Temping

I answered an ad for help taking inventory at the Avid Reader bookstore, and so today, from 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., I read out prices from books while my inventory partner made hash marks on price sheets. I must have handled a thousand books, maybe more. It's all a blur.

The sections I inventoried were Philosophy (religion, astrology, etc.), Science/Nature (the funnest and most frustrating section because there's so much there I want to read but no time to browse today), Reference (a giagantic category encompassing foreign language instruction, dictionaries, study guides, etc.), Business (lots of Nolo Press titles in that one), Parenting (overall impression: parents are terrified of their children and need many, many books to help them deal with the little tyrants), and the Remainders (how did most of these get published in the first place?)

I can tell you that the most popular price for a paperback book is $14. 95. I saw many titles that I would have loved to linger over, but titles weren't what we were supposed to be paying attention to. One title, however, did stick in my mind: Madame Bovary's Ovaries. I intend to take a closer look at that one the next time I'm at the bookstore.