Karma will bite you in the behind every time

I remember thinking as I drove to the bookstore what could possibly happen tonight? I will be working only to put away books. But, something did happen. I was at the cash register while the other bookseller scanned books in the children's sections. For 15 minutes I was at the cash register. Apparently that was enough time for disaster to strike. Be careful what you wish for...or in my case what you think about.

When the keyholder went to reconcile the registers she found she was missing $90. She was freaked. She ended up calling the manager that was now manager at another store and after I thought about it for a while I asked her if she had a $100 bill? One of my last customers handed me a $100 bill for a $3.99 book. So I gave him change of around $95. I think I must have mistook the $10 bill for a hundred as is was new and that new yellow. I have to say though, that the customer didn't say a word. And it was a regular customer! If I ever see him again.... arghh...well, I will point him out to my manager.

So now I have something on my record. This sort of thing never happened at the megabookstore as they never put me at the cash register. Maybe they knew something I didn't

Where does Karma come in? Last thursday when we had that explosion of books (which I have to mention has happened again! You can't even walk around in the back room!) the assistant manager was asking us to stay until 9:30 and put away books. The keyholder said no. She had midterms and I had work the next day. Because of the snafu with the money we ended up staying until 9:40. Like I said, Karma.

Management- Revolving Doors

I worked at the mega bookstore for only a year and a half. By the time I left, there was only one manager left that had been there when I had started. The store manager had moved on to bigger and better things in Seattle, and the other managers left for other various reasons. Today I found out that my manager here at the small downtown bookstore is moving on to a San Francisco store. She hasn't even been at this store for a year...just barely under a year actually. Actually she's a wonderful manager, friendly yet subtly stern about the rules, great about working around your schedule and serious lover of books and a great bookseller.

So, yeah, I am a bit bummed about the thought of getting a new manager. I am not seriously unhappy to see the current one go...she deserves a great career and its hard to be sad when I know she's working on a great career. But a new manager, that's another story. At the mega bookstore when the old manager left, the new store manager came from a sporting goods store. A sporting goods store! We peons working in the store putting the books away scratched our heads repeatedly at the district's choice in managers. And yes, things did change little by little. The store didn't look as good. Clean shelves just weren't a priority anymore.

Bookstores, like other businesses where so many personalities reside in a service industry, is a soap opera. I know someone who works in a very tony restaurant, and I listen, rivetted, to the stories he has to tell. Bookstores, even small ones have stories to tell. This store has gone through at least 5 managers it sounds like, in 2 years. Part of that is due to the powers that be changing people seemingly willy nilly. In fact no one really knows why they are changing managers now. Our new manager is already manager of another store so she will be splitting her time between two stores. I am sure, at least I hope, that the district (I dont' know who makes these decisions) has their very legitimate reasons for what they do. But after the book debacle last week where we received 3 times the number of books we are supposed to receive and where all the stores in this district had the same thing happen to them, I have to wonder. They don't come across as making very savy business decisions. What little I have seen makes it unsuprising to hear that their analysts aren't predicting a profitable quarter.

Tetrising...Is that even a word?

Having worked in a mega bookstore before this much smaller store creates a mixture of feelings. Sometimes I am glad NOT to be working there anymore (you have to clean up after that many more people) and other times, like now, I miss it, seriously miss it. In the mega bookstore I never had to do a practice called Tetrising. That's where there are so many books on one shelf and you can't fit anymore on so you hopefully have room on the next shelf so you move them down to make room for the books you need to stock.

This store is normally about 50% tetrising, but the warehouse has exploded and sent us box after box after box. The entire back room is boxes filled with books. We had no room before these boxes came. We have no room now and I am so glad that I don't have to work until Sunday again. The books will probably have been put away or have something planned for them by the time I get in. Having worked there for a couple of months now, I can safely say I HATE tetrising. It makes putting the books away no fun whatsoever.

Then one of my coworkers made the comment that it just seems to be a waste of money really. They send us all these books that we have no hope of putting away and come the end of the month we will have to do returns, and ship them all back. Serious waste of money. How can this be a viable business practice?

I am also happy to say the Charlaine Harris has broken the run of bad reading. DIdn't want to put down her book, in fact I literally fell asleep many a time trying to finish up reading her book, knowing I was too tired to read but didn't want to stop. Grave Surprise was great.

My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding is okay. The short stories are so, so short, you can't connect with the characters too much. I think maybe they assumed you would have read the author's previous books and therefore it would be easier to understand all the lingo and backgrounds. I do like short stories normally though, as they are a way to check out new authors without the commitment of a full book. I can see the headline now "Short Stories: Books for the Commitment Phobe!"

Celebrity Sighting

I only work in the bookstore for a couple of hours a week. You would think that would mean that life there would be fairly uneventful and boring with nothing to write about. But, no. Who walks in, practically when the store opens, but Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong. And he stayed for over an hour it seemed, sitting and reading in our humble black leather chairs.

