Oh, hell, not the Celestine Prophecy. I have a personal vendetta against that book. It came out when I owned a bookstore, and several folks asked for me to get them copies, it seemed popular, so I ordered a few more. Then it arrived, and I looked at it, the front flap, the back flap, inside flap, Library of Congress info, flipped through it... uhm, nonfiction, or fiction?
(About half my regulars said "nonfiction!" but these were people who had a little trouble with whether elves and fairies were fictional, so their expertise was to be taken with two cups of salt...bless their hearts.)
I called the distributor, who said, "good question, we'll get back to you on that." They didn't know, either! The label of fiction/nonfiction had been purposefully removed from inside pages and the flaps. Bastards.
When they did call me back, they said they still weren't sure, but they took a vote in the ordering room (this was back when you mailed, faxed, or called in your order). The word back was "fiction, 27 to 2." I shelved it happily in fiction, and the next day, found all three copies in...non-fiction. Put it back, and it kept moving. *shifty eyes* My oh-so-helpful regulars (finally) admitted they were just trying to help out.
FICTION, people, it's FICTION. *headdesk*
So. Uhm. Yeah. I have a thing about books that purport to be nonfiction. I don't mind a good hoax, but in some cases, it's just a badly-done forgery.
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Date: 7 Jan 2007 11:47 pm (UTC)(About half my regulars said "nonfiction!" but these were people who had a little trouble with whether elves and fairies were fictional, so their expertise was to be taken with two cups of salt...bless their hearts.)
I called the distributor, who said, "good question, we'll get back to you on that." They didn't know, either! The label of fiction/nonfiction had been purposefully removed from inside pages and the flaps. Bastards.
When they did call me back, they said they still weren't sure, but they took a vote in the ordering room (this was back when you mailed, faxed, or called in your order). The word back was "fiction, 27 to 2." I shelved it happily in fiction, and the next day, found all three copies in...non-fiction. Put it back, and it kept moving. *shifty eyes* My oh-so-helpful regulars (finally) admitted they were just trying to help out.
FICTION, people, it's FICTION. *headdesk*
So. Uhm. Yeah. I have a thing about books that purport to be nonfiction. I don't mind a good hoax, but in some cases, it's just a badly-done forgery.