Working in a bookshop has taken my book-noticing to a new level. I already “noticed” books all the time when I was in bookstores, when I was listening to podcasts, when I was attending book events or looking through magazines and fliers… Believe it or not, it has intensified. So, I thought that now and again I would want to vent all this noticing into a blog. I won’t burden you with every book I notice. (Some go into my TBR and other lists.) But I will give you some interesting titles to notice with me.

Let’s begin with random books I notice around the shop. I have been surprised that many of my favorite books to flip through while on the job are cookbooks (okay, not surprising at all) and humor. Never would I have thought the levity section had so much to interest me. This list has everything from levity to children’s board books to poetry to puzzles. Just whatever.

• Fungi, Bill Wurtzel
• A Dumb Birds Guide to the Worst Birds Ever, Matt Kracht
• Hug Machine, Scott Campbell
• Thank you Please Come Again, Kate Medley
• Black Flora, Teresa J. Speight
• Dark Tales of the Eno River, David Cook
• Disappointing Affirmations, Dave Tarnowski
• Atlas Obscura Wildlife, Giaimo and Foer
• Gastro Obscura, Wong and Thuras
• Murdle, G. T. Karber
• Poetry Unbound, Padraig O Tuama
• How to Be Perfect, Michael Schur
• World Travel, Anthony Bourdain
• The New Menopause, Mary Claire Haver MD
• Bedtime Stories for Privileged Children, Daniel Foxx
• Dragon’s First Taco, Adam Rubin
• Snacking Cakes, Yossy Arefi
• Snacking Bakes, Yossy Arefi
• The Beautiful Poetry of Donald Trump, Sears and Sears
• Welcome to the Museum Books, like Botanicum, Kathy Willis
• Emily Hawkins books, like Atlas of Ocean Adventures and Atlas of Animal Adventures
• Dragonology, Dugald Steer

Now I’ll give you a few of our recent best-sellers. These titles have flown off the shelves, lately, some more recently than others.

• The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan
• The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer
• A Philosophy of Walking, Frederic Gros
• On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder
• Foster and Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan
• Abundance, Ezra Klein
• Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green
• You Are Here, Ada Limon
• (and also Onyx Storm and Great Big Beautiful Life, of course)

(We might also want to note Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia E. Butler, James Baldwin, Mary Oliver, James, and Claire Lispector.)

That’s all. These are some of the books on my mind and on in the Durham public’s hands. I’ll save up titles to vent next time. Maybe next season.