There was a Barnes & Noble location on Court Street in Downtown Brooklyn for about 20 years. It moved a few blocks to a better location on Atlantic Avenue in early 2023. On a recent trip to the bookstore, I noticed that there were now staff book recommendation tags on many shelves. Most of the recommendations were entirely text-based, but one caught my attention enough to inspire me to take a photo.
The staff member had recommended The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Science, and the Global Quest for Fossils by Paige Williams. While I did not buy the book, I was impressed with the recommendation tag. To be sure, the tag did not convey much about the book being recommended, but it grabbed my attention with the excellent dinosaur fossil artistry and the text:
GIVE ME THE BONES! I . NEED . THE . BONES!
While the reason for the emphasis on bones was obvious in the book store, I did not get the full nuance of the recommendation tag until I looked at my photo after the fact. The book’s subtitle included obsession … and the global quest for fossils. With that context, I see that the tag was getting at the obsession with bones point. (At least I think so – for all I know it could be some TV or popular culture reference.)
While I will venture that book recommendation tags that give a short and concise explanation of why the book is being recommended may be more useful, none stood out more to be than the bones tag. Of course, depending on one’s perspective, desperately needing the bones may be the book’s strongest selling-point.