte&#8217;s Web<\/em>. The spider dies, doesn&#8217;t she?&#8221; (Hmmn, as I recall we rather rooted for the spider to die in Harry Potter)<br \/>\n&#8220;Do you have any REAL Christmas books? With Jesus in the manager.<br \/>\n&#8220;Do you have any books with a good moral? Like Rugrats used to be?&#8221; \u00a0(<em>From Cynthia<\/em>: some days it&#8217;s better if I just wrap.)<br \/>\nAnd this notable exchange was heard by Leslie at Spellbound.<br \/>\nThe other day a little girl of about 6 or 7 was shopping with a big group of extended family, and her aunt joked about something that the girl said wasn&#8217;t true.<br \/>\n<div id=\"attachment_24120\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rugrats-1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24120\" class=\"wp-image-24120\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/rugrats-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"341\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-24120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rugrats, before everything went so very wrong.<\/p><\/div><br \/>\n&#8220;Well, in <em>my<\/em> world it is,&#8221; said the aunt.<br \/>\n&#8220;We&#8217;re not in your world,&#8221; the girl said morosely. &#8220;We&#8217;re in Donald Trump&#8217;s world.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;She&#8217;s not a fan, and she&#8217;s very outspoken,&#8221; her dad told me. &#8220;Thanksgiving was&#8230; interesting.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe holidays are also a time when, in all the weariness and camaraderie, fun statements are heard from among staff too. For example, a discussion occurred here during a brief lull on the topic of why customers always mistake the telephone voice of any male staffer for mine, even if we don&#8217;t sound alike. Also, why customers are shocked whenever they call and I&#8217;m not here, as though I am here every moment the store is open. Elliott announced, &#8220;That&#8217;s because Kenny is an idea, not a person.&#8221;<br \/>\nNoted! In any case, if you heard something memorable at your store please share it in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Notable utterances overheard at ShelfTalker bookstores during the last week of the holiday season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24117\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}