Barnes & Noble Catholic Book shopping

[KarenElissa]

Our B&N has a very poor selection of christian books. And the catholic ones are mixed in randomly. But I used to work at B&N a while ago. Not necessarily in religion. Just stacking the shelves. They didn’t necessarily care about arranging things alphabetically, or any other way. Just as long as they sorta got into the right area. I used to try rearranging the books alphabetically and to put things into the right areas and they would yell at me, tell me there’ no time to do that. FWIW.

Ya, I’ve noticed that! I don’t go to B&N a lot cause Borders is closer, but I’ve gone a couple of times recently and while they have a pretty good selection of Catholic books, including a number by the Pope that Borders doesn’t have, finding something specific, is next to impossible!

I agree that it is nice how Borders has separated out the the Catholic/Orthodox Inspiration books, makes things a lot easier to find. Sometimes I think they have an ok selection and sometimes I don’t find much. I’m not sure if that is more a reflection of my mood or what they actually have.

Basically I go to either one if I’m in a mood to just browse and wander through looking for something that catches my eye, but I stick to Amazon if I’m looking for something specific.

 

[Goth_Catholic]

We only have borders but they do have an actual Catholic section, and it is seperate from Orthodex. There’s a lot of good titles but they never have “Hail Holy Queen” which I desperately want and am not allowed to order online with a credit card.

 

[KCtheMommy]

If CA would cut a deal with Amazon, then we could post links here on CAF whenever any of us posters make a book suggestion or recommendation … and whenever we posters click on that link, then CA would get paid for each hit on Amazon through one of the CAF clicks.

Suggest it to Amazon – they do it for all those coupon sites!

 

[KCtheMommy]

We only have borders but they do have an actual Catholic section, and it is seperate from Orthodex. There’s a lot of good titles but they never have “Hail Holy Queen” which I desperately want and am not allowed to order online with a credit card.

Why not? Because you are under 18?

 

[Goth_Catholic]

Why not? Because you are under 18?

No because my parents are afried of credit card fraud

 

[Baptista]

We only have borders but they do have an actual Catholic section, and it is seperate from Orthodex. There’s a lot of good titles but they never have “Hail Holy Queen” which I desperately want and am not allowed to order online with a credit card.

Amazon will let you pay with a money order or check. It will just take longer to get your order, of course.

 

[Goth_Catholic]

Amazon will let you pay with a money order or check. It will just take longer to get your order, of course.

Really? Thanks, I didn’t know that.

 

[Baptista]

Really? Thanks, I didn’t know that.

I found out a couple months ago. I have a friend who has no credit card or checking account, and pays for everything by money order.

And I think Amazon is great!

 

[yessisan]

Hey everyone!

This is kind of a vent, kind of a teaching moment, and a little bit surprising.

I went to look for Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II this weekend at our local B&N. I couldn’t remember off hand how the Pope’s books would be placed, i.e. by last name? If so, what WAS his last name? I had totally forgot. I realized later it was Wojtyla. Yes, this is how it is listed and put in the stacks.

OK so, I ask a young girl who worked there, and was putting books in their proper place in the religion section, where books by Pope John Paul are. She stood up and said “Pope John Paul the II are in our catholic-ism section.” NOT Catholicism. The word Catholic with an “ism” added to the end. LOL Obviously she’s not a catholic! No biggie – but I KNOW from my previous attempts at searching for catholic books, they don’t HAVE A CATHOLIC-ISM section at this particular branch. I thought “maybe they added one?” So I start following her around the stacks, when I realize she doesn’t know there is no catholic-ism section in her store. We looked pretty silly you can imagine! Then she says "oh we don’t have a catholic-ism section, so it’ll be over here in “religion” desperately trying to smooth over the faux-pas. She is literally steering me away from Christianity to religion. I take one look at the stack and it’s all Buddhism, Islam, Wicca, Hinduism, Taoism, et all. So I turn around and say “NO, first of all it’s catholicism, not CATHOLIC-ism. Second of all, this section is for other-than-Christian religions. We ARE Christians.” She starts to argue this point with me. To which I interrupt to say “fine you check Religion while I check Christianity, and surely we’ll find it.” “It won’t be in Christianity” “Hon, we are Christians, in fact we were the FIRST CHRISTIANS, just so you know – for future reference.”:doh2:

As I turned the corner back into Christianity a nice Protestant duo who had heard the conversation handed me a Pope John Paul II book. They didn’t have the book I was looking for, in fact only two books by our Pope John Paul II, (and I should call and ask them to order more) but I was not surprised by their location, alphabetical, in Christianity.

So I taught one person who didn’t know much about our faith, much less how to pronounce it, a little something about us and our great faith. Yet I found myself pretty irritated by such ignorance as to say we weren’t Christians. Or rather insist we were not. I found myself trying to avoid her when looking for a social study book on breastfeeding. (not much on breastfeeding there either! )

Do you all run into similar issues/problems while shopping at secular book stores? Have you asked a local chain to carry more in the Catholic(ism) department? We have a HUGE Catholic populace here, I have to say I am surprised by the lack of books.

