My Bipolar Journal - Episode 187

My Bipolar Journal – Episode 187

March 16, 2008

Let’s talk about shit that really crazy. For instance the difference between independent bookstores and independent music stores. I never went to Joseph-Beth Booksellers, but always heard that it’s this fabulous independent book store. Well, in the past few months I’ve been into this craphole about 3 or 4 times. I don’t know what people are thinking. There are no books there I even want. Today was the first day I was even able to find the books I went to look for and I could only find about half of them. There are no books on sale whatsoever and I am so very sorry, but you would think that people who work in a bookstore could be introduced to a little thing I like to call… the American Alphabet. There is not a single CD anywhere in the store under $18. No one has paid for a normal CD in 15 years that is $18. I mean, unless it comes with candy or a coloring book, I really don’t see the point in inflating a product that is losing value on a daily basis. They like to embellish their store with handbags, mugs, coffee, a bunch of little tiny things that are appealing to 10 year old girls and nonsense to make up for the fact that they really don’t have any books at a bookstore. It looks like a shopping mall, it’s in a really annoying shopping mall with a bunch of fucking kids and moms that think that if you don’t have kids and aren’t a mom that they have no need to get out of your way. The “booksellers” and “music sellers” are about as useful as my cat litter box.

Now, I also frequent Everybody’s Records. I also started doing this mostly in the last year. Most of these have to do with where I’ve moved to and the convenience. I can almost always find what I want and even a few things I’ve searched high and low for. You walk in and it’s kind of one of these messy stores that you have no doubt from the moment that you step through the doors what product it is that their selling. You start to think, well, with this many CD’s and records, I might have to hunt and peck through the “B’s” just to find whatever CD I’m looking for, but rarely have I found a CD out of alphabetical order. CD’s are priced at a normal price of anywhere between $8 and $15 for a normal disk and they even have a nice used section in case you might be able to find something even cheaper. You cramp through the aisles with polite adults that sometimes realize that you’re looking for a CD in the same area they are and they say “excuse me” and, God help me if they had any kids they used their sense of common decency to leave them locked in their playpens or whatever it is you do with kids when you shouldn’t have them out in public and in my way. The “music sellers” there almost always know what I’m buying and have a comment whether riveting or not about what it is I’m buying. They remember me when I come in and know what I like and even have the remarkable ability to suggest things.

I’ve found that going to a Barnes & Noble or Border’s is much more comforting than going to some lame-o independent bookseller that doesn’t even know the alphabet. Rarely do they not have the books I’m looking for, new books are sometimes 30% off and when they’re not, it’s ok because at least they fucking have it. It’s organized and even though they have a bunch of that tiny useless stuff it’s not used to overwhelm people with a sense of “oo’s” and “ah’s” with trinkets to distract you from the fact that they’re not even really a bookstore. Might I add that their game section is bigger than their fiction section.

Someone at Border’s hear my plea. Buy Joseph-Beth Bookseller’s and put them out of their ever-fucking misery.