Occupational hazards

Is it possible for a bookseller to commit malpractice? And could I be sued?

I ask because I work in a bookstore, and have worked in a number of different bookstores over the last decade or so, big and small. I met my beloved Vicki while we were working together at a bookstore, and it's a great job to have as a student, and seeing as it looks like I'll be in school for most of my adult life...

But there are certain books that I really think we just shouldn't sell. And, believe it or not, neither climate change deniers nor Michael Ignatieff are on that list. No, this little ramble is prompted by the woman who asked if we could hold a book for her last night. The book, to my dismay, was on "curing your addiction" through diet changes.

Look, people can buy any number of stupid-ass books, and I don't care. You want to read Mark Steyn, go ahead, just don't make me. But when a book promises an "easy, pain-free" cure to addiction -- with a 74% success rate, no less! -- I shudder inside. You're messing with people's lives. And I'm employed by the pusher. (Does that make me a mule?)

Even sadder was the fact that we'd already extended this hold, and the woman swore up and down she'd be in before Friday to pick it up... the same thing she'd said last Friday. Despair.

All this made the guy who complained about our "biased" book selection being unfair to climate change deniers seem even more ridiculous than normal. Note to jackass: we sell what sells. And apparently, your crackpot idea about global warming not happening, or being caused by penguins with investments in real estate, or whatever the fuck you crazy people believe, is so pathetic that the "desperate addicts looking for easy solutions" is a more lucrative market. That's right, you're less popular and influential than the not-quite-rock-bottom-yet crowd.

Hm. Need something to pick up my mood.