As you must know by now I work at Popular, my happiest place on Earth since childhood. I love books, but unfortunately, being in the Multimedia/CD-Rama department, I don't work alongside them much.
I do get to interact with books, namely the times when there's nothing to do and no customers to serve. It's not my department, but I can't stand looking at the messy shelves. At the same time I rearrange them, of course I'd thumb through some books, read a little here and there.
There are some days when only one out of the two English books department staff are working. Those days, when they're on their break and the cashier pages for English department staff, I'd go and see what's up.
Well I can say I do have potential to be in this department, heh. However it's not good for me, because sometimes I tend to get a little too excited.
When a customer asks for a book that I've heard of, I get excited.
When a customer asks for a book that I myself have been wanting to read, I get more excited.
When a customer asks for a book that I have already read, I get even more excited.
I tend to be over-enthusiastic. The other time someone asked my colleague for help, who in turn came to me, handing me a piece of paper with the book the customer wanted. It was The 5th Wave! I just read it in February, and I loved it, and of course I got excited when I saw it.
And not only that but I knew exactly where to find it. Because I knew the author is one thing, but I knew because I've spent about 80% of my free time walking through the shelves of the English books, and I've seen every book in every nook and cranny. *proud smile*
It was worse when the customer asked me about the book; "This is the first book right? There's a second book?" I straightway answered "YES! The second one is called The Infinite Sea, and there's also the third book coming out later this year," blah blah blah. I just can't help it.
Another time, this kid kept coming to me and asking about books, and I was more than excited to help him. I love it when kids read books, heh. When he got the 3 books he wanted, I asked him if there was anything else I could help him with.
"I think that's it, I have 3 books already," and the temptation to say "THREE BOOKS ISN'T ENOUGH, KID" was just too high. I loved that kid already, the way he clutched his books to his chest.
That same day, a father came to me with his son, asking about Captain Underpants. I exclaimed a very excited "Oh! Let me show you," to which the father said, "See, she immediately knew what was Captain Underpants!"
I couldn't have said it more excitedly: "Of course I know, it's my childhood!"
This over-enthusiasm can be a little embarrassing sometimes though. Just like yesterday, a customer came asking about The Kite Runner. I've read that, I loved it, the main character shares the same name as my other half... Of course I knew where to find it.
After passing it to her, she asked for another book. "A Thousand..." she started, but I straightway took out A Thousand Splendid Suns, by the same author as The Kite Runner, and shoved it in her face. But no, it wasn't the book she was about to say, and that was just embarrassing.
I really do love my job and gathering all these moments to share. My colleagues have called me crazy after I said I wanted to work here until the day I die, heh *sheepish grin*
Whitesands has destroyed my places of childhood, the Popular outlet and the library. But here I am working in a Popular as a teenager, and I would love to bring this legacy along into my adulthood as well. Who knows, I might be a manager in the future ^^
No comments:
Post a Comment