Stealth Proseletyzed at Border's Bookstore?

[Seeker630]

Not a big deal--but just wondering if any of you have ever had an odd experience like this in a bookstore.

Last Christmas my daughters got me a gift card for Border's bookstores. For those of you who don't live in the U.S. or Canada, Border's is like a huge national chain store operation. I don't know if they operate outside North America or not.

So I got a list together of 6 or 7 books that I've been meaning to get for some time. A friend and I made a day of it and headed to the nearest Border's, which for me is in Sarasota, 25 miles up the coast from my home. I had tried using the gift card over the internet, but Border's uses Amazon.com for their online ordering, and if the item isn't listed specifically as a Border's stock item the card won't work---some of the titles were listed strictly as Amazon stock items.

When we got there I spent some time looking around in the religion section and couldn't find any of them, so I asked a young girl employee for help. She started to check their computer system to see if they had any of the titles in stock that I wanted.

On the list were titles like David Mill's "Atheist Universe", "Gospel Fictions" by Randel Helms, and "Natural Atheism" by David Eller. I've been meaning to get these for my library at home for some time now. There were others too, all connected to atheism or related subjects. So she's typing away and makes the comment:

"Wow, these are interesting titles". And then says "I'd like to recommend another book to you that just everybody is reading right now", and I follow her back into the religion section, and she hands me a copy of "Conversations with God". Then she gets me a copy of another book on daily devotions. It happened so fast I didn't think what to say. She walked away and I left with two of the books I was looking for.

Comments anyone? I've never had anything like this happen to me in any other bookstore before.:huh:

[nj_heathens]

From DailyKos: I was ambushed by Christians (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/10/19/213638/81)
I asked her what kind of book she was looking for, and she stammered, unsure how to answer. "I just want to know what people are reading these days."

"Beats me," I confessed. "What's the last book you read?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Actually, I'm reading the Bible. I mean, I can't take any of that stuff literally, but the stories are interesting."

[Rhea]

That's very unsavory. Did you track her down and report her bad bookselling skills to her boss? WTF would you hand someone a book that they don't want?


Very irritating.

[Unusual Suspect]

Don't count on sales people actually knowing anything about the stock. I doubt that she had a clue about the content of the books you were asking for. To her, you were probably just someone interested in books on religion, so she offered a couple of recommendations.

[jaded_revenge]

Don't count on sales people actually knowing anything about the stock. I doubt that she had a clue about the content of the books you were asking for. To her, you were probably just someone interested in books on religion, so she offered a couple of recommendations.

Doubt it, he wasn't grabbing titles about god, but rather, about atheism.
That sort of thing wouldn't fly in the Australia. Does she really think she can deconvert an atheist that is actually buying books on Atheism?

[Sugriva]

That's very unsavory. Did you track her down and report her bad bookselling skills to her boss? WTF would you hand someone a book that they don't want?
Very irritating.
I speak from Barnes & Noble experience, not Borders, but her bookselling skills were exactly what management would want. When I managed a store I'd encourage employees to make personal suggestions based on what the customer was asking for- I guess I was guilty of a secular proselytization once: a customer was asking about books on mathematical theory, specifically Alfred North Whitehead, and I steered him towards some titles by Whitehead's buddy Bertrand Russell. :huh:

No big deal here. I do suspect the Borders employee was proselytizing, but I also think she was just doing her job. I get more offended when I buy a horror novel and the employee suggests I consider purchasing the lastest King/Koontz drivel! Now that's offensive....

[Rhea]

But she wasn't steering him to something similar.

Consider, "I'd like a book about Hinduism." May I suggest the Bible?

Uh, no, don't be a dolt.

That's why I say it was a bad sell-job. But - you do have experience in the area, so I'll have to just sigh and lament that the fact this often works is an indication that we need better critical thinking taught in schools. ~sigh~

[Sugriva]

But she wasn't steering him to something similar.

Consider, "I'd like a book about Hinduism." May I suggest the Bible?

Uh, no, don't be a dolt.

