Bardiac's Big Bookstore Adventure

I couldn't find my copy of one of the books I'm teaching this semester. I'm guessing it's buried in a pile of books somewhere in the BardiacShack (tm), but I couldn't find it. So I braved the bookstore today to get another copy. Heck, it never hurts to have a second copy of a book I'm teaching.

I must have been a truly evil child, because if my parents had tried to go to my college bookstore with me, I would have flipped out.

Not true of many students here, it seems. Either that or we suddenly have a massive influx of non-traditional students, which should make first year classes really interesting!

Seriously, at least half of the youngish looking customers in the store were accompanied by someone who looked to be from my generation. As often as not, two folks like me were following around one youngish looking person, each of the older folks carrying an armload of books while the younger person worried a bookstore printout. (The bookstore makes a printout for any student so that s/he gets a list of class texts. Neat, eh?)

What's more, these people seemed to be talking to each other in voices NOT dripping in sarcasm or impatience. Some of them appeared to be smiling at each other. They weren't screaming at each other.

Even more surprising, they weren't fainting or screaming about the book prices.

I found the book I needed, and raided another profs book selection for a book that looked really fun. (Yes, I still raid the bookstore looking for really interesting books.)

And then I checked to make sure that the shelves for my other classes were in order and such. Alas, no such luck. Two books are missing from my first year class shelf area. OOPS. I talked to the bookstore manager, and it appears that the order never went in, and given the general competence and efficiency of the English department office staff here, I'm probably the root cause of the problem. I apologized to the bookstore manage and she smilingly said she'd order up the books and let me know when they got in. I apologized again, and thanked her, all the while swearing at my own idiocy for not checking the order info more carefully after I put it in.

One of my former advisees is working in the bookstore, so we chatted about her plans while I got into line. Shockingly, the line moved FAST. Almost walking speed fast. (How are our students going to learn proper line standing patience?) That didn't stop me from overhearing one student, arms full of books, tell another that there's no way she's going to buy all the required books since they'll only be reading a page or two out of them. Happily, her arms weren't full of books for MY courses!

And that was my bookstore adventure.

To sum up: holy cow, parents are taking their kids shopping for college text books! My mind boggles.

I screwed up. I'm not really surprised.

And I found a neat new book, with lots of cool pictures!