I promise, it's fiction...FICTION

[LillFilly]

On a separate note I'm actually surprised people are able to find the satanic bible in their bookstores. Our cop(ies) were always missing, presumed stolen.

I wonder where they go. If it's a dishonest person stealing them for fun, or a fanatic 'stealing' them because he/she believes they are evil and are trying to save the other customers. Hmm, if you steal a satanic bible, is it still a sin? I shall have to meditate on this...

[Imogene]

I always loved it when I found the latest Dreamworks or Pixar movie in the anime... While Pixar DID localize the more recent Ghibli movies, they did not in fact make any anime themselves...

[Mr. Anubite]

Months ago, when Sarah Palin's book came out, someone moved two copies of it into humor.

I should have taken a picture

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

Months ago, when Sarah Palin's book came out, someone moved two copies of it into humor.

I should have taken a picture

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Now that's brilliant.

[Juggler]

Some things everybody needs to know. Arranging a bookstore is more art than science. Books are shelved where they are most likely to SELL, not where they most belong by a librarians organizational scheme. Many books fit in multiple sections and few stores can afford (in terms of space or money) to have a copy for each of those sections.

The best example I can think of this is Neil Stephenson's-In the Beginning There Was the Command Line. It could go with his SciFi novels, non-SciFi novels, computers, sociology, or industrial design. It sells the best from computers or his SciFi novels.

I can think of one non-fiction book that used to be constantly shelved in the fiction section...
The Hacker Crackdown, by Bruce Sterling.

That's because Sterling is primarily a SciFi writer. It could also go in True Crime or computers.

And all the erotica would take a walk over to the children's section,

When I worked at the bookstore I would always find gay erotica tucked among the Bibles.

I think there are several things a work here. Most book stores keep the children's section in an isolated corner so the kids don't disturb proper people. The people who look at the porn don't want the whole world seeing them doing it. Combine with that the fact that too many people are lazy fuckwads who don't return things to explain much of it.

Then there are the people who think it is funny to make parents explain difficult things.

When The Wife worked at a book store, she would get customers who would complain that the "Left Behind" series by Tim LaHaye was in the fiction section.

I put it in the horror section. Devils are, ya know, scary.

[Antisocial_Worker]

Then there are the people who think it is funny to make parents explain difficult things.

It was this, mostly at least in my experience. There's no reason beyond simple assholism that you would want to open up the Kama Sutra to a particularly athletic pose and leave it propped open on a shelf in the children's section.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Me, I always wanted to take Bill Clinton's My Life, and a book by or about Monica Lewinsky, and put them cover-to-cover.

But *ahem*, that would be wrong.

[NateTheChops]

Or take Hillary Clinton and Condaleza Rice's biographies and put those two together. Bonus.