The Playful Antiquarian

Conversations overheard at the bookstore

July 19th, 2003

This weekend it seems that I am in a list-making mood. Here is a short list of bits of conversation I heard last night at Wordsworth in Harvard Square:

• Father to his elementary school age son while standing in the poetry section: “I promise this torture won’t last but a few seconds more.”
• Man in the literary criticism section to no one in particular: “Why such depressing music? Why?” (in reference to the Dar Williams’ cover of REM’s “Fall on Me” playing in the background)
• Conversation between several store employees:
  • “Let’s all go to New York right now.”
  • “Why? What would we do there?”
  • “We could go to the American Museum of Natural History.”
  • “On a Friday night?”
  • “Why not?” (And this led to a long conversation about each person’s favorite American Museum of Natural History memory.)
• Clerk to customer: “Are you a professor? Usually, when people say that they only have two weeks a year to read fiction they are professors.”
• Clerk to another clerk (I think): “One woman came in today and bought $500 worth of books. She was from New Zealand and only buys books once a year.”

And, if you are curious, I bought the July issue of The Believer (which I read most of last night) and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones (after finally giving up on waiting for a paperback edition). I really wanted Jon Krakauer’s new book, but I decided to wait a little while.

Entry Filed under: Personal Miscellany, Playful Reading