I may never go to the McKay book store again. I like the idea of a McKay book store, but when you get there you find that your idea has been trampled upon by reality. When you think of a bookstore, you think of 1) looking at books you want to look at 2) books being ordered in such a way that you can find the books you want to look at. Apparently, this idea doesn't work out fantastically in a real life used book store in Chattanooga on a Tuesday evening.
Used book stores (and their books) are great in some ways and not so great in others. I know they are limited to what people bring in so I can't slam them too hard on selection, but then again here is the major problem with the idea of a used book store: Why would someone turn in a good book? If the book is good, you most likely keep it. If the book sucks, you try and get rid of it. There's no way your going to read it again.
Therefore, used book stores are limited to bad books and books that are good but that you would not want to read more than once. And even if you can defeat that principle, you are still faced with the fact that every book in the joint is a book someone else doesn't want.
There is a way to turn that bag of lemons into lemonade, however. If people have bad taste they, by definition, dislike good books and like bad books. Therefore, a good used book store will be built on two solid foundational principles: 1) People with bad taste are their primary source of books and 2) People with good taste are their primary customers. To the extent that a used book store follows these principles the book store will profit and so will it suppliers and customers.
However, one more exception applies. Some books and authors are so bad, even people with bad taste will either hate them, or at best, read them once and get rid of the rubbish (preferably by sending them to a used book store that will pay for them). Because I looked at the Christian section, here are a few of the rubbish authors I am talking about (my opinion, of course):
1. Joyce Meyer: This crazy broad thinks she's the sh-t and she will try and tell you everything about anything that she knows nothing about. Including, but not limited to, Theology, how to control your relationship with God, Dieting, happiness, yelling at people, looking/sounding like a dude, etc.
2. Rick Warren: This dude loves numbers and the term "purpose." I've got another number for you Ricky--75--as in cents. That's how much your book is selling for at Mckay. Or, he may be trying to start a new movement: "Cotton Candy Theology." It's light, sweet and makes you feel good.
3. The crazy idiot who wrote the "Left Behind" series. I'm not sure if he based these books on the Bible or one of his butt cheeks.
I guess I just have to realize that Mckay "is what it is." If they have something that I want, great, if they dont, I just wasted two hours.
Comments (2)
JOSIAH! We really are MFEO! I have such McKay issues. It's only been in the last year that I started venturing there on my own. Before, I had to have a friend drag me around. The place, while great at times, makes me crazy because of the chaos. Almost every time I am there, everything is in a different place. They don't keep track of their inventory so there's no way to find out if they have something or even what section it's in if they do, because it probably isn't in the section it is supposed to be in. The workers are rude and unfriendly. And they never have the "Christian" books I want, only the ridiculous ones that you mentioned, which they have plenty of. And my neck always hurts when I leave because I've had to walk down all the aisles looking at the titles sideways. Ok, that last one is true for most every bookstore. But still, it just adds to my McKay issues.
But sometimes, I find something really really great there. And I treat McKay credit, especially yellow credit, like it's gold.