Working in a Bookstore
Some of the best bookstores have winding mazes. Finding the perfect book requires a hunt. You could ask a bookseller for directions, but there’s something about the wandering that leads to the book you were meant to find.
I’m one of those booksellers and, by all means, I completely understand the desire to wander. I did it on my first day inside the bookstore where I now work. My trip inside had no ulterior motive as I had been job hunting that day and planned to apply to the tea room next door. The smell of books and tea swarmed me; my favorite song by my favorite band played overhead. A cat lay curled beneath new biographies. At that moment, the planets aligned and then I almost stepped on the cat. I think he still holds it against me.
The bookstore yawned open before me and, to my surprise, led further on. More rooms appeared around corners and stairs beckoned down into the depths of paperback fiction, mysteries and fantasy books. I found a book written by a fellow alum of my alma mater, an alum whom my professor would brag on incessantly. So I bought it and struck up a conversation with the manager and, with no retail experience while in the throes of my first year of grad school, I had a job.
There are a few rules of working in a bookstore. Every single one has general guidelines on customer service, stocking, and alphabetization. Some nix that alphabetization altogether and welcome complete wandering with no order in sight. But as each bookstore has its own charm, so each bookstore bears its own particular rules. These are a few that I’ve learned over the years.
1. Start three books in the span of one hour.
As a bookseller, one of your primary responsibilities is to read. Every day the endless options bombard you with judgment. Do you want fiction? Children’s or Young Adult? That customer just bought the one you had your eye on. Ah, well. You need more history books in your life anyway. But anything too long and you’ll lose your focus soon.
What about that classic you never got around to reading? The book doesn’t feel right in your hands. Put it back on the shelf; customer buys it thirty minutes later. You realize then it was meant for them.
Everything sounds good. Nothing sounds good. You end up reading a Young Adult graphic novel and then another and another. Then the gnawing returns, you give up and devour that book you planned to save for next month. The cycle repeats.
2. Recommend books.
“Can I get a recommendation?” Someone asks.
“What are you looking for? What’s the last thing you read that you loved?”
These are questions the common bookseller is accustomed to. Based on the answer, you should be able to direct the reader to something that’ll capture their eyes and their heart.
3. Restock.
Shipments don’t always come in a timely manner. Delivery people have a knack for catching you at the most inconvenient time, as most things in life do. While restocking, you first grab things you know, leaving the harder categorizations for the end. Or you grab based on section, and alphabetize them from top to bottom to make re-shelving most convenient. It becomes a game of Jenga and building books, until you feel like Gus Gus in Cinderella with a stack so precarious, it goes the length of your torso all the way to your chin.
4. Direct customers to sections.
When working in a maze, directions are too difficult to give. Customers insist they can manage, but you realize you’re incapable of being clear enough about where the travel section is. You end up showing them around the whole store until both of you are dizzy.
5. Listen to Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide.
Studio version, live version, covers. It doesn’t matter; it is law. It should play at least twice a day. That or Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton.
6. Restock. Again.
Now you’re faced with the leftover books you weren’t sure about. You end up on a treasure hunt for at least twenty minutes, then thirty when, to your horror, you find the self-help section in need of a bit of help itself.
7. Locate unknown books in the void.
“What’s that new book with the white cover and the stick figures on it?”
“It’s a red book and the author was in prison.”
The trepidation that attacks when you ask the author or title or plot of the book and the customer in question says, “I’m not sure.” The determination that sinks in when they give a vague description of a cover and you embark on the best kind of a treasure hunt. If the book wasn’t recently featured on NPR or some podcast, you get bonus points. Those suckers are hard to find.
The overwhelming feeling that comes when you find that book for that customer is unmatched. I reckon it’s like finding the Holy Grail or that thing you misplaced months ago, but it just got stuck under your bed. Finding that book is pure joy and that, to me, is the most important rule of being a bookseller.
Spreading joy.
