Second Story Books — Local services in Washington

I've been here many times over the years and have yet to come across staff that did not act smug when approached. Last time will be the end of my relationship. I entered under the assumption that since the mask mandate was lifted long ago this establishment was following the path of most other establishments and not mandating masks. As I was browsing around I approached a staff member and began asking her a question (from a distance of about 10 feet mind you). She interrupted me mid-sentence and said "do you have a mask" in a stern tone. I said, oh I didn't realize I needed one. She pointed to some masks near the door. As I was placing the mask on I noticed that she and a male who had been working on a computer had stopped what they were doing and were glaring at me as if I had just committed an atrocity or was an alien from outer space. Between that reaction and her tone in interrupting me (without so much as an apology or simple "excuse me") turned me off. I left and won't be back. The issue here isn't the mask policy it's the pattern of encountering smug employees. I don't "need" to do business here, especially with a store that acts like they are doing me a favor by allowing me in. Plenty of other options out there. I very much like to support local independent business but respect and appreciation...

Just had one of the worst book store experiences in a long time at this shop. Unfortunately for the staff I was very dissatisfied with their customer service skills, which appeared to me to be bias as before I asked they seemed very eager and comfortable helping other customers. I asked for help looking up a book and immediately a freckled girl with red hair started to over explain that their online inventory may be wrong- I hadn’t looked online at all or mentioned it. Before she was able to get to the computer to look it up for me a large, brown haired man with glasses asked me which book and I told them. They then asked with a blank stare and quite an attitude “did you look in fiction?” Which I had not and they gave me directions to the area. While I was standing there looking through the books I noticed the freckled girl watching me from around the corner of the tall brown book shelves. When I turned to make eye contact with her, she quickly turned away and left me standing in the aisle quite confused. I was going to ask her if I was in the right area but before she even had a chance to redeem herself she chose to make it awkward. Overall very upset that I left with out the book- even if they did not have it, the basic customer service requirement was not met and made me feel very...

As someone raised in the liberal arts, I have often been encouraged to read. There is the John Waters' quote 'If you see someone and they don't have any books in the place that they live, you should never love them,' that appears on tote bags, towels and hooded t-shirts and there is also the more aggressive, to the point Big Dog shirt 'Read, Follow or Get Out of The Way.' Both of these are extremely common and are examples of aggression towards people who choose to forego books. I understand that I should read books, for the sake of my emotional and physical well-being, but the question remains: read what?

Fortunately, we have Second Story books to answer this question. Here, we can find books organized by subject and by author's last name. If I'm particularly partial to the letter B, I can find an author's last name that begins with said letter and purchase a book this individual has written. That's...