Oh my! I would’ve so mad! Catholic-ism… grrrr what can I tell ya? So many Christians are ignorant of the fact that Catholics are Christians. It happens to me all the time and of course I say “do you know what Catholic means? Universal, so that means we’re Universal Christians, we were the FIRST Christians and all your other Christian religions separated from the Catholic Church just because they didn’t like one thing and wanted it their way!” You could see me telling my husband this a million times.

Wow! That’s incredible…it reminds me of Funny Face - when they’re in the bookstore and Audrey Hepburn starts spouting off all this stuff about books. Anyway, yeah…I don’t go to B&N or Borders (our two big chains) for anything that’s Catholic - except maybe C.S. Lewis. But we are blessed with two incredible Catholic bookstores within a fifteen minute radius of where we live, so I don’t have that problem. Although, neither bookstore was carrying Christopher West’s The Good News about Sex and Marriage and I was quite sad.

There is a Catholic store close by but I’ve never been to it. I’m told they have a great selection of books… I better get my butt over there. Oh and for Good News About Sex and Marriage, I went to look for it at B&N. THey didn’t have it, but then again, I was looking for it in Spanish so my husband would read it with me. All I had to do was ask them to order it and in a week it was at their store.

We only have borders but they do have an actual Catholic section, and it is seperate from Orthodex. There’s a lot of good titles but they never have “Hail Holy Queen” which I desperately want and am not allowed to order online with a credit card.

Why don’t you ask your local border to order it for you? You don’t have to pay for it until it arrives at their store. That way you can pay cash for it. Just make sure to have the ISBN so you can help them find it easier, or the name of the book and the author…

 

[tmcs]

Hello,

I think you handled that remarkably well. I have recently had a similar experience after attending a Pentacostal service with my husband and his sister, who asked me when dwe got home:

1. If Catholics believe in Jesus Christ
   and 2) Was I now going to lead a Christian life?!?

I told her I was certain I have been (even without the Pentacostal influence, imagine!) Between some of her deliberately insulting questions and the Pastor’s straight out anti-Catholic remarks, it’s made me realize that not all Christians are as tolerable of others as Catholics.

Way to go though,
I hope your tactul example and God’s Grace will guide me on my next encounter.

 

[puzzleannie]

went to B&N looking for all 3 volumes of CS Lewis’ science fiction trilogy Out of the Silent Planet. After some searching found vol. 1 in Sci Fi, Perelandra in young adult fiction, and That Hideous Strength in Religion–among the weirdo new age stuff, not with Christianity. However his other books were in Christianity. go figure.

 

[Little_Mary]

. She is literally steering me away from Christianity to religion. I take one look at the stack and it’s all Buddhism, Islam, Wicca, Hinduism, Taoism, et all. So I turn around and say “NO, first of all it’s catholicism, not CATHOLIC-ism. Second of all, this section is for other-than-Christian religions. We ARE Christians.” She starts to argue this point with me. To which I interrupt to say “fine you check Religion while I check Christianity, and surely we’ll find it.” “It won’t be in Christianity” “Hon, we are Christians, in fact we were the FIRST CHRISTIANS, just so you know – for future reference.”:doh2:

.

This reminds me of a brief experience I had in a gas station. As I was paying for my purchase, I noticed a good sized crucifix on the wall behind the cashier.

I commented on how nice it was to see it there.

The cashier turned around to see what I was talking about, then said, “Oh yeah, the owner’s Jewish”

“
Really?” I asked, “Is he here? I’d really like to talk to him”

Then she realized what she had said and said, “Oh no, I think he’s CAtholic, or, you know, one of those religions…”

“I’ll bet he’s Catholic” said I.

I left there thinking how sad it was that this person was so far removed from all of it that she didn’t even think about what she was saying.

Wondering if that was the case with your B&N person, or was she really telling you that Catholic-ism is not christian?

 

[Brian_C]

Wow, both the Books a Million and the B&N near me have a great Catholic section. Of course, I try to get what I can from the local Catholic bookstore, which is awesome!!!

 

[RedSoxFan]

Hey everyone!

This is kind of a vent, kind of a teaching moment, and a little bit surprising.

I went to look for Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II this weekend at our local B&N. I couldn’t remember off hand how the Pope’s books would be placed, i.e. by last name? If so, what WAS his last name? I had totally forgot. I realized later it was Wojtyla. Yes, this is how it is listed and put in the stacks.

