My Bookman set up a window display in his bookstore the other day featuring books by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain. By the end of the day he noticed that someone, a customer, had rearranged the display and had moved all of Hillary’s books so they were hiding behind the Obama and McCain books.
He also has a table that has Ann Coulter’s most recent book on it among other books not by her. By the end of the day all of Coulter’s books were gone. But no one had bought one. Where did they go? Someone hid them behind other books in the classics section of the store.
This happens all the time.
Neither he nor his staff have ever caught anyone hiding the books.
This only happens with political books. The authors who are hidden most are Hillary and Ann. Sometimes people hide Hillary behind Ann and Ann behind Hillary. Once he had a display of Hillary books and someone turned every single one of them around. This was presumably to hide the picture of Hillary on the front. But there was a picture of Hillary on the back too. How disappointing that must have been to whoever turned the books around.
No one ever damages the books, just hides them. I wonder what the people that do this are thinking? If I hide Ann in the classics section no one will ever find her! Who reads the classics these days anyway? I’ll just tuck Hillary back here behind McCain and Obama. No one will notice her there.
And why is it Hillary and Ann who get relocated the most? Is it because they are strong women? Or is it purely political? I know each of them inspire a special kind of loathing from certain segments of the population. But still, I don’t get it. I mean, Ann Coulter makes me want to puke and if I am ever unlucky enough to see her in person I hope I get the chance to puke on her shoes. But even so, I have no desire to lurk around a bookstore, waiting for the booksellers to be busy or turn their backs so I can hide her books.
Playing hide-and-seek with Hillary and Ann doesn’t accomplish anything. The books get found and returned to their displays. No one who wants to read Hillary or Ann is discouraged from doing so because the books have been hidden oh so cleverly somewhere else in the store.
One more confirmation that people are weird. As if any further evidence was needed.
Okay, this story sounds so familiar I just laughed. But over here, our main problem is with philosophy and religion titles.
At the bookstore where I work someone has a problem with one of the Marxist theorist. Every week that single copy will be missing from the Philosphy shelf and hidden amongst the Christianity titles. We never found out who it is.
We also have someone who has painstakenly scribbled his arguments against Hegel — in pencil, on the margins — in one of the philosopher’s title. The whole book was filled with his notes. Again, we have no idea who it is.
I know there’s someone who has been reading erotica at our poetry section. He (or she) mark the page by putting a poetry book between the pages. Then he (or she) will leave the erotic title on the poetry shelf — to be continued on his (or her) next visit.
People are indeed weird. I call A.C. “She who must not be named”, because to hear her name is to make me want to puke in her shoes. I suspect many feel the same way about H.C.
I would desire to turn A.C. books around because to look at her is painful, but really, it just makes busywork for the booksellers. Unless that’s the goal…hmmm…
Yeah, I think it’s just that people are weird.
I think you’re right that they get targeted because they’re female. Society has a long way to before everyone stops seeing us as fair game.
lol-at my B&N, sometimes I’ve seen super-Christian books stuck all over the new age section. It always makes me giggle! (I’ve never seen any new age books stuck in the Christian section, though) I do wish that they shelved the international relations and US politics books in different sections. Instead, they’re all together, so I’ll be browsing some of the i.r. books and come across Bill O’Reilly or Ann Coulter or Michael Moore, which is always a bit jarring. Fanatics of any kind just annoy me.
Because they’re women? I think there are better reasons. I’m having trouble thinking of any two (currently-active) people of either gender or any position on the ideological spectrum who are more inherently polarizing.
The guerrillas at one of my bookstores are more efficient…rather than moving books around, they change the shelf labeling. Stuff like, prying the plate off of “Religious Fiction” and sticking it to the shelf of Bibles. (Yes, yes. Very clever. Right.)
Terrific posting, and relevant. Funny, yet disturbing.
As you know, I practically live in a bookstore, so I notice a lot of…. phenomena. This redistribution, this RE-placement of books on display is a new one to me.
You know what irks me though?
These people that leave little religious tracts in the pages of books.
If I could, I would install tract-sensitive mousetraps in the books!
This is so funny and yet so freaky. When I worked at a bookstore I never noticed customers shifting the books around, but when Clive James came in (and he often did) there would be a small scramble by the booksellers to hide some of his (big pile of still unsold) books behind the counter! I think some people think they are more influential than they are. So your book movers laugh to themselves with glee, imagining the monstrous obstacle they are raising or the fine protest they are mounting, and in fact everyone else just rolls their eyes and puts the books back again.
