09 September 2007

Not A Reference Book


Not A Reference Book, originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

I used to think that Waterstones was a relatively decent book shop but that opinion has been evaporating recently. The popular science section has books about the human soul and the afterlife slotted in, the academic science section had books about "The Law of Attraction" aka "The Secret" stocked there. The Secret is not science ffs it's woo of the highest order. Now you can just about understand that book shops are pretty poor on what is science after all their employees are not trained librarians and they tend to work there because they love reading (classics, literature) not because they love the science, but surely they should be able to recognise a reference book from entertainment.

3 comments:

  1. It may not be a reference book, but it should be a reference book! It would make life so much easier... :0)

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  2. Totally agree with you Jane about the science section.

    Maybe we need to set up a UK wing of this movement

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  3. And another thing, all the 'History' seems to be based on one conflict or another, the most common being about various German regiments in WWII. And I couldn't find a thing about gender/sexual orientation in a huge Waterstones recently, even though the guy on the till was REALLY camp! And the only Art books were 'how to', not even an impressionist in sight. Lots of silly self help books though, from how not to get cancer, to how to make a million. Why do those books always have a number in the title - "Twenty Three Habits of Stupid Managers", "Fifteen Fruit to Cure Heart Disease", "Twelve Ways to Love Yourself More".

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