How Can You Not Have Read Blah? - A Meditation on the Many Roads To Becoming a Fan

Editor's note: since Alan continues with construction -- thankfully most of the loud parts are over --  I've asked some other staffers to contribute From the Office pieces for the next few months.  Don't worry; all the rest of us are just as opinionated as Alan, and he'll be back with his own special brand of analysis in a few months.  But meanwhile, enjoy this guest piece from Na'amen Tilahun.  Na'amen is a writer & reviewer and has been a bookseller at Borderlands for four years.  You can check out his blog at http://naamenblog.wordpress.com/.  (Please note that while Borderlands is probably the only bookstore in the world with its own SWAT team, and that Alan and I will personally back any of our employees in a street fight, their opinions are their own and don't necessarily represent the store. - Jude Feldman)

by Na'amen Gobert Tilahun

Since I've worked at Borderlands, I have had a lot of random, short conversations about SF/F (science-fiction/fantasy) and its creators almost every day at work.  In the course of recommending titles or discussing authors it's inevitable that someone I've not read will come up.  Most people breeze right by it, but there's always someone who will widen their eyes, look at me bewildered, and ask, "How can you work here/like SF/F and not have read **fill in the blank**?"

I'll usually smile, shrug, and say, "Well I was reading other things."  About 25% of the time this leads to the customer asking me what I was reading and me turning them on to an author they don't know about.

The rest of the time, it becomes something different.