Do you have a favourite section of the bookstore? I do.
While it's officially known as the "Community and Culture" section at my local big box bookstore, I call it the "Weirdos" section. And in particular, in my most local branch of said local big box bookstore, the Weirdos are shoved all the way in the back of a corner of the store, along with Eastern Philosophies and pseudo-sciences, so yes, there can be some, uh...interesting characters back there.
"Community and Culture" is where the hapless store merchandisers put, well, the counter-culture, non-mainstream books. In this section, I've found such treasures as a book of essays on Zombies as studied by various faculties and departments at a local university, an autobiography on the owner of a call-girl service, Barbara Ehrenrich's sociological studies on the working poor in America, all books written by Dan Savage, books on the gay community, the black community, the aboriginal community, drug culture, feminism, and of course, anthropological studies on nerds.
I can and have spent upwards of an hour or so, hanging out in the Weirdos section because by far this is the most interesting mishmash of subjects, all of which are bound by a single but strong undertone: the subjects of these wayward books are all bound by their unabashed brand of humanity.
It's really the most fascinating place to be in a bookstore.
Come find the Weirdos...
...Wish you were here.
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