And how obscure can we get today?

[ArenaBoy]

Wiki will have fully assimilated the world when my prof accepts it as a citation source.

Wish mine would. They have a strict no Wikipedia policy. Either way I don't use it anyway for school.

Oh for god sakes, just say it!!

C: Yeah, I'm looking for....um....I....erm.....You know when a woman and a man....um, do it.....they do it.....
Me: Sex books?
C: Shhhh!!!
Me: *makes him follow me, points them out*
C: No, don't point it out!!
Me: Look, here it is. *leaves*

Guy then spends an astonishing 1 hour just looking at the spines. And then quietly leaves.

Heh, that is always an amusing sight to see in bookstores, a person freaking out when they're going through the sex section.

[Marxfan]

Ah, customers looking for sex books. Some are completely mealy-mouthed like your customer. Others are just a wee bit too confident about it. I once had this woman, had to have been in her 40s, loudly and nonchalantly ask for a book simply called "G-Spot". Oooh, and she messed with me really badly. I looked it up on the computer and had to chase after her and tell her that we didn't have it, then she asked me how much it was (had to go back), who wrote it (had to go back), etc. Evil and horny, scary combination.

[Imogene]

I once had this woman, had to have been in her 40s, loudly and nonchalantly ask for a book simply called "G-Spot".

*blink*
I can just imagine that interaction...
OL: "Yes, can you help me find 'G-Spot'?"
RJ: *blink, blink blink*
<clean>"Lady, if you don't know where it is at your age, you've suffered through some terrible relationships."
</clean>"Ever seen 'Deepthroat'?"

[Pezzle]

Wow, I have people coming up to the counter asking for the BDSM books all the time without batting an eye.

Sorry.

[BookstoreEscapee]

5th edition, huh? Shouldn't be too hard...not to many books make to 5 whole editions...

I used to get asked a lot (especially in September and January) "Do you carry textbooks?" Stock answer was "As a rule, no, be we can usually order them." Then they would proceed to give us some generic textbook-title like Intermediate Accounting that has 39827 listings with different authors/publishers and edition numbers and no way of telling if it was the correct one. Don't these people get a syllabus? When I was in school I never had one that didn't include the full title and author, and edition number if applicable**. I've even seen people bring them into the store to show me the list! (And if I'm really lucky, the professor was smart enough to include the ISBN and everything.) Alas, those instances were definitely the exception, not the rule.

**Then again, I went to a tiny school in the middle of nowhere, and the closest bookstore was a Borders half an hour away. At the beginning of each semester the campus "bookstore" (aka the t-shirt and candy store) turned the "theater" (aka giant empty room with retractable bleachers) into an actual bookstore, lined with long tables, and all the professors would order the books they were using and you would go buy them all in one shot. So much easier and you didn't have to worry about them running out, since they knew ahead of time how many people would be looking for which books.

[Hon'ya-chan]

What it is it with these morons who think that regular book stores have their textbooks? In Sandy Eggo ther are three colleges of any significance. The morons who call me looking for their textbooks are all from San Dieg State, which is pretty much a party school.

Not a textbook, a Mystery Book. Yeah, I can name a bunch of mysteries that have gone past 5 editions. All written by JD Robb.

Wish mine would. They have a strict no Wikipedia policy. Either way I don't use it anyway for school.

Thats why you steal the references section.

[OhHerro]

This didn't happen to me, but a friend of mine.

My ASM and a bookseller were working the customer service desk. The ASM was using one of the computers to work on ordering more books for the store. A lady comes up to the desk wanting help. Initially she addresses the ASM. The bookseller, L, (who was around 16 or 17) knows she is working on something so she steps in:

L: Hi, can I help you?
SC: Um . . . I believe I was talking to HER! (the ASM)
L: [Bewildered]
ASM: [Breaking away from what she was doing] Alright, what can I help you find?
SC: Yes, I wanted to know if you had the book Why Do Men Have . . . [then she covers her mouth so L can't see and whispers] . . . Nipples?
L: [suppressing laughter]

apparently L was too young to be asked to find a book with the word "nipple" in it. That became our on going joke from then on.

