Bookstore Bingo: 13 Ridiculous Things Overheard In Bookstores (PHOTOS)

Is it really possible that some people don't know who Dante is, or, more shockingly, Shakespeare? According to bookstore employees, there are such people.

Using the hashtag #bookstorebingo, our booksellers on Twitter have been keeping us up to date on all of the ridiculous things being said in bookstores for some time, and the ones we've gathered recently are true gems!

Overheard anything ridiculous in a bookstore lately? Let us know in the comments!

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Spike5 said on 19 Tuesday 2011 am30 10:40 am: And the shocking thing is--these are people who actually go into bookstores. Imagine the ignorance level among people who never do!

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Comments

[elijahjoon]

09:47 PM on 04/21/2011

LOL. This article deserves a Pulitzer Prize, now that's Real Talk.

[Lev Raphael]

07:51 AM on 04/21/2011

Librarians and booksellers here all kinds of things, but they're not exposed the way authors are at book stores. Authors have it much worse. They play bookstore bingo all the time, whether they like it or not: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lev-raphael/bookstore-bingo-authors_b_850874.html

[Ivytwine97]

09:34 AM on 04/20/2011

daughter" I want to get that book Lolita by that Russian author"
monther "never heard of it"
daughter" you know the one about the girl who shot her lovers wife in Long Island"

WHAT?

[annkor26]

12:21 AM on 04/20/2011

This was years ago, but I never forgot it:

"Do you have The Silence of the Mariners?"

[ChinaCat]

03:50 PM on 04/19/2011

I, for one, am sure going to miss books...

[Sufferbus]

02:51 PM on 04/19/2011

"If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."

[Erewhon7]

02:27 PM on 04/19/2011

Excuse me, do you have a copy of a Koran with illustrations?

[Erewhon7]

02:24 PM on 04/19/2011

The greatest work of contemporary European fiction: Greek ferryboat schedules.

[Waltereg0]

02:21 PM on 04/19/2011

Most of these come from one twitterer, @allshiny.

[allshiny]

12:33 AM on 04/21/2011

Yes indeed. Nearly 5 years at Borders (and the subsequent liquidation) brought back all my fond memories...

[Montcalms Revenge]

02:05 PM on 04/19/2011

"Would you like to help me with my Longfellow..." ;-)

[William Johnson]

01:50 PM on 04/19/2011

I think this should be started for Librarians as well. I'm sure they hear very similar things. For me it was years ago when the young lady comes in asking: "What's the shortest biography you have?" It was book report time and someone was definitely not going for the "A" grade. I was tempted to respond, "I think they have Herve Villechaize's bio", but the person probably wouldn't have gotten it. (Thankfully I was a patron not a librarian with that attitude.)

[thinkingwomanmillstone]

01:24 PM on 04/19/2011

I'm sure one of the most ridiculous things ever said in a bookstore was "I'd like to buy a copy of Going Rogue."

[Annieke]

02:02 PM on 04/19/2011

Fanned, with a big grin on my face.

[escribacat]

11:09 PM on 04/19/2011

LOL.

[BlackJAC]

01:24 PM on 04/19/2011

All the Shakespeare I was required to buy for class throughout high school and college all had footnotes explaining the archaic terms used within.  I even have a Star Trek tie-in novel that does indeed "translate" Hamlet's to-be-or-not-to-be soliloquy into present-day English.

[ufopp]

01:14 PM on 04/19/2011

Just the fact that they are near books, attempting to buy, read, sell, whatever is a plus. The vast majority are indifferent and the joke's punch line is that bookstores are going bankrupt.

[Bergen2]

12:51 PM on 04/19/2011

These have to be made up.