Finding Perspective

I guess it's all about perspective, which is what I was trying to find tonight while wandering around one of my favorite places on earth: Barnes & Noble.

Sure, I can pretend to be a literary snob and claim to only shop at hip independent book stores like Book Ends in Ridgewood, or Labyrinth Books in Princeton, or City Lights in San Francisco. True - being in places like those is almost a religious experience, but when it comes down to it I'm a junkie for the written word, and Barnes & Noble is a quick, cheap fix for my insatiable addiction.

I'm not quite sure what exactly I was hoping to find...perhaps something uplifting, clinical and a little cathartic all at once - complete with a cool cover and an inside jacket littered with rave reviews from esteemed critics and cultural icons alike. I began searching.

I started in the NEW AGE section, but everything there was, well, too new agey.

The NEW AGE section was right next to CHRISTIAN INSPIRATION, which I immediately abandoned after seeing Joel Osteen's novel prominently displayed, since I personally don't find Joel Osteen particularly Christian nor inspirational.

I moved over to TRUE CRIME (my favorite genre), and thought that perhaps a grizzly murder might make me forget about colons, and lymph nodes, and nuclear medicine, and survival rates...but again, I was turned off by the first novel I saw: BMF - The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and The Black Mafia Family. I'm Sicilian. I have no interest in reading about Big Meech - call it national pride if you will. Moving on.

Over in SELF IMPROVEMENT, I found Jennifer Love Hewitt's book about dating and Queen Latifah's book: Put on Your Crown. I wasn't in a "girls kick ass" kinda mood, so I made my way to PSYCHOLOGY (one of my other favorite sections). Unfortunately, I couldn't concentrate because there was a creepy 45ish guy next to me in the SEX and RELATIONSHIPS section, shooting sideways glances in my direction; I couldn't tell who was more uncomfortable - him or me.

So I went back over to SELF IMPROVEMENT and I found a subsection labeled: Death & Grieving, Dreams, Dating. Now, this would make perfect sense if the shelf was filled with books featuring heroines who dreamed about killing their awful boyfriends, only to feel badly afterwords - but otherwise, a disconcerting combination.

Next, I made my way over to the MEDICAL REFERENCE section, which, unfortunately, was near the SEX and RELATIONSHIPS section where the creepy guy was still lurking among the Karma Sutra books. All I could find in my haste and awkwardness were Medical Reference books. (Duh - did I read the section label?) But just when I thought all hope was lost, out of the corner of my eye I saw an ominously entitled best seller: The War Against Toenail Fungus. And just like that - as I looked down and wiggled my perfectly painted pink toenails - I found it. Perspective.