BEDA 5: Places Where I Have Sold Books: A List.

     For the past three years, I've worked for an independent special events bookseller in New York City. My job entails picking up suitcases or carts full of books at the company's midtown office, finding creative ways to carry the literary baggage up and down subway stairs without looking like the awkward weakling I am, and selling the books at the various special events where authors, publishers, and publicists require our retail services. I love this job. I've learned so much about the publishing and book sales world, and had the pleasure of meeting a lot of wonderful writers in the process. Even when the events and books are unbearable dull, the Ravenclaw in me still enjoys listening to author lectures and learning a little bit about a new topic. I've worked my fair share of annoying events, of course, but usually they're annoying in a funny, my-life-is-ridiculous kind of way, so it's all worth it. Tonight, I worked a lovely launch party at a restaurant near Times Square and, as often happens at book parties, found myself bored and antsy during the mid-party lull in book sales. One of the party attendees began asking me questions about the job including, "where else do you sell books, usually?" I gave her the usual canned answer ("Anywhere in the New York City area that's not a bookstore!") but to entertain myself while waiting for more potential customers to approach my table, I compiled a mental list of all the kinds of places where I've sold books:

libraries
a charity bookstore (breaking the usual "no bookstore" rule)
colleges and universities
a hospital
a bank building
restaurants/cafes
bars/lounges
hotels
the United Nations Building
the Javits Center (for ComicCon!)
the Martha Stewart studio (or whatever they call it)
assorted apartments
parks
synagogues
churches
misc. places of worship
a gym/spa
assorted office buildings
a dance studio
assorted theaters
elementary schools
high schools
YMCAs
a few Embassies
private Ivy alumni clubs
Sotheby's
art galleries
community centers
a Marxist performance-art space

I don't think this is an exhaustive list, but I just remembered that nobody really finds this interesting or noteworthy and I really want to go to sleep right now. I made some changes to the blog design. Let me know how you like it! (Still working on removing a few pesky widgets and stuff.)