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Frugal Chariots & Other Nonsense
Bookselling is cheaper than grad school. |
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June 16, 2003
On my lunch break today I went out for a bagel, and the woman at the register told me that the Junie B. Jones books were terrible for children and should be banned. (she knows I work at the bookstore... I eat a lot of bagels) And I mentioned that we couldn't really ban them at the bookstore because there are lots of people who like them (I didn't mention that banning books is horrible... she was still ringing up my lunch) And she said that if need be, she'd ban them by getting people to sign a petition to pull them out of bookstores. I'm thinking: "are you nuts?" and "This is my half hour lunch break ticking away." I said that there might be some... um... legal issues there... and then quickly recommended the Magic Tree House series. And then grabbed my lunch and spent the rest of my break reading a Junie B. Jones book (Excerpt here). And now I'm really wondering what I'm going to say tomorrow when I want another bagel.
Replies: 4 comments After reading that excerpt, I think I'd like to ban those books, too. (kidding) There's something really condescending about books narrated by child characters in the first person. They are, after all, not written by children.Maybe Bagel Lady wants to ban them because they're Satanic. Do you have people like that in Maine? Posted by Tim @ 06/17/2003 05:58 PM EST Maybe it's just me, but I kept expecting that excerpt to have doves and a slow-motion gunfight.Posted by Sarazino Magnifico @ 06/17/2003 07:23 PM EST We have all kinds of people in Maine. And I get to deal with quite a few of them on a regular basis... though it could be a lot worse. I could work at a gas station or something.Posted by Elizabeth @ 06/17/2003 07:47 PM EST For the record, I don't really like kid-speak/first person slang either. I find it kind of annoying. It was the bagel woman's ferocity more than her opinion that startled me... the fact that she thinks she can ban books if she doesn't like them.Posted by Elizabeth @ 06/17/2003 07:50 PM EST |
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