OK so, I ask a young girl who worked there, and was putting books in their proper place in the religion section, where books by Pope John Paul are. She stood up and said “Pope John Paul the II are in our catholic-ism section.” NOT Catholicism. The word Catholic with an “ism” added to the end. LOL Obviously she’s not a catholic! No biggie – but I KNOW from my previous attempts at searching for catholic books, they don’t HAVE A CATHOLIC-ISM section at this particular branch. I thought “maybe they added one?” So I start following her around the stacks, when I realize she doesn’t know there is no catholic-ism section in her store. We looked pretty silly you can imagine! Then she says "oh we don’t have a catholic-ism section, so it’ll be over here in “religion” desperately trying to smooth over the faux-pas. She is literally steering me away from Christianity to religion. I take one look at the stack and it’s all Buddhism, Islam, Wicca, Hinduism, Taoism, et all. So I turn around and say “NO, first of all it’s catholicism, not CATHOLIC-ism. Second of all, this section is for other-than-Christian religions. We ARE Christians.” She starts to argue this point with me. To which I interrupt to say “fine you check Religion while I check Christianity, and surely we’ll find it.” “It won’t be in Christianity” “Hon, we are Christians, in fact we were the FIRST CHRISTIANS, just so you know – for future reference.”:doh2:

As I turned the corner back into Christianity a nice Protestant duo who had heard the conversation handed me a Pope John Paul II book. They didn’t have the book I was looking for, in fact only two books by our Pope John Paul II, (and I should call and ask them to order more) but I was not surprised by their location, alphabetical, in Christianity.

So I taught one person who didn’t know much about our faith, much less how to pronounce it, a little something about us and our great faith. Yet I found myself pretty irritated by such ignorance as to say we weren’t Christians. Or rather insist we were not. I found myself trying to avoid her when looking for a social study book on breastfeeding. (not much on breastfeeding there either! )

Do you all run into similar issues/problems while shopping at secular book stores? Have you asked a local chain to carry more in the Catholic(ism) department? We have a HUGE Catholic populace here, I have to say I am surprised by the lack of books.

At the Barnes in Nobles around where I live, actually 50 miles away is really the closest one, is in a heavily protestant area. The pople working there are very nice, and not one of them strikes me as being at all religious.

Anyways the bothersome part is that there are probably as many anti-catholic books as catholic books. There is a small catholic bible section with about 3 NAB bibles in it. There are a few other catholic bibles but they are put in the wrong section with the Protestant bibles. That might cause some confusion later on if a Protestant accidentally gets a Catholic Bibe. It actually makes a little bit of sense becuase they try to put Catholic NRSVs with the Protestant NRSVs. But it gives teh impresssion of having no Catholic Bibles what so ever. Still the choice of Catholic Bibles makes it clear it was a minor after thought.

 

[Joe_5859]

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a good Catholic section at any secular bookstore (and I’ve been to many!) B&N and Borders are particularly sparse, especially considering the size of the stores. And most of the “Catholic” books they do have are usually heretical blends of Catholicism and Eastern religions. I’m glad to see from some posters that this is not a universal phenomenon!

 

[tmcs]

Our local branch of the Hastinbook (movie and music) store has a whole shelf! (LOL) Sad to say that is not that bad. One plus, they do have the typical world and non-Christian subcategories separated from both Christian and Catholic categories.

 

[Jennifer_G]

Almost comical ending, though.

Anyway, I’ve tried looking for Catholic books at Barnes & Nobles (I knew it would be in the Religion section, though. ), but they didn’t have too much of a selection. I did manage to find a few books on saints, and picked up a Gregorian Chant CD for Lent over in the music section, but not anything that I was actually looking for. (I was looking for books on St. Faustina, which they only had online - but, my neighbor/RCIA sponser got it for me from the bookstore she runs)

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a good Catholic section at any secular bookstore (and I’ve been to many!) B&N and Borders are particularly sparse, especially considering the size of the stores. And most of the “Catholic” books they do have are usually heretical blends of Catholicism and Eastern religions. I’m glad to see from some posters that this is not a universal phenomenon!

Yeah, maybe 2-5 shelves full of any Christian reading material – and that’s if they put a few books flat to take up more room. Shopping online is better.

 

[Katie1723]

Secular book stores generally carry secular books with a smattering of “religious” books.
The question we should be asking is “Why aren’t there more Catholic stores?”
Kathy

 

[Jennifer_G]

Secular book stores generally carry secular books with a smattering of “religious” books.
The question we should be asking is “Why aren’t there more Catholic stores?”
Kathy

There used to be a “Christian Book Store” at the shopping center up the street from me that my mom took me to once. Only, it was mostly Baptist books (an entire table (pretty large) in the center of the store filled with books on the End Times).

 

[Katie1723]

There used to be a “Christian Book Store” at the shopping center up the street from me that my mom took me to once. Only, it was mostly Baptist books (an entire table (pretty large) in the center of the store filled with books on the End Times).

There are Christian Bookstores all over. I mean a real “Catholic Shop” complete with rosaries and holy cards. We used to have 2 where I live. Both closed up. Now what does that say??

kathy