I was browsing in W.H. Smiths this afternoon, and in the book section I
noticed a notice blu-tacked to the end of a bookshelf. It was long and
rambling, but the gist was that it was instructions to people putting
out books in the fiction section to remember that books were not only
arranged alphabetically by author, but also alphabetically by title
within in an author. Also, make sure the book was actually fiction and
not, say, True Crime. Further, make sure that it was in the right
section - Scifi/horror, romance, crime, etc.
I saw another copy of the notice on another shelf. There was no WHS
logo on the notices. I did wonder if they had been put up by a
customer annoyed that they could never find the books they were looking
for, or it was just an unofficial attempt by the head of the book
department to get their staff to do things the way they liked it.
I'm sure we've all got stories about books wrongly shelved in shops.
My favourite was a book that came out in the seventies. It was a
popular but serious examination of the effect television was having on
society. However, it was called The Ravening Eye, and the paperback
had a cover showing a TV set sprouting metallic tentacles. I found a
copy in Smiths in the SF section.
I also note that there is a new section in Smiths called Paranormal
Romance. It included both Jim Butcher's Dresden books and Laurel K.
Hamilton's Anita Blake books, which don't strike me as romances in the
modern meaning of the word.
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