April 01, 2006

Psychic Readers' Corner, and An Invitation

by Jude Feldman

Book buyers frequently come in, embarrassed because they cannot remember the author or the title of the book they are seeking.  Speaking only for myself, I love these situations -- it is like an updated version of the old game show "What's My Line?"  And when you can guess correctly. . .oh, the job satisfaction!  The following are just a few actual examples of the hundreds of successful Psychic Bookseller Moments that have occurred at Borderlands Books, where our book sellers correctly guessed the title in one try, using only the vaguest of clues:

Q: "I'm looking for this book that is about a river."
A: To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip Jose Farmer.

Q: "This author sort of writes about religion."
A: James Morrow

Q: "I'm looking for a book about bridges in Wisconsin."
A: "You must mean 'The Bridges of Madison County'."

Q: "It's a fantasy series with an Asian feel, but not exactly, by two authors."
A: The Empire series, by Raymond Feist and Janny Wurts.

The list goes on and on.

A long time ago, when I worked in a metaphysical bookstore, a customer came to me seeking a book on Buddhism called "Born Into Bed".  The customer had been to several different bookstores, had no luck at all and was at wit's end.  I was able to find the book right away. . . it was actually called "Born In Tibet"!

So the invitation I spoke of is this: send us your fragments of memory, your descriptions of half-recalled book covers, and your breathless "I know there was an important character named Dan Davis, but I can't remember anything else!" queries.  (Extra points if you remember the book from that example!)  We'll call on our collective 25+ years of book selling experience to give you the author and title of the book you're seeking.  If we're stumped, we'll turn your question over to this mailing list (in an anonymous fashion), and see if our Psychic Readers (i.e. customers) can help!  (And don't worry, we'll never give out your personal information without permission.)

No comments:

Post a Comment