More odd stuff from Barnes and Noble...

I was there last night and noticed that they had one of my favorite books on display: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon. I was surprised, because it's not as well known as some of his other works (he also wrote the excellent Wonder Boys, which was later made into a movie starring Michael Douglas, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction). On closer inspection, however, I saw that they had The Mysteries of Pittsburgh out as part of a display of mystery novels. Now, despite the title, TMOP is not a mystery novel. In fact, it is SO not a mystery novel that I'm actually embarassed for the genius at Barnes and Noble who decided to include it in the display. How hard is it to read the blurb on the back of the book (or the synopsis at amazon) or...shit, they're a bookstore---how could they not know this? It's pretty damn pathetic.