29 Lessons I Learned the Hard Way

Lesson 5

You probably read the lesson title and thought to yourself, "Oh, great! This is one of those cliché lessons. I'll just skip this one. To this I would reply with two things:

I PROMISE IT ISN'T

And

"Don't judge a book by its cover!" *insert evil maniacal laugh*

Okay, in all seriousness now I'll continue. On top of both my love for swimming and sailing, I also love to read. I'll read pretty much anything. Fiction, Sci-fi, Poetry, Non-fiction, especially classic and historical books. My family is very aware of this and so for the last five or so birthdays and holidays I have been given Barns and Nobles gift cards.

I love it.

However, even with all of these gift cards I'm still a frugal buyer and I like to wait a while before buying new books because I find that their price goes down after the first three or four months.

Anyway, about six months ago a book had come out that had really grabbed my attention. It had come out at around the same time as the third Kane Chronicles and the last Maze Runner book though, so I didn't purchase it, but now I was ready to get it.

It was about four days before my mother's birthday and my dad, who has an unusual love for the procurement of birthday cards, decided to stop at Barns and Nobles to pick out a birthday card. I skipped behind zealously, excited at the prospect of getting a new book.

After picking out a couple random books, I walked over to the desk and stood there unwearyingly waiting for an employ to walk over.

"Good Morning!" She chirped happily, a smile stretched confidently across her face as she looked at me. "What can I help you with?"

I grinned back, her smile was infectious, "I want to get a book."

Keeping the smile exchange going she questioned, "What book are you looking for?"

"Well..." I dragged out, "I, I can't remember the title of the book."

The lady behind the desk still beaming, said with all the enthusiasm in the world, "That's okay! I can look it up the computer for you!"

She grinned at me, eager to be able to solve my dilemma.

A brief annotation:

Perhaps I grew up with unrealistic expectation, perhaps my entire worldview was a bit naïve and childlike, but in my mind, the people who worked at bookstores and libraries knew everything about very book, or at least the good ones. Thus, I digress.

"Um....." I opened and closed my mouth trying to think of a better way to say this, "Well, Um, I don't know the authors name either." I bit my lip nervously.

The lady behind the counter slowly deflated, her shoulders slumped and her smile shriveled up to nothing. Her eyes filled with so much sadness it made me want to reach across the desk and give her a hug.

"It's okay!" I said hopefully, trying to cheer her up, "I know what it looks like and what genre it's from and I know when it was published!"

Her posture brightened a bit and she looked over at me, "Maybe we can figure it out! What do you know?"

"It had a purple cover," I began, "With two kids on the front, a boy and a girl....Oh! And some sort of flying lion!"

She stared disconcerted over at me.

"The book should be in the children's section, it's fiction, and it came out about the same time as the third Kane Chronicle book."

I smiled satisfied, it was my belief that with all the helpful information I had supplied finding this book should be easy as pie.

The ladies eyes grew wide and round, she gaped at me like an owl frightened by a large flying lion.

"I'll, I'lll.....I'll be right back." she muttered before running off towards the back of the store.

I pursed my lips, "Well, that didn't go how I thought it would."

I stood there nervously for a couple minutes before the lady came back dragging another much older lady behind her.

"She'll help you!" she smiled weakly at me before running away.

I glanced nervously towards the woman.

"So, you don't know the title?" she asked gruffly

"No," I said feeling suddenly ashamed and staring down at my feet.

She huffed loudly before turning on the computer.

She started scrolling along the page all whilst shooting daggers at me with her eyes.

"And you don't know the author either?" she said in a nasally voice.

"N-No." I choked out

Her eyes blackened and peered down at me, "That's what I thought." She clicked her tongue.

I suddenly felt very much like Percy Jackson, I thought perhaps any moment this woman would turn into a kindly one and attack me with her claws. I nervously swayed back and forth on my heels. She continued to glare at me.

I swallowed and felt my heart beating wildly in my chest, "It's okay, thanks for helping but I can just get another book."

I started to slowly back away when the woman rolled her eyes at me and snapped "No, it's fine, it's just really hard to find a book we know nothing about."

At this point my dad, who had just finished looking at birthday cards walked over, "Hey? Which one do you like better?"

He held up two cards and motioned for me to look at them. I slowly reached out and took them all while keeping an eye on the harpy behind the desk. I was sure that as soon as I took my eyes off of her she would attack.

"I don't know, dad." I said "I think they are both nice. This one is really pretty and has an awesome verse inside, and this one is really sweet and loving. I like them both."

My dad shrugged, "What are you doing over here?"

I swallowed looking back at harpy lady. "Nothing, I was just trying to find a book but I couldn't so, it is okay."

With that I started in a hurried pace towards the register and my dad followed behind.

"Are you sure you don't want to go look for that book?" he asked

My eyes widened in fear, "No, I'm okay!" I stated.

I paid for the books I had previously picked out and then quickly strolled out the door.

I took a deep breath and smiled feeling very much relived to be out of there.

Lesson Learned:

Watch out, because when the villains escape from their books, they might be found working at Barns and Nobles.

AKA Don't judge or hope to judge a book by its cover.