Field Notes from a Bookseller

The good, the bad, the literary.

Two people stand in front of my desk passionately debating the validity of an underground chicken club, sparring partners on opposite ends of the spectrum, discussing the ethics of it all, while I try to follow the bouncing ball. 

No, I’m not telling you where it’s held, it’s a secret club.

But what exactly do you do there?

If I told you then it wouldn’t be secret, now would it?

A long silence unfolds.

Are you taking new members?

No.

And with nothing else to say the man takes his exit, leaving the woman puzzled and pining for something she didn’t know she wanted in the first place. She follows him out.

This heated exchange is just one of the many awkward, uncomfortable, and strange conversations I might bear witness to on any given day, alongside the warm-hearted, pull-on-the-heartstrings tender moments that might unfold without notice or preparation. I might be called upon to settle a disagreement, mediate between two clashing adversaries as much as I would be looked upon to offer a sympathe…