I shelve the Political Science section at work. And I use that term loosely. I studied poli sci and I don't think there is one book in that section that I read for school. Maybe, some Chomsky, but it was most likely have been an essay in a journal. Most of the books in that section are written by people you would see on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. In a nutshell, it's popular and mainstream stuff. I sometimes wish we could change the name of it to the Current Affairs Section, or the Pompous A-Holes Tell You What to Think Section. Or maybe the Who Wrote a Book About Politics? Section. There are books by senators, and speech writers and lots of lawyers. Of course there are the pundits and my two personal favorites, books by Ted Nugent and Chuck Norris, and just to tickle my funny bone a bit more, those last two are shelved right next to each other. Yay!
When I shelve that section, and especially when I choose displays or face outs for that section, I try very hard to remain unbaised. I've done displays that were books from the right and left and then middle ground books in betwixt the two. I've done displays with all tv personalities, and displays of new books that I do or do not agree with. I've done an Obama display that had pro and anti Obama books. And I've even done a display of books that were simply all blue, subject matter completely aside.
But the other day as I was shelving, there was a gentleman browsing and when his wife came by and they began to leave he muttered something I couldn't understand, and then she said, "Well, their all liberals here." And he said, "Yeah, they have the Anne Coulter book, but it's hidden away."
There are a few things I don't understand, first being, have you no idea where you live? And second, how can you say that book was hidden when it was in it's place on it's shelf? I had no idea how devious I was being when I shelved the Anne Coulter book with the rest of the c's. And there were even 5 copies of it and it was faced out. I actually intentionally faced it out because I knew people would want it and this way it would be easier to see. And if they had been in a week earlier they would have seen the Anne Coulter book along with the Micheal Medved book (that claims America never committed genocide against the native Americans), and that Obama hating tome, Obamanation; all of them, you guessed it...on display!
So believe what you want, read what you want, but don't you dare tell me that my shelving techniques are biased.
