Yeah, I have plenty more to say about bookstores and the way some of them classify their books.
Look at the blog title.
Now look at the picture.
Get over it or go away.
Now where was I...
I don't know about you, but it annoys the absolute crap out of me when I have to go to a gazillion different sections to try and find a book.
Maybe it's only me who doesn't think it's always the case that any story with a vampire or a werewolf in it has to be horror?
Or perhaps, book goddesses forbid, that different genres such as romance might even have sub-genres like paranormal or historical?
Or that some authors might *clutches pearls* write both adult and YA, which means that, no, actually you don't bloody shelve them together?
I mean, seriously?? How fucking hard is it to get this shit right?!
*mutterfuckingfucktardsmutter*
35 comments:
Actually, I find this with my local library too. All the paranormal romances are shelved with the UF and horror with the contemporary/historical romances being shelved elsewhere. I expect it's the same for bookshops, so you have my sympathies with this one, Kris :).
This one drives me nuts too - I end up looking in 3 different sections for a book before I end up waiting to ask the clerk anyway.
You're reminding me how very long it's been since I shopped for physical books. :)
One more reason for me to read ebooks. Shopping became so much easier since I read digital. All it requires is typing a search word and there the book pops up already! (in most online stores anyway...)
You do NOT want to know the fun I had trying to find Alex Beecroft and Erastes historical m/m ROMANCES in NYC. I had a huge debate with the staff because the computer said it was in GLBT but the books were ACTUALLY in romance where they were supposed to be, but they kept telling me they were in the wrong place and needed to be moved and I was arguing with the staff about it. Sigh. Yes, I was making a statement at the time. LOL
My library like Jen's also has books all over the place. If you know what you want it's fine because you can look up the number and find it, but if you just want to browse then you are screwed because the paranormal MIGHT be in horror, or MIGHT be in romance and the same author with a series might have book 1-5 in romance and 6-8 in mystery. It's craaaaazy. But of course they don't carry m/m so the library is no longer and issue for me.
I've gotten spoiled using the internet. Anytime I go into a "bookstore" lately I just get frustrated. And now they have the convenient computer look-up, except that the book is never where the computer says it is.
I've done that frustrating search before.
The titles I usually want specifically aren't carried in the bookstore anyway, so I buy them online.
But it is nice to look at all the pretty shiny inky smelling books sometimes!
LOL to the "OCD" kitty pic.
I have to confess...its been ages (like months and months) since I've gone to a book store.
I do nearly all of my book buying online now and the rest I borrow from the library.
I got tired of going to the book store only to find that what I actually wanted wasn't there. Too much frustration and disappointment.
MsM
I haven't been to a bookstore in forever. Amazon is much easier and cheaper and they actually have the books I want. Plus I prefer ebooks to actual books now.
But if I did go to a bookstore, books shelved in the wrong place would annoy me too.
Don't get me started on incapable book store workers. There are plenty out there that are smart - but so many that lack the brains or the umpf to put things were they belong.
Jenre: I had to visit a couple of libraries on Monday and saw the exact same thing. I had to be on good behaviour that day otherwise I would have gone feral on their arses for not knowing better.
Patti: "I end up looking in 3 different sections for a book before I end up waiting to ask the clerk anyway."
Yeah. Problem is that most of the time the friggin' staff don't know either, which is about the time I decide to go home and just order it from The Book Depository. :)
Chris: Won't have to remind you when we're in SF. LOL.
Janna: It certainly became less frustrating in a lot of ways and it is definitely easier to fins another online store when one of them annoys the hells out of you.
Tam: "I had a huge debate with the staff because the computer said it was in GLBT but the books were ACTUALLY in romance where they were supposed to be... Yes, I was making a statement at the time."
I have a feeling that you won't have a similar prob in SF. Pretty much preaching to the converted there. :)
Wren: "And now they have the convenient computer look-up, except that the book is never where the computer says it is."
Nope, it's not. That's about the time that I get dragged away screaming at staff to get their fucking shit together. Good times.
Maybe you should open up your own store Kris. Do it. Send me free books afterwards. K Thx.
Miranda: "But it is nice to look at all the pretty shiny inky smelling books sometimes!"
