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Janet - 2004-08-19 10:04:19
The lobby of the Orange County public library in Orlando features piped music. Now that is disconcerting. However, that library also presented a teen battle of the bands in the middle of the popular library (fiction & videos/DVDs area) during library hours. How cool is that? Provided you're not trying to do anything else with your brain anywhere else in the library at the time, that is.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-19 10:34:52
Is Barnes & Noble a library? Some people seem to think so. I think this is a disturbing trend in itself. When I worked there 7 years ago, kids used to do go there to do research for papers instead of to the library, because the library was closed at night. Many of the kids couldn't tell the difference. One college student came up and demanded that I "get the librarian to put out more tables, because there's nowhere left to sit." Another (grown) woman tried to pay with her library card.
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Paula - 2004-08-19 10:44:24
Ha! That's funny. Well, the thing I enjoy about B&N is that you can loaf there for hours, reading. I think all stores (at least bookstores and record stores) should cultivate that sense of slowness and relaxation and civility.
Even just reading the first few paragraphs of a book, to see if you're going to like it, requires concentration, and music works against that for most people. (I exclude those folks who insist they can read and listen to music at the same time).
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amatt - 2004-08-19 12:10:03
Guess I'm showing my age here, but when I was a kid in the late '60's, there was a music store on East 3rd and 2nd Ave that had soundproof booths that you were able to go into to listen to the record before you bought it. The same concept of the headphones in B&N, Borders, etc.
A funny useless anecdote is this, I was in there with my brother and his friend, and they were carving there name in the soundproofing, I thought that was cool, so I started doing it. I got caught. I then ratted out my brother and said that he was doing it also! From then on, the guy would always look at us when we went in there!
Is this story more interesting then P's last blog? Hmmm?
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Baby Party - 2004-08-19 12:52:30
Barnes & Noble writes off millions of dollars a year in damaged books and magazines because they allow people to relax and spill coffee on their stock. It's just the cost of doing business for them. But consider this: small independent bookstores, who are being driven out of business by chains like B&N, cannot afford the expense of writing off damaged books.
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Paula - 2004-08-19 12:59:49
BP, you jump from "people should feel free to browse and lounge" to "but then they will spill coffee on books." There's a happy medium here.
Wouldn't you prefer to live in a world where everyone wasn't in a hurry?
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Janet - 2004-08-19 13:53:13
Libraries are paying attention to bookstores - so more and more of them have in-house cafes and allow patrons to enjoy drinks while using the library. This is controversial within the industry.
But anyway, I hope I didn't write something to imply I was equating B&N with a library. Our tireless and beautiful blogmistress mentioned a bookstore with piped music, which caused me to remember a library with piped music. That's all. In fact, I'm now reminiscing about an elevator with piped music. And I would love to not be in a hurry.
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Disagreeable Bob - 2004-08-19 14:26:25
Boring my ass! I love the image of you karaoking "Suffragette City"... though actually I can't quite picture what way you'd go about it. Also, the ideal atmosphere while I'm reading surf magazines at Barnes & Noble I feel certain is important to me, though I'm not sure which side I come down on. It would depend on the quality of the music I guess, since surf magazines don't require much concentration, even when not just lookin' at the pictures.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-19 14:53:08
I knew your weren't equating the library with a bookstore, Janet. But Paula's story made me think of my B&N experience. Since I don't actually sit down and do serious reading in boostkore - just browsing - low-key music in a bookstore doesn't bother me, unless it's the same Christmas album played over and over for 8 hours straight, and I work there. That was bad.
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Baby Party - 2004-08-19 14:54:45
and music in a library is completely beyond the pale!
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Paula - 2004-08-19 15:23:48
Actually, Bob, "Suffragette" was a duo 'twixt myself and a fellow, and we employed classic rock moves and microphone tomfoolery. The audience did not go unrocked.
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Sharps - 2004-08-19 15:48:55
Hey! I was at the Freddy's karaoke last night. Anna Copa Cobana and I were going to sing "Don't You Want Me Baby" which I thought would have been a gas (Anna is Aussie and a real character for those of you who aren't from around here). Anyway, Anna thought we should save it and not do it right away, but while we were stalling some doofus yuppy couple beat us to it! My girlfriend, who wasn't there, is a real karaoke pro, a seasoned vet. I told her what happened and she said "Oh, I could have told you that would happen. That song always goes early." I hate karaoke.
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Paula - 2004-08-19 16:05:32
There seem to be staples: "I Love Rock & Roll", "Tainted Love," usually a Cher song of some kind.
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Dan - 2004-08-19 23:11:57
Baby Party made an interesting point: "being able to lounge in bookstores and read without buying" is probably the practical equivalent of "having only megabookstores and no more small independents." B&N is not only able to offer something that small bookstores can't afford (the opportunity to lounge and inadvertently destroy stock), but also big and influential enough that people now expect that something. It would be very interesting to read an article about how little bookstores cope with customers who now expect to be able to graze a la B&N.
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Bob - 2004-08-19 23:51:33
I don't destroy any stock at B&N, cuz they don't even manage to sell me coffee to spill on it. But if I may offer a stupid "it's all good" analogy, I think that their policy, rather than being an unfair advantage, is a little like the philosophy of Vans (a fairly large, highly profitable un-engineered shoe company) when they bring one of their large, well engineered, but highly expensive skateparks to a city. They actually have been known to donate significant sums of money toward the construction of a city skatepark that is going to compete somewhat for customers (at a lower price) with their skatepark, figuring that promoting skateboarding is going to lead to enough customers for all. And B&N's library-esque policy, which does indeed promote reading, while it may not be intended to help li'l bookstores, I don't think is intended to hurt them, and I doubt that it does have a net hurtful effect.
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2fs - 2004-08-20 00:17:27
What's with these gorillas who can't browse books or magazines without destroying 'em? And any bookstore, of any size, that doesn't encourage its customers to browse, coffee or no, is no bookstore I want to patronize. But it is sad, that some folks are so accustomed to yr B&Ns etc. that if a bookstore doesn't have a bunch of enormous comfy chairs, they're put off. Oh - and I almost invariably read while listening to music, unless I'm either listening really closely or reading really closely. It's a form of ADD or sumpin' - I have a hard time concentrating on one thing at a time, I guess. Not as bad as this guy I shared an apt. with junior year of college, who'd listen to the radio and watch TV - with the sound on - at the same time. There - have I out-boring'd Paula's main entry yet?
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Bob - 2004-08-21 23:34:09
Regarding karaoke duos, a while back I questioned whether Gwinneth Paltrow really had all that much to do with the female voice in "her" and Huey Lewis' airplayed duet of "Cruisin'", from their karaoke movie, but I see she's been cast to play Peggy Lee in some movie (I think about Truman Capote), so, who knows?
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