Rude People

For some reason rude people leave me speechless, but nothing leaves me speechless for long...

Mary Stella left an interesting comment on today's RTB post:

I had a person walk up to my table at a booksigning and ask about my books. I told her they were romances. She sneered, threw the book on the table and said, “I don’t read trash.” I smiled and answered, “Good. I don’t write trash.” It was so much fun to watch her stunned expression while she processed the response and what she should do next.

I'm taking "obnoxious and toad" off my recent list of nicknames, this woman really is an obnoxious toad. Mary's comeback was perfect, of course, if that had been me, I probably wouldn't have thought of it until the woman had moved on.

Recently, I was in visiting the local UBS/Indie bookseller. She always has a nice selection of new romances and will special order anything, and she even offers a discount. While I'm wander through the used book shelves this woman comes in gushing about the new book she bought at Wal*Mart. I'm cringing in the A-D aisle, all I could think was how clueless this woman was being. Don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with buying books in Wal*Mart or any other store, heck I buy books where ever and whenever the urge strikes, but don't boast about it to a bookseller with the very same book for sale.

When I owned my own shop, I had a man stand in the middle of the customer jammed store and complain about the price of my one of a kind, hand-made bird houses, they ranged from $15 - $25 each, outrageously expensive ***can you see me rolling my eyes?*** He was so loud and rude he was making the other customers uncomfortable, going on and on about how they couldn't cost $5 to make. Finally, I'd had enough, I told him if he could make them for $5 each, I'd buy them for him. He gave me a dirty look and told his wife he'd wait outside.

I should have simply ignored him, but it felt good not to.