It is! It's also way less frustrating when you are just doing the 'oh, look a bookshop' browse thing. At least for me it is. Means that I'm less likely to have a tantrum when I can't find a book that I need to buy RIGHT NOW.
MsM: "I got tired of going to the book store only to find that what I actually wanted wasn't there. Too much frustration and disappointment."
I hope that a marketing person finds this post somehow. It's an indication that it's not only convenience which has changed readers' buying habits.
Richelle: "But if I did go to a bookstore, books shelved in the wrong place would annoy me too."
We readers are an exacting bunch that's for sure. :)
Tracy: "... but so many that lack the brains or the umpf to put things were they belong."
See, we ARE going to have fun together shopping for books. :P
Mandi: "Maybe you should open up your own store Kris. Do it. Send me free books afterwards. K Thx."
*snort* You wish. Also, I'm not masochistic enough to have all my pretty shelves destroyed by browsing readers.
This is why I love, love, love ebooks and online shopping.
I LOVE the kitty BTW!! I completely agree with your comments as well as most other's comments. Nothing frustrates me more that wandering around a store from section to section looking for one book. Can the staff help you?? No....they can only follow what the computer says. I, like most others, have resorted to on-line purchasing. I'm much happier wandering around the internet looking for what I want. Unlike some others, I still like the paper book....maybe it's the progressive glasses....I hate those little screens.....
Eyre: "This is why I love, love, love ebooks and online shopping."
True that, but I still lack the willpower to walk past a bookstore without going into it. It's like I'm an addict or something. :P
Barb: "I, like most others, have resorted to on-line purchasing. I'm much happier wandering around the internet looking for what I want."
Yes. It is so much easier to search for books via the internet than having to rely on inept staff at a bookstore. You're also far less likely to get arrested for grievous bodily harm.
I'm glad that you like the kitteh pic. For some reason I got sent that by a couple of people. I have no idea why. :P
2 words - online purchase.
Saves my sanity.
I even get my library books online now - I can see all the books by one author and get the librarian to find them for me (that is their job is it not? *grins*)
Also, I think Mandi had a great idea - esp. about the free books. Just sayin.
Kaetrin: "I even get my library books online now - I can see all the books by one author and get the librarian to find them for me (that is their job is it not? *grins*)"
LOL. Apparently so, and, hopefully, they are the ones who can actually find them on the shelves.
"Also, I think Mandi had a great idea - esp. about the free books. Just sayin."
No.
Free Books? Where? Sign me up!
Great. See what you've started, Mandi.
*mutterbloodyhairypronlovermutter*
No?
*humph*
What drives me nuts is when some books in a series is in 1 section (say, romance) and then others are in another section (sf/f). It's like they can't even be consistent in their mistaken cataloging.
(Is my ocd showing much?)
Katerin: No.
Renee: "What drives me nuts is when some books in a series is in 1 section (say, romance) and then others are in another section (sf/f)."
Up until now I had managed to wipe such horrific episodes from my memory and in one comment you have managed to bring them back to the surface.
Thanks.
Thanks a lot.
I'd probably never attempt it at a big chain shop, but I've been known to pluck miscategorized books from their sections at used book stores and reshelve them properly.
But I don't get mad about it (only crazy people do that). I just think "Oh dear, no one will find this over here" or "Let's not piss off the real horror fans by shelving this romance novel here."
JenB: "But I don't get mad about it (only crazy people do that)."
O.o
Are you calling me and everyone else here crazy?? You are so friggin' rude.
Yeah, the romance sections are shrinking, especially anything with "e" for erotic in it is difficult to find but in a few stores here too.
Romances are getting mixed in with anything from fiction to horror to biography... o_O Yeah I know - go figure..
*shakes head* This is why online shopping is so much easire and I swear that is what the vendors want, that way they can close stores.. :((
Lea: Romance in biography? O.o Craziness. It's no wonder we all shop online where, in a matter of seconds, we can find what we want. The downside of this is the closure of bookstores. :(
If the straitjacket fits.....
Bitch...
YES! Don't need to say no more...
Orannia: Nope. We're kindred spirits.
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