A Bestiary of Booksellers by Aaron Cometbus

Paperback. 2015.

Cometbus 56 showcases the ins and outs of New York City bookselling. Aaron Cometbus energetically describes the strange attitudes and behavior of those whose everyday life defies the trends of so-called “modern living.” His description of a typical used-book hawking curmudgeon is as follows: “Customers? Don’t get Adam started. They are the worst, the scum of the earth, which is why his career as a retail shopkeeper was neither successful nor long. He would chase people out if they came looking for Lord of the Flies. ‘Idiot! You should have read that in middle school. This is a book store, not a daycare. Get the fuck outta here!'”