Day Twenty Six
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen Page: 441
I enjoyed my heavy dose of Jane Austen today as I knew I would but I have many other things to write about besides the plot of Mansfield Park.
Maybe it’s the cumulative effect of always being at the bookstore and therefore having very little privacy or maybe it’s just ill-temper but today I have been extremely irritated by my customers. First it was a group that included a toddler asking to leave their kid behind the counter with me “so she could play with the other baby (Alex)” and then when I said no, he would be leaving with his grandparents soon (which was just the readiest excuse…I’m not watching your kid!), then it was the three people who all wanted to chat and ask me to look things up for them while I was in the middle of my sandwich (the first food I’d eaten today) and finally I just had a lady asking me to fetch her the high chair. Now it’s Alex’s highchair, brought from home so he can sit and eat behind the counter, not one out in the bookstore and I know they must have assumed the opposite but the presumption was still irritating. Who thinks they can just leave their kid behind the counter in a store and the clerk will watch it for them? I know I have a little one back here but he’s mine and this is his home, Alex doesn’t need a playmate (he’s barely one!) and I don’t want your kid’s runny nose to wipe! If you want to drink your coffee in peace then hire a babysitter. And I know the chatty customers shouldn’t bother me but there is no place for me to go for uninterrupted time. It’s bad enough being a mom and having children demanding your attention constantly but combine that with being in public all the time and it builds up a bit. I’m normally quite peaceful with our lifestyle but today the lack of food and my mood weren’t making it easy to deal with.
I can’t decide whether I like my Everyman’s best with or without their jackets. Generally I’m all for having books in their original state which would mean taking these jacketed but the cloth and gilt bindings underneath the jackets are so very lovely I kinda wish I could see them all lined up on the shelves with their different colored bindings. Now I certainly appreciate the original intent of the jacket to protect the binding underneath but what with paper’s fragility they need protecting too if they will retain their original loveliness (and Everyman’s has done a wonderful job with the jackets) and I’m not sure I can afford all these books and 160 Brodarts at about 50 cents each.
This is with the jacket
And this without
What do you think?
January 26th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
It’s pretty pathetic that the one year old is the one that’s easy to deal with. Makes you want to tell all the “adults” to buzz off!
ANYWAY. It’s a hard decision to make. Personally I like the colorful dust cover but I understand that it may be easier to deal with the books without it. Huh, that didn’t help much did it…
January 27th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Heya, Mandi.
I have to say, I generally like books better without their jackets. I love the way the solid bindings and letterings look, and I’m always afraid I’m going to rip the paper jackets … eh. Oh, well. The Everyman’s look quite nice without the jacket.
Anemone
January 28th, 2008 at 7:22 am
You could always hand the rude ones the little blue cards you have printed up for your blog…
January 28th, 2008 at 7:54 am
Go with the dust jackets and Brodarts all the way! If you spend an average of $10 on the book, what is another $0.50?
January 28th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Well…another 50 cents is $80 which is 8 books…
January 28th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Have you ever wondered if the customers who are being rude read your blog? Knowing you, you are probably hoping that they are reading it, but it would be fun to know.
On a different note, I have noticed that not all the Everyman’s have DJ. Or at least, not all of them being sold in those unmentionable “book”-stores on the _other_ side of town.
January 28th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
They actually don’t all have jackets. Boswell came jacket-less from Everyman’s. So this lends support to the de-jacketing party. And yes I hope the rude ones read my blog so they can learn and mend their erroneous ways but I doubt they are.