Borders' Rant

Let me start by stating that I love bookstores. With an unhealthy, unholy, unnatural love. Would they let me, I would move into one and sleep there, happily surrounded by books. It takes a lot for me to dislike a bookstore.

But the Borders here in my town? Worthy of all the dislike a non-violent, generally agreeable bibliophile can throw at it. Its selection makes me weep. I get excited, because it's a decent size, and this is a podunk town, so it's really the best we have to offer here. Then I go in, and they've rearranged it so the sci-fi/fantasy section is shoved in some corner, illogically laid out, and with shelves so far above my head I have to scour the store to find a stool to see if behind a row of books lies the book I came in the store for. Disgusted, I almost left, knowing that in two days, I shall be near a Barnes & Noble of much higher caliber, and really, within driving distance of some even better independents. Of course, that's a different fish entirely. I love independents, but when I want a huge selection and to meander and know I'll still find several things, a B&N is often the less disappointing way to go.

But I digress. So, I almost leave a bookstore empty-handed, a rare occasion, but finally I find what I was looking for, so I take it and the other random finding and start to meander the general fiction section. Another haphazardly and annoyingly laid out mess that looks as though it were put together by ten-year-olds with no book appreciation (and let's face it, it probably was). I stumble on the also-recently-moved gay literature section, so I stop to see what's new there. Alas. In this Borders, gay literature is relegated to half a shelf, called "gay male" literature, but has several books with "lesbian" in the title, and they are all erotic fiction. Seriously? There's a whole other erotica section. Put the erotica there. I like my erotica all in one place in anyway so I can peruse it all without having to find bits wedged here and there (or god forbid in the romance section, the only one other than religion I avoid like the fucking plague).

There I am, looking at this pathetic half-shelf, and I am incensed. How dare they assume that people looking for gay literature only want erotica? I'm not sold on labeling it separately anyway, any more than I'm sold on separating out black literature or women's literature or whatever. But if you're going to do it, fricking do it right.

I was so mad I only bought three books.

(I know, I know, I should have bought zero on principle, but...um...it was a bookstore. I had books. I. I. I....I have a problem....) Is there an AA for books?