Granted it’s early days yet, but there is no point in hiding the fact that sooner or later I will go on a major rant. I am often accused of being ‘too opinionated’… well… DUH!

~side line~

Kris to everybody: Just because I am opinionated doesn’t mean that I am right.

Everybody: *frowns trying to work that one out*

Kris to everybody: It’s being a woman that makes me right.

~the end~

Anyway, it’s venting time and today’s topic is… bookstores.

Now don’t get me wrong, bookstores are definitely one of my favourite places in the world, in the cosmos even – you may have noticed that I love reading and they are, after all, meccas for books in all shapes and sizes. That doesn’t make them perfect however (although I am sure that all of us who love to read have a dream of their ideal bookstore *sigh*), and in the past couple of years every time I go into one I end up seriously PO’ed.

Let me describe my experience last Sunday. There I was in the infamous B’s (Perth only has one of these. It sucks living in the most isolated capital city on the planet sometimes. Another rant for later.) browsing through their science fiction section, when suddenly I saw it… I couldn’t believe my eyes… Maeve Binchy in sci fi????? Oh, the humanity! Seriously, WTF!

I HATE that!

I think that any bookstore should at least know their product enough to put the bloody thing in the right genre section. I can’t tell you the amount of times that my mum has pulled me out of a shop because I am either (a) going to go up to the counter and tell the staff to get a friggin’ clue or (b) take all the books from the shelf, move them to the right section and then tell the staff to get a friggin’ clue.

Deep breaths, Kris, deep breaths…

It annoys the crap out of me that I have to go to 20 million different sections to try and find the latest release of the authors I read. Maybe it’s only me that doesn’t think it’s obvious that any story with a vampire or werewolf in it has to be horror?? Or perhaps, gods forbid, that different genres such as romance might even have sub-genres like paranormal or historical or even m/m?? Or that authors like Rachel Caine or Mary Janice Davidson might even write for different readers like YAs for instance??

Will someone please tell me this is not just my OCD and I am not the only one that gets majorly pissed about this?? Surely I can’t be the only person who has refused to rent DVDs from her local B’buster on the grounds that if they don’t know that labelling anime ‘Jap Manga’ is just totally wrong then they don’t know what the hell they are doing and I will never find any movie that I like ever… granted I did this after I found an unreal place that has a ginormous anime collection including yaoi-based, but still… get it right people!

… and don’t even get me started on those bookstores that only recognise the ‘sci fi’ part of what should be ‘sci fi/fantasy’. Blidgits – the lot of ’em!