But I always sit on the floors because I’m used to doing it at home.

And YUCK Lamonkeygirl–I never thought about that. Thank God I turned down a job at B&N if that’s what the employees have to go through. And I thought Wal-Mart was bad…

Second, I can’t read more than the blurb and the excerpt in a bookstore. Any more and I feel like I’m stealing. (I’m Catholic, guilt plays a big part in my life.) If I’m going to read a book without paying for it, I use my public library.

I no longer shop at bookstores that allow people to sit and read their books. I’m anal retentive to the point where I refuse to buy used books. (Made an exception for the early Iris Johansen books that are OOP and appear to stay that way. Even then, I sanitized and covered them in self-adhesive plastic.) So I’d be pretty ticked off at paying new prices for a book someone else has already put grubby hands on.

-People confuse the bookstore with the library. Several people asked if we had a photocopier so they could make copies of pages from books. One woman even asked if she could take a book out of the store, make copies at a nearby Kinko’s, and then return the book. Without purchasing it.

-I will never sit in a “comfy” public chair again after observing not only transients camped out in them, but the sheer number of people sitting in them for hours, eating, leafing through books and magazines and then leaving them in a pile after they were finished with them, sleeping, sweating, breathing, &c. The chairs are upholstered, making them into enormous sponges that soak up the dirt and “life essence,” if you will, of hundreds of people. And they are never cleaned.

-The folks who sat in those chairs for hours or even all day seldom bought anything, but, in fact, left behind a ridiculous amount of detritus for the staff (whose pay is just over seven dollars an hour) to clean up. On a side note, the children’s section of the bookstore was by far the worst, as none of the parents cleaned up after their kids and left books, toys, food and other germ-laden items strewn about like a preschool had exploded.

I have more rants related to working in a bookstore, but I will save them for some other occasion.

CindyS

However, if I did have that time and I did read that book, in its entirety, I would feel completely obligated to purchase it. Even if I was completely careful and read it with gloves on and never cracked the spine. (This is practically the way I read my own books anyway.) I mean, I wouldn’t go into a 7-11 and drink a whole slurpee straight from the fountain and expect to walk out of the store without paying.

The thing is, this kind of you-owe-me behavior is a staple of American life these days. No consideration, no sense of the other person, the person who comes after. I saw it all the time as a librarian, and I see it everywhere else – malls, restaurants, playgrounds. All rights, no responsibilities. I don’t blame the bookstores for getting rid of the cushy seating. Why should they have reserved seating for freeloaders and unmonitored children and teens?

Man, I sound like a grouch, but clearly some people were not properly parented!

“…overly enthusiastic young lovers,…

This is a big problem in my B&N and frankly annoying because they usually don’t have a book or magazine, just lots of enthusiasm. I was young once, but sheesh!