[Broomjockey]

Why do people constantly want to use Wikipedia as a reference? For me, it's basically a card catelogue. The well written articles in there have the references. You go to the references and grab what you need from there, all indexed as to topic.

And wikipedia shouldn't be accepted by teachers for a serious academic paper because it's not peer reviewed by a board, but simply monitored by a bunch of random people. And frankly, the teachers want it to be peer reviewed and accountable in some way. Even if wikipedia is often way more interesting...

Slightly more related to the OP, if you can't say the words without blushing or giggling, you're not old enough.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Heh, that is always an amusing sight to see in bookstores, a person freaking out when they're going through the sex section.

Better than them making out in the sex section...
(yes, I've seen it - always high school kids)

apparently L was too young to be asked to find a book with the word "nipple" in it. That became our on going joke from then on.

Hehe, I remember when that book came out; we had an entire endcap display of just that book on the first endcap past the CS desk. You couldn't miss it!

[Gurndigarn]

5th edition, huh? Shouldn't be too hard...not to many books make to 5 whole editions...

They're looking for Paranoia, of course! Sadly, the fifth edition is out of print.

[Killer Bees]

I don't understand the signifcance of the Zeon logo thing. What was the guy talking about?

[ArenaBoy]

Better than them making out in the sex section...
(yes, I've seen it - always high school kids)

FFS, it's unoriginal. Try the bedroom please.

*Makes mental note to bust high schoolers in the sex section at bookstores.*

[AnaKhouri]

Generally by the time you're out of high school you are having sex, so you don't need to hunch over the sex books in a bookshop and giggle about them. It's always high schoolers in my store too.

The worst Obscure Question I ever Got:

SC: I want this book on the Creation. I don't remember the title or author.

Me: Is is a recent release?

SC: It came out in the past couple years.

I sigh and begin a search, which I know will be an exercise in futility.

I have been searching for all of 30 seconds when she says,

SC: I don't have time for this. I'll try another bookstore.

Yeah, good luck with that, bitch.

[Hon'ya-chan]

I don't understand the signifcance of the Zeon logo thing. What was the guy talking about?

From what i've heard, the US Military frowns upon "excessive, offensive, or otherwise distracting" tattoos. Of course, seeing that Zeon is a "Terrorist Organization" in the loosest sense of the term....

[HawaiianShirts]

I don't see what's so hard about asking bookstore employees for help finding a specific topic, like sex. It's not like I'm asking them for advice or stories from their own personal experience.

In a bookstore in a predominantly Christian town I once overheard a woman whisper (she wasn't whispering very quietly, but her voice suggested she was trying to be discreet) to the employee: "Do you have any... um... books on cults?" The employee asked her to be a little more specific, so she said, "I need to read about people who worship (she clears her throat and looks around as if afraid of being followed) You. Know. Who."

Oh for god sakes, just say it!!

C: Yeah, i'm looking for....um....I....erm.....You know when a woman and a man....um, do it.....they do it.....
Me: Sex books?

Sounds like an old roommate of mine.

Me: (reading a letter) Oh. My friend, C, is pregnant.
Roomie: Hey, that's cool. Good for her.
Me: No, not cool. She's still in high school, and the boyfriend who fathered the baby has disappeared.
Roomie: Oh. (long pause) Wait. They're not married? How did she get pregnant if they're not married?
Me: ..., uh, they had sex.
Roomie: Oh. (long pause) Wait. What do you mean by sex? Different people have different definitions of sex.
Me: (tries to explain it using common euphemisms, trying to avoid being graphic)
Roomie: Ohhhh! You mean, he laid on top of her?!
Me: Yes. Yes, that's it.

He went on, at that point, to ask me if I thought it was okay for married couples to "dance naked together."

He was 23.