Fussy customer walks into wrong store

"There’s something profoundly sad about being surrounded by books and unable to find anything to read. It feels like a failure: yours, society’s, the universe’s. It can happen in a poorly stocked library branch, a failing bookstore, an airport newsstand. And it’s a horrible feeling.  

"The other day, I wandered into a small used bookshop that looked like it would be filled with treasure. Instead I found two surly proprietors, about two hundred paperback mysteries and thrillers, a shelf of old high school Shakespeares, and a large selection of CliffsNotes. It smelled strange. It was sort of like “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Somehow it felt worse than had there been no books at all. In a sense, I could understand the owners: if it were my place, I would have been surly, too..."