There are always copies of The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. There are always copies of The Two Towers or Return of the King, but frequently no copies of The Fellowship of the Ring. There are always copies of the Chronicles of Narnia books, but never an entire set from the same printing. The staff will always have an author that they will defend their excellent writing while acknowledging that they were horrible human beings, e. g. H. P. Lovecraft, Ernest Hemingway, and recently we get to add Neil Gaiman. If you’re very lucky, someone came in and sold a first autographed edition that’s worth $100+ but the buyer screwed the pooch and priced it at $10.
Edit: Hang out long enough, and you’ll get to hear a customer come in and ask “Can you recommend a book for me?” without providing any more helpful details, and you can hear the staffer’s soul break just a tiny bit more.
There are always copies of The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran. There are always copies of The Two Towers or Return of the King, but frequently no copies of The Fellowship of the Ring. There are always copies of the Chronicles of Narnia books, but never an entire set from the same printing. The staff will always have an author that they will defend their excellent writing while acknowledging that they were horrible human beings, e. g. H. P. Lovecraft, Ernest Hemingway, and recently we get to add Neil Gaiman. If you’re very lucky, someone came in and sold a first autographed edition that’s worth $100+ but the buyer screwed the pooch and priced it at $10.
Edit: Hang out long enough, and you’ll get to hear a customer come in and ask “Can you recommend a book for me?” without providing any more helpful details, and you can hear the staffer’s soul break just a tiny bit more.