I enjoy the atmosphere of Beavercreek’s Barnes & Noble; the academic hustle of college students in the café has drawn me in for over six years. However, and this could partly be due to my homage to all those “Shop[s] Around the Corner,” the more I learn about big business, the less I frequent the chains. Sure they are still avenues for learning, but what exactly is this mega-store teaching? One could say that big business is all about sales and I agree—kind of.
Stay with me…
So sales—we all know that George W. Bush and Sarah Palin both have new autobiographies out. What an easy sale these both will be this holiday season; Fox News should get proceeds for all the marketing assistance they’ve offered. I definitely plan to read both. But the reason for my most recent trip to Barnes & Noble was to purchase the Mark Twain autobiography—the new one—written by Twain himself with the direction that it would not be published until 100 years after his death. Personally, I find that mere idea fascinating…not to mention the contents that patiently let WWII, The Great Depression, “I have a dream . . .,”etc. pass through it, remaining unaffected. Now I knew that I’d be swarmed by the Nook salesperson. I knew that the still-alive, conservative authors would wallpaper the entrance. But I also thought that Twain’s book would have its own display, proud—like Bush and Palin’s. I couldn’t find it. Hmmm…perhaps it was sold out. After all, the New York Times did make known in a recent article that it would be hard to find “in stock.” Again, sales…yes, I know. But folks, this is a book (the first of three volumes) that will be studied for centuries and we are the first to touch it. Well, I did get to touch it, but only after I had to ask a salesperson to help me find it. Oh and yes, she had to look it up. !!! I don’t like the world I live in—that knows about the Twilight series and not Twain.
So there it was and regardless of the fact that it was buried among about two dozen random biographies, when I picked it up, it took my breath. Now I guess I should have prefaced this article with the fact that I’m not a historian. I’m not an academic; I don’t even have a Masters degree. In fact, I have a business degree so I understand the basics on how these businesses stay afloat. But there are (or should be) certain holes where these masterpieces are able to surface, regardless of whether they sell like hotcakes. So who fits them in the holes? I can only hope that the powers that decide this bookstore’s marketing strategies are simply ignorant. Perhaps they don’t really know who Mark Twain was—and no, he’s not just the creator of Tom and Huck. But shouldn’t “the powers” know? Aren’t they part of the link that connects knowledge to hungry minds? Yet how much ignorance can this society accept, especially when as of today, Twain’s book is the #1 best seller on the Barnes & Noble website! I’m strangely feeling this twitch, this need to quote from one of his essays, “Corn-pone Opinions,” but I’ll resist. Why oh why is this book not out for the world to see, instead of buried—disrespected—on a wobbly table in the back of the store, with several biographies that will end up at the bargain bookstore across the street in a few months??? 
I will conclude by telling you that the salesperson who helped me has been working at the store for as long as I have been a weekly (sometimes even daily) customer, but I am aware that such a large store requires the help of high school and college students that might not be completely…in the know. But the managers—and their bosses—and their bosses, folks this is a trickling-down effect. Learn one. Do one. Teach one. Spread the wealth and by wealth, well...you know what I mean. ~G