Actually, to be honest, I didn't even notice him. My manager, of the"is he even 21?", sees him and points him out to me. How sad is that? Why sad? I have actually seen some of the Cheech and Chong movies, granted when I was a child. And I didn't notice him. Well, I should say that it could be George Clooney and I wouldn't notice. Oblivious should be my middle name sometimes. After all, as I mentioned before, I AM in a bookstore, my own version of crack. What else is there?

Chong is here in San Jose doing comedy at the Improv. I wouldn't be surprised if he was staying at the Fairmont as that's across the street from the bookstore. Makes sense. The nice thing is he took time earlier , this week?, to stop by and sign some of his books.

Now that I think about it, I am surrounded by celebrities. I was in a restaurant at the same time as Brian Boitano (if I have to explain who he is, it still won't matter to you) a few weeks ago. And a few weeks before that I saw The Rock in front of the Camera Cinemas. I just happened to be walking by and there was this crowd and just as I stepped up to see what was going on, The Rock stepped out of a SUV limousine. I think it must have been for a premiere of The Grid Iron Gang, his newest movie. Yes, I do have a lame picture of him on my mobile. And yes, you can't even barely tell that its him.

I have a new book to read by Charlaine Harris...Grave Surprise. Its the second of her series on a woman who was struck by lightening and can now talk to the dead. I love Charlaine Harris and I am hoping, HOPING that this will break the run of bad books that I have been reading lately. I am also reading My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding with short stories by Charlaine Harris and Jim Butcher to name just a few. I really, really need to start reading Jim Butcher. He has to be good, right? After all he has his very own convention. How many other writers have that? None that I can name. Not even Nora Roberts has her very own convention and if someone were to have their own convention besides Jim Butcher, it should be her just by the very nature of her fruitful production of books and popularity.

To get back to Jim Butcher, the short story was cute and intriguing. I will put him on my list of books to read.

And speaking of books to read, next up to read is The Innocent Man by John Grisham. I used to automatically pick up a John Grisham and then it became...well, formulaic? But this newest one is nonfiction. I read about it in my Entertainment Weekly Magazine. Stephen King sometimes writes the column on the last page of the magazine and as soon as I get the magazine I turn to the last page, hoping that it will be him writing instead of the Pop Culture Quiz. I was rewarded one week with Stephen ranting about that Nancy Grace on CNN who interviewed this woman whose son was missing. The woman, the one whose son was missing, later killed herself and they still showed the interview on CNN. Stephen King was not happy about Nancy Grace (understatement) and mentioned that John Grisham couldn't stand to watch the woman. That's enough for me to avoid CNN altogether. But it was in that article that Stephen King mentioned John Grisham's newest book, a nonfiction book of a man who had been wrongly convicted. So, I will be reading that. Probably my one non-fiction for the year. Laugh.

Now that I think about it, what was the last non-fiction I read? I need to keep better track of the books I read.

Original Thoughts...

Apparently I have no original thoughts...or at least I can't think up something that someone else hasn't already thought of. Someone else already snagged my title for their blog, or should I say I tried to snag someone elses title? Obviously wasn't successful. The agony of thinking up a title then the "D'oh!"that someone already has it. What a waste of brain power.

I have two jobs. The primary one is for money, to live on. The second one is to get access to all those books that the library won't carry. Hence, the title of the blog. Like so many others before me, I start this blog with a theme in mind, to write about all those books that the library won't even consider. Though I have to say that since I started working at the bookstore, I have yet to have found a book that I couldn't put down. Okay, the newest Elizabeth Lowell was good (The Wrong Hostage) but it wasn't one that pops into my mind as a recommendation.

This is my second time working in a bookstore. The first time was at a mega-bookstore where they preferred to keep me chained in Children's as no one else was willing to work in there. The store I am working in now is so small that I wouldn't be surprised if 4 of them could fit in just the Children's section of the mega-store. And I rarely see children now. Go figure.

But as with the mega-huge bookstore, each store has its characters. Book stores are havens for the homeless, places to take a snooze in a soft leather chair, an interlude before the movie starts or, in my case, a place of addiction. I am addicted to reading, and working in a bookstore is like a crackhead working as a drug runner. Addictions breed funny (read:weird) people and I am allowed to say that as I am one of them. Every day brings in a new and strange customer that I tally up and record for future amusement. Some are weird and then some are just plain scary, but they are all characters.

The most recent character was a man who happened to be looking at my chest, as men are wont to do and asked me if I had a heart attack? He was referring to my scar from when I had heart surgery when I was 5 years old. I only get this question from men. Women don't notice my scar. Odd, isn't it? Then I had to explain the surgery; something I don't normally think to bring up with my friends much less with total strangers. Will he realize, ever, that his question tells me exactly where he was looking?