I just visited Up North, and as usual I had a gander at the book section at the airport.
It used to be pretty eclectic — up until, say, something like eight years ago, it was (of course) mostly mysteries and “dramas” (you know the ones — “handwritten” titles over a pastel background with a woman walking away), but also a substantial selection of World War II books. They had names like “The Battle Of [PLACE YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF]” (pop. 23), which I found amusing. (Possibly because that section of Norway was the only part that saw substantial action during that war, so you get tourists that are interested in that stuff?)
In addition to those three genres, there was always a handful of what you’d call Actual Literature, and also some best-seller paperbacks in English.
Then the concession was apparently bought by a chain, and they put in some new shelves that said “Best Selling Now”, and you had the top forty or something. Which meant, of course, that all those WWII books were gone, but the selection was reasonable — mostly trivial literature, but with whatever mixed in.
And now they’ve redone it again. It’s smaller and the “Best Selling” thing seems to be gone, and the selection now is exclusively trash.
It’s just puzzling. I guess they probably know what they’re doing, but there’s not a single book there that I’d be remotely interested in reading, and I’m not picky, as you can see if you were to glance over at the book club series of posts. Lots of bad books!
But this is just… trash.
And there’s tons of tourists up there, and not a single book in English either? And nothing locally pertinent?
Oh well. It’s not like I was buying all my books there or anything.
I MEAN! THIS IS THE GREATEST OUTRAGE IN THE HISTORY OF OUTRAGES! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!!!!1!
(Sorry; I forgot I was on the Internet for a second there.)