Hi everyone,
My copy of Janice Raymond's new book just arrived and I'm running out to pick it up shortly, which is very exciting. As usual now, the bookstore emailed me to let me know that the book was in. These emails are of course short, and usually list the full book title. Here's what this one says, details anonymized to protect all parties concerned.
Hi Alexiares, this is Jane Does's Books.
Thank you for your order!
These item(s) are ready for pick up:
- Doublethink: A Feminist Challenge...
On behalf of Jane Doe's, we greatly appreciate your business! Please contact us if you have any questions.
I have purchased books with way longer titles, this was a deliberate choice on the staff person's part. A portion of the staff is uber-woke at this store, but the owners and the staff more generally are not on board. There is a subtle shelving war happening in the relabelled women's section (the relabelling happened only within the last 18 months or so, somebody took advantage of the pandemic). Somebody keeps putting all this transextremist dreck up, and somebody else keeps merrily finding books on actual women and lesbians with those words a prominent part of the title and putting those right up. The lesbian and women books sell really well, and I think they got a river of complaints that forced them to remove the execrable book by the man who was shortlisted for a women's prize for writing sissification porn.
Such times!
It might just be their software. One way to tell would be to order another book with a subtitle and see if that gets cut off.
Ha, wow, it's so obvious, isn't it.
And thanks for the reminder about this book...
Fascinating about the shelving war! Somebody doing the good work.
Further to the shelving war, the label for “women’s studies” has been dug out and put back up. It’s so old it is yellow compared to the new, fancy “LGBT+WTF” and “queer studies” signs, but I love how plucky it is, and how the books are actually being sorted out. There was a traffic jam at the women’s study section because so many people were looking at the books the other day. lol
Wow, I want your bookshop in my neighborhood!
It’s really all about the people there, as it is now owned by a core group of longterm employees, and they are quite serious about maintaining a solid inventory. The arguing is part of a conversation they are having with the newer staff I think, and most of the newer staff are very young – and intriguingly enough, primarily women. It’s not at all like going to Chapters or something, where I think the new corporate policy is that staff are required to remain virtually chained to the cash register, and it seems like all the shelving goes on when the store is closed.