Lio by Mark Tatulli for July 10, 2016

Regarding the stuff in the CrapShop display windows… the ubiquitous “cat” is there. T-shirts with iconic-even-if-defunct arcade game characters. Stacking cups… or are they novelty shot glasses? And I assume the (beer?) mug features a logo to display the user’s brand loyalty or some equally vapid sentiment… as perhaps those other drinking vessels do. But the caps? I immediately assumed that they are those are the ones hawked by you-know-who. Those are perfect emblems of bumpersticker level sloganeering passing for patriotic political sensibility. Crap is too mild a word. A sad fact about America’s last two brick and mortar book store chains is that both now feature large crap departments full of items almost as stupid as those portrayed here. Ironically, I hope the crap sells well enough to keep those stores solvent. Sure, online purchases of books are a better deal in most cases. But there are some valuable aspects of the neighborhood store that are worth preserving… such as their browsability. Of course, many people come to the stores and browse… but having found something they like, order it online. It’s the bookstore-as-showroom. But what happens when the showrooms go out of business?