That's why I say it was a bad sell-job. But - you do have experience in the area, so I'll have to just sigh and lament that the fact this often works is an indication that we need better critical thinking taught in schools. ~sigh~
Oh I definitely agree! I hate to sound like I'm defending her but it's more along the lines of "that's how the retail book biz works". She certainly sounded clueless and probably grabbed Conversations' since it was the only thing that popped into her head that seemed even remotely (though mistakenly) related.
Not to derail, but this thread reminds me of the time when I put a Strobel's The Case For Christ on display in the Employee Reccomendation endcap with a scathing critique written in teeny tiny handwriting so I could fit in as much as possible. Well, customers complained so I had to take it down. :devil3:

[Seeker630]

Doubt it, he wasn't grabbing titles about god, but rather, about atheism.
That sort of thing wouldn't fly in the Australia. Does she really think she can deconvert an atheist that is actually buying books on Atheism?

I tend to agree with you. It's not like I was looking for C S Lewis, Swinburne, or Tacelli & Kreeft---it was so fast that it took me a couple of minutes to realize what had happened. No I don't think it was a matter of just selling another book to me. After I had time to think on it a bit I came away with the sense that she had deliberately steered me to a couple of Christian themed books because of the list I had given her.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so in this case. Neither of the books she handed to me had anything remotely to do with atheism. I mean why those two? Like I said in the OP, it's not a major issue and I'm sure not going to stop shopping at Border's over it. It's just that it came right out of the blue----totally unexpected.

This is the list I gave her to look for:

"Natural Atheism"---David Eller,

"Gospel Fictions"-----Randel Helms,

"The Lavender Scare"--can't remember the author,

"Atheist Universe"--- David Mills,

"Like Rolling Uphill"-----Diana Naricisco,

"End of Faith"---Sam Harris.

[Draconis]

Two odd things that happened in Christian bookshops here. Once, I went in to one not realising what it was and started looking for the science fiction section, then realised! The other time I was with my (christian) wife and for some reason I said "I wonder if they have a koran here" - she wasn't too impressed. Actually this place did have a science fiction section which amused me.

[smellincoffee]

Yeah, my mother gave me several Christian sci-fi books when I was younger...one of them is about a colony of Christians on Mars fighting with a colony of people of another belief system. It never ends!

[moonwatcher]

As to christian SF, I haven't read much of it. Orson Scott Card is a Mormon....but seemingly a very liberal one to judge by the positive portrayals of atheists in some of his books. He certainly doesnt proselytize for his religion in the books I've read.

A terrific new SF writer is John C. Wright. His first published novel, The Golden Age Trilogy, was great. He was an atheist at the time he wrote it but converted to christianity (though its not clear what variety; his wife is a member of the Christian Science church). It happened after having religious experiences and visions during his recovery from heart surgery.

I had an interesting exchange of emails with him after he replied to a comment I made about his book in the comment section of a review of the Golden Age.

I can't help but wonder what impact his new religious views will have on his writing. He was a very promising writer in the school of SF dealing with transhumanist themes---hard to see how that could survive his conversion---hopefully he will go more the route of Orson Scott Card rather than follow C S Lewis's lead and use fantasy and science fiction as thinly veilled christian apologetics.

[Donkeykong]

I don't think Orson Scott Card is very liberal look up his entry ob wikipedia

[TerriNPA]

Doubt it, he wasn't grabbing titles about god, but rather, about atheism.
That sort of thing wouldn't fly in the Australia. Does she really think she can deconvert an atheist that is actually buying books on Atheism?

well my thoughts on this are, the employee doesn't know the beliefs of the buyer, hell, it could have been someone very religious doing some bookreading on atheism, or something. but unless the OP stated their beliefs, how would she know the OP is atheist?

dunno what I'd do if that would happen though, it is weird she'd give ya those two with your list of titles you wanted. *shrug*

[Seeker630]

well my thoughts on this are, the employee doesn't know the beliefs of the buyer, hell, it could have been someone very religious doing some bookreading on atheism, or something. but unless the OP stated their beliefs, how would she know the OP is atheist?

dunno what I'd do if that would happen though, it is weird she'd give ya those two with your list of titles you wanted. *shrug*

Yeah that was my point--I never said anything to her about me being atheistic. That's what makes her recommendations so strange. My take on it is that she assumed that I either was an atheist, or someone on a "journey" or something.

[EmilyH]

I've heard of things like that happening in other major chain bookstores too, although it wasn't the employees. She probably assumed you were an atheist from the book titles and that you needed saving. If it were me, I'd avoid that bookstore in the future, and possibly send them an e-mail or letter to let them know what happened.