I was at Barnes and Noble looking for a copy of Slaughterhouse-Five. (The summer reading for 11th grade was either S5 or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--Danger Boy read the latter, but the teacher wants a paper on the former. Ouch).
Jenn: Will you check the computer and see if you have any copies of Slaughterhouse-Five anywhere besides under V? There are none on the shelf with other Vonnegut books.
Clerk (taps furiously away for a very long time; she finally looks up quizzically): Do you spell Lighthouse as one word or two?
Jenn: (reaches across the counter and grabs clerk by throat): How can you work in a bookstore and be unfamiliar with name of a famous American novel. How?! The word is S-L-A-U-G-H-T-E-R-H-O-U-S-E. It's a pretty well-known book.
I've never understood how the majority of people working in bookstores know zilch about books.
Posted by: K. | September 18, 2009 at 11:07 PM
If an independent bookseller still exists in your area, go there and save their business!
Posted by: Smalltown Mom | September 18, 2009 at 11:37 PM
Dang, I should go apply at a bookstore. I've actually read both of those. And so it goes.
Posted by: Shelley | September 19, 2009 at 12:33 AM
When I worked at Barnes and Noble we had an employee who had a cheat sheet that said...
Fiction is made up
Non-Fiction is real
Posted by: Little Miss Sunshine State | September 19, 2009 at 12:34 AM
Oy. So sad.
Posted by: jenn | September 19, 2009 at 07:54 AM
WoW. And she can't spell lighthouse either?
Posted by: busy bee suz | September 19, 2009 at 08:59 AM
Yep. We'll wait for the locusts.
Little Miss Sunshine State = OMG!
Posted by: Manic Mommy | September 19, 2009 at 09:03 AM
I'm sorry, but I'm stuck on the first paragraph. How is that fair?!
Posted by: jenrantsraves | September 19, 2009 at 09:30 AM
Little Miss Sunshine State reminds me of a story my Dad told me years ago - about a forest warden who reputedly looked in his top drawer on the desk every morning and then locked it before going out to work. When he died they opened the drawer - only to find a piece of paper saying:
short needles - spruce
long needles - pine
Other than that - what a sad comment on the state of affairs!
Posted by: allmycke | September 19, 2009 at 12:16 PM
Slaughter Clerk One. This one.
Posted by: phd in yogurtry | September 19, 2009 at 04:04 PM
Ouch. Which is why I despise the big box stores where they just lay people out there for minimum wage, no actual expectation of a knowledge base or passion or anything like that.I've had very similar experiences in Home Depot.
Posted by: Green Girl | September 19, 2009 at 07:26 PM
people scare me. such a great book too....
Posted by: Madge | September 19, 2009 at 09:53 PM
What a great reading list! My junior had to read Scarlett Letter this summer, but she also got to read Into Thin Air which we enjoyed reading when it came out.
Posted by: Brightside-Susan | September 19, 2009 at 10:06 PM
I have to say here that most people working in the chain bookstores are being paid very little. When the manager of the bookstore where I worked complained to her superiors that she was having difficulty hiring decent workers at such a low wage, they told her, "Who cares? A trained monkey can shelve books!"
She did say, "But I don't want to work with trained monkeys!" But really, the higher-ups don't care...
Posted by: suburbancorrespondent | September 19, 2009 at 10:18 PM
OH, no. No, no, no.
Posted by: Jason | September 20, 2009 at 01:34 AM
oh gosh....
Posted by: gary | September 20, 2009 at 08:02 AM
You're going to encounter this more and more. Trust me.
Posted by: Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings | September 20, 2009 at 09:42 AM
If one needs a hearing aid, shouldn't one be required to wear it for a job where they TALK TO CUSTOMERS?!
Aargh.
Posted by: Jodi Anderson | September 20, 2009 at 07:36 PM
I was just so taken aback that she didn't connect the word sounding like
"lighthouse" with the words "five" and "Vonnegut" and figure it out!
Jenn
On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 4:36 PM, wrote:
Posted by: Jenn @ Juggling Life | September 20, 2009 at 07:41 PM
...at which point she handed you something written by Virginia Woolf.
Posted by: Jocelyn | September 21, 2009 at 01:29 AM