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Bookstore Gas
Why do people fart in bookstores?
What’s one of the quickest ways to develop hatred for a complete stranger? Unwittingly inhale one of their farts. It’s a surefire recipe for the abhorrence of your fellow man.
But take that poop out of the equation. Then what do you have? Hopefully, it’s an unbiased opinion of that person regardless of his or her race, religion, creed, or color (unless you’re some sort of racist or bigot).
So you’d consider a bookstore to be a seemingly friendly atmosphere or a place of peace and solitude, right? Still, many of us don’t consciously expect to be the victim of a rancid toot while browsing through a bookstore, but it nevertheless happens time and again — and we sometimes deal with it in a negative fashion.
Bookstores really are a breeding ground for flatulence. Foreign bookstores are no exception, either. But why is it that people tend to let one go in a bookstore?
Aside from the structural design and layout of the bookshelves being a calming factor, there’s another plausible explanation, which I believe comes down to two things: time spent and a person’s mood.
Now, I certainly don’t know the average time a person spends in a bookstore, nor can I attest to the respective mood of each individual in a bookstore at a given time. But what I can…
