Last week, Ralph Nader made an appearance at The Bookstore to promote his new book: Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us, in which Warren Buffet organizes the sixteen other wealthiest people in the world to put their assorted riches into saving the planet. During his talk, he described it as a sort of “anti-Ayn Rand.”

I was assigned to “work” the event — what this usually means is standing on the perimeter of the seating (which, for the event, was standing room only), and when the speaking is over, helping the line of people waiting for their books to be signed move quickly. I got to do other “fun” stuff, too: like getting Mr. Nader & his assistant coffees when they arrived, and then walking them out after everything.

The night was pretty hectic — our elevator is out of commission, and an older woman almost fell down the stairs. Our regional marketing manager caught her, and after the event, one of our service managers took a whole bunch of people back to the main level via the building’s service elevator. Another woman, who apparently missed our repeated pre-event announcements to buy the book before hand was furious that we didn’t have a register downstairs.

(Funny story: we do, in fact, have a register downstairs, but it’s almost never got a till in it, and very few people actually know it’s there. As the line died down, I rang a few people up there.)

Going back to the event, though, there’s one thing Nader said that really stuck with me. A member of the audience made a comment about the laziness and apathy of civil servants, and Nader held up his hand and (obviously, I’m paraphrasing): “As a consumer advocate, I’ve worked with a lot of civil servants, and I can tell you that most of them are very knowledgeable and passionate about their jobs, when provided with leadership. But the situation is that most of their management are just so awful that they lose all faith, and they’re just showing up putting in their time until they retire.”

I think that resonates beyond just government jobs — I think it’s true of any job. When you’ve got inane, stupid management, the rank-and-file stop giving a hoot and just start being a warm body in the office or the bookstore or wherever. Clue in, management. Empower your employees.

Introducing our barista to Mr. Nader after the event, I called him “Ralph”, and he later thanked me by name, and I realized: hey, I’m on a first name basis with Ralph Nader.

Anyway, so here we are:

I don’t know why I’m not smiling. I thought I was, but it was a very long night. I’m not surprised he wasn’t, he seemed pretty tuckered out. And, yes, I did buy a copy of his book. He signed and personalized it:

To Jeff XXXXXX – Imagine! – Ralph Nader

Taking a cue from the busty Lusty Reader, I’m going to begin documenting my monthly readings. Okay, I don’t top her nineteen books this month … on the other hand, I work two jobs.

The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt
Polaris by Jack McDevitt
Seeker by Jack McDevitt
The Devil’s Eye by Jack McDevitt
The Man Who Loved Books Too Much by Allison Hoover Barlett
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Zombies by Michael P. Spradlin
Under The Dome by Stephen King

I was already well into The Italian Secretary when Halloween rolled into November 1st. I’d really like to be able to recommend this book: Carr previously wrote the excellent The Alienist. However, this struck me as very pedestrian. Not helping was the choice of font size. Remember that time you needed to get an extra two pages into a college essay so you increased your New York Times front from size 12 to 15? And double-spaced everything? This book has that effect, which is a.) good because you get through it quickly, but b.) bad because you spent $8 on a book that would’ve gone for $4 if the publisher hadn’t been a dick.

Continuing in my tradition of reading books that have been turned into famous movies, I went into Harris’s suspense classic, The Silence of the Lambs, and loved it. The movie stayed very true to the book, with some mostly minor differences. The book still scared me, even though I knew what was going to happen next.

This was my second time reading Jack McDevitt’s Alex Benedict series (begins with Talent of War, and currently ends with The Devil’s Eye, although the fifth in the series is set for publication November 2010) which follows the title character, sort of an Indiana Jones of the distant future, on his quest to uncover the truth behind his time’s mysteries — did Christopher Sims really die? What happened on the Polaris? Do the Margolians exist secretly within human society? Yeah, none of that means anything to you — go bring some neanderthal from 10,000 years ago and get him to watch Indiana Jones. He’s not going to know what the Lost Ark, or the Holy Grail is, either, but it won’t be any less entertaining.*

Like usual, my reading habits remain firmly entrenched in my preference of fiction, although I wasn’t expecting quite how science-fiction-y the month turned out to be. Sadly, coming off his amazing Alex Benedict series, Jack McDevitt didn’t score so well with Time Travelers Never Die, which was, to me, a real disappointment. The story was interesting enough, but it sort of seemed like a Bill & Ted take on time-travel, with none of the characters from the past really seeming like they were of the age. This really should’ve been retooled as a young adult novel, and I think it would’ve done well.

My brief forays into non-fiction were, in fact, very brief. I blogged earlier about It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Zombies, and I sure can sing Good King Wenceslas Tastes Great with the best (worst?) of them. I was lucky enough to snag an ARC of The Man Who Loved Books Too Much, and while anyone who is interested in a.) books, b.) collecting, c.) people who collect, d.) true-crime mysteries, e.) any combination of the above is sure to find it intriguing, it was a super quick read and probably not worth paying full price. If I drop $25 on a book, I want it to last more than two days (and we’re not talking about anything other than reading on the Metro, on the bus, and during my break between works).

I am down to the last fifty pages of Stephen King’s latest, Under The Dome, and while it’s a brick of a book, it’s a speedy read. Honestly, if they’d refrained from double-spacing the text, this easily would have been a four hundred pager. There was no need to waste all of this paper. A lot of people who’ve read the book compare it to his The Stand, but I actually felt more of a kinship with Needful Things, one of my favorite (and very underrated) King novels. I tried to describe this new book to a customer, and I finally settled on: “It feels like one of his 70s or early 80s books.” You know — back before he sucked (because, let’s be honest: most of the stuff he’s written in the last ten years has been blech).

*Well, I mean, of course it’ll be less entertaining: the stupid idiot won’t understand English and will just see a bunch of random moving images that he will no doubt presume to be evil witchcraftery and then impale you on a spear thinking you’re the devil, except that’s not right either because he’s predating Christianity by 8,000 years so no one has told him about the devil yet.