Happiness is a book

I went to Barnes & Noble yesterday to look for Alan Greenspan's new biography by Sebastian Mallaby. It came out on Oct 11, although it wasn't in the featured titles or the new realeases, but I found a Twin Peaks book. I could not find it under Biographies either. 

When I asked for help, the girl did not know the book and, as I waited for her to look it up on the computer, I realized that she and I were in different generations and I was the older generation, the boring one, the one that thinks biographies of Alan Greenspan are exciting. She informed me that it was under Business Biographies and, for the life of me, I did not get it: he is not a business man! I did not even know there was such a category, but that means that this book is only interesting to an even smaller group of people than I thought. 

I walked around the store a bit lost. I hadn't been there in such a long time that I'd forgotten my favorite sections. Lately, I've been drawn to poetry, but I am trying to read the books I have at home before I buy more, so I stayed away. What else do I like? Cooking books! I went to that section and fell in love with a book about Persia. I thought of a friend who has done a documentary on the importance of art for Armenians -- it hasn't been released yet, but I've seen it and I love it --, and I instinctively knew that she would have liked this book: I heard her in my head say "Buy it!" There was another book that caught my eye, a list of influential American restaurants. 

I went to the check out line and another girl asked me if I had my BN member card. I always have it, but I could not remember if I had kept up with my membership, but it's automatically renewed via credit card, so I must have. As I was thinking all this, she tells me "These are gorgeous books." Yes, they are! And she's from the younger generation. I felt happy that she noticed!