Knowing When to Close the Book...

On a quick stroll through the CNN Center this afternoon, I was witness to a sad scene way too familiar to the Waldenbooks on the edge of the food court: the empty folding table littered with piles of books self-published by a local author.

Usually in the genre of stale murder mystery or cheesy romance, there is something extremely sad about seeing the "novelist" sitting alone at the table (surrounded by stacks of undisturbed paperbacks that will eventually end up back on the dusty bookshelf of her one-bedroom apartment in the suburbs) trying to make eye contact with any of the hundreds of people hurrying past the scene to quickly get out of eyesight and to the safety of a Chick-fil-A line. Sigh.