Um... really, Books-A-Million?

Short blog today, as I am fighting a sinus infection that makes me want to die (not to mention, I have a rule about not blogging while taking prescription meds, even if they are just anitbiotics and Allegra. Never can be too careful! ;) ), but this required immediate attention.

On Friday, after visiting the doctor due to said sinus infection, I stoppped by our local Books-A-Million to buy myself a "Get Well Soon" present. Hey, if you don't be nice to you, who will, I ask? So I was perusing the shelves, and came across a "Summer Reading" display with a little tag that said, "Great Books For The Beach!"

Overlooking that summer is nearly over- well, in the rest of the country at least. Here in the Dirty Souf, it'll be hot until Christmas- the books displayed were all basically what I'd consider great beach reading: Jackie Collins, Emily Giffin, Jane Green, etc. In other words, books that were fun and didn't require a thesaurus or huge amounts of brain power (not a putdown, BTW. The chief thing a book should do is entertain, in my opinion. If it entertains you, then it was good. End of story.)

So as I'm looking at the fun, light reading, I notice that amongst all this feel-good, brightly colored brain candy is...Toni Morrison's Beloved.

Um... seriously? Beloved? Beach reading?

I even picked it up to see if it got there by mistake, but no, there were lots more copies behind it. Now, for those of you that don't know, Beloved is the story of an former slave named Sethe who is haunted by the adult manifestation of the baby she murdered decades before so that that baby- Beloved- wouldn't have to go back into the slavery that Sethe had escaped. It's strange, and challanging, and heart-wrenching, and, you know, NOT what I want to be reading while trying to get my beer/beach buzz on!

So I started wondering why it was there. I mean, everyone should read Beloved. It's truly a masterpiece, a Pulitzer prize winner, and a book that stays with you pretty much forever. But beach reading? No. I mean, unless you like crying and asking yourself important questions about life at the beach, which I certainly do not!

I guess it's the Oprah connection. Maybe the people at BAM just assumed, "Hey, wasn't this an Oprah book/movie? Then let's put it here with all these hot pink books!"

And if that's true, then that's just... kind of sad.

So again, I ask, "Um...really, Books-A-Million?"

And now I'm off to mainline more penicillin.

See y'all next week!