One of the things we've mentioned here over the past few installments is the superficiality of the nature of meeting people randomly -- at the grocery store, at the gym, etc. What about at the bookstore? We all know that the bookstore is practically swimming with bright, young, literate people, so why not take your trip to buy or browse as an opportunity to meet someone?

As with anything, there are pros and cons to this. The bottom line is, you want to approach this one carefully. Even more so than the grocery store, the bookstore is a veritable store of clues to what a person is like -- thus eliminating, if only slightly, the superficiality of "trying to pick someone up." The question is, What are the clues telling you? And how can they work for you?

For example, if you like sports, the first thing you'd naturally do is head to the Sports section of the bookstore. You can break things down even further, hanging out in the baseball section, or the football section, or even the figure skating section (you could even start a conversation with someone about how you don't consider figure skating to actually be a sport, and what is it doing here?). That seems obvious enough. But you could also look deeper.

Say you're browsing the Biography aisle, and you stop to leaf through a copy of Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier, and you spot a cutie just around the corner. Stop. Do not saddle up to him/her and start a conversation?yet. First things first -- what are they looking at buying? There are actual sub-categories in the Biography section that profile serial killers and the like. If this person is reading about Charles Manson, while tucking a couple of John Wayne Gacy/Jeffrey Dahmer bios under his/her arm, you have a couple of things you should be thinking about. Is this person writing a thesis for a psychology paper? Is this person a police profiler? Does this person just have an unusually strong interest in serialized murder? Would I be bothered by it if he/she were? If the answer is yes, you should either keep browsing or turn and run, depending on the strength of your convictions. If this person seems to be your cup of tea, then knock yourself out. I'm sure you two will have lovely children.

Other things to keep in mind: Is that attractive person over in the Self-Help section buying that book for him/herself or for a friend? (Let's face it, he/she is buying it all for him/herself, so you can just keep on moving.) Do I want to date someone who is poring over a stack of women's health and beauty magazines/sports and muscle mags/entertainment mags/etc.? Just remember that you can glean as much information here about what you don't want in a person as you can about what you do want.