Boy, seems I need to stop doing so much reading when I’m in bookstores and start doing more people-watching.
I’d also like to puke on Ann Coulter’s shoes
But I don’t think I’d bother hiding her books.
This sounds very much like something that happens in libraries all the time. People hide books. People check out books and never return them. These are usually not political books, but books that are controversial — sex, language, blah, blah, blah. I think it’s funny. People don’t seem to realize that all of this effort does nothing but make people want to read the books even more.
Lol! I can’t imagine a single person managing to hide all the Coulter books in the classics section without being seen. Their stealth deserves our respect!
Then again, I have to admit to having occasionally moved books around myself, but in a more positive way. My friends and I like to do a little guerilla marketing. That is: we take books that we love, and which deserve more attention, and place them in key spots around the store. On the offer tables at the front, facing out from the shelves and on stands/display tables. Tis just to give potential buyers a nudge in the right direction.
…maybe the Ann Coulter person thought her books were classics!
I’ve never noticed anything like this before, but it does interesting. Maybe people from the Hillary campaign do the hiding, then complain to SNL, and win Ohio. Politics is weird that way.
I normally would normallo do what all possible to avoid seeing someone vomit, but I would PAY to watch you retch at Ann’s feet!!!
Used to work at the library and this kind of thing happened all the time. Normally it happened with controversial books, or books that had been banned. Once, even, Harry Potter.
Oh yes, people are very weird! Weird is okay, but it’s too bad they have to create so much work for everyone else who has to clean up after them …
What a great story! I wish I had noticed something like that from the years I worked in bookstores…..sadly, I guess Ottawa and Montreal aren’t as exciting – or daring……at least your Bookman knows that people are paying attention to his books and store! Though I have to agree, Hillary Clinton inspires either love or hate…..even up here in Canada, people have strong feelings about her. I can’t decide who I want to win the Democratic nomination, her or Obama….
I wouldn’t think this funny if I had to reshelve them, but I did laugh reading this. At least they are not destroying the books they disagree with. Sadly, at the big box bookstores near me (there are few independents) I don’t think that most of the staff would know how to place ‘hidden’ books back in their correct categories.
Though I would never do it, I gleefully think how fun it would be to reshelve an entire section of literary works in the ‘craft’ section which seems to have overtaken the majority of floorspace in the remodeled book store I frequent.
“If I hide Ann in the classics section no one will ever find her!”
I’ve noticed the same phenomenon in almost every big box bookstore I go to.
For someone determined to find Ann Coulter, of course they’ll find her. They probably already ordered it from Amazon. But for someone browsing political books without knowing what they’ll buy, it seems hiding Ann Coulter could have an effect. I don’t look through every last shelf at B&N if I’m looking for philosophy books. I go to the philosophy section and I don’t look in New Age. If someone has hidden the Hegel then I’m not going hunting for it. I’ll buy something else.
It is probably a waste of time to go to the effort of hiding books (the payoff is so small), and no conservative is going to buy Hillary’s book just because it’s placed over Coulter’s. But it would be strange if scattering books randomly throughout the store and hiding books didn’t have some effect on sales. If I’m wrong about this then maybe your bookstore should just put all the books in a big pile and assume that people will find what they want.
It’s sort of weird that people do that. Although I’ve never flipped a book around that I don’t like, I’ve flipped it back over–just to be ornery. You wonder what they must do when they go to the supermarket!
Stefanie, this is hilarious. You are always so fair about everything that I’m tickled pink by your singular form of political activism. I wouldn’t just pay to see it, I’d pay to you to do it!!
I have to agree with your gender point. I reckon one key reason (though not the only one) they both inspire such loathing is because they’re female. It makes my flesh creep to imagine a woman not just having but evangelising for AC’s views. UGH.
I knew a woman who spoke out a lot about how society turns women into sex objects. Her children, motivated by her speaking, would turn Cosmo magazines around at the check out counter to hide the highly exposed women. (Like the Hillary book, many of these probably had lusty pics on the back as well.) Anyhow, this got me thinking… maybe someone thinks that Ann and Hillary are too sexy…
Your story and the comments make me want to open a book store just so I can watch customers peculiarities.
Oh no! My comment is awaiting moderation! I need to watch my language I guess.