Yet another gift of my work

Today I stopped at the bookstore, and among some other things, purchased: UnDrunk: A Skeptic’s Guide to AA; Crave: Why You Binge Eat and How to Stop; and Cutting: Understanding and Overcoming Self-Mutilation. I paid for my purchase, left the store, and it never even occurred to me until I was out of the store that in the past I probably would have wondered whether the shop clerk was thinking, “God, that poor girl must be one heavy-drinking, binge-eating, razor-blade-licking sad mo-fo to be needing all three of these books at one time!” That’s certainly been one of the many gifts of my job, a complete and total loss of self-consciousness around the purchasing of self-help books with embarrassing titles. Probably among the best was How to Start Conversations and Make Friends, but there are plenty of other contenders, including Guide to Getting It On (you need a guide?) and the many, many books on my shelves with titles having to do with Sexual Addiction. It’s probably nothing short of astonishing that I give the buying of these books about as much self-conscious thought as I do the purchasing of, say, Guide to Mid-Atlantic Gardening.