Bookstores across the country have begun installing soundproof reading booths after a wave of customers refused to purchase John Steinbeck's «East of Eden» unless a member of the Netflix adaptation's cast read it aloud to them on the spot. The campaign, which organizers call «Read It To Me Or I Won't Buy It,» has spread from independent shops to national chains, with some locations reporting queues that stretch around the block.
«We had to hire local theater students to sit in the booths and perform the entire novel, chapter by chapter, for eight hours a day,» said Margaret Ellsworth, manager of a bookstore in Portland. «Customers will not accept a simple transaction. They want the full audiobook experience, live and in person, with eye contact.»
The demand has created a new labor market. Acting troupes in several cities now advertise «Steinbeck-certified» readers who can deliver the novel in shifts, with some charging by the page and others by the hour. A bookstore in Austin has converted its poetry section into a rehearsal space where readers practice their Cal and Aron voices before facing the public.
Publishers, meanwhile, have begun shipping special editions that include a QR code linking to a scheduling app, allowing readers to book a live performance slot. «We are simply meeting the market where it is,» said a spokesperson for the publisher. «If people want the book performed to them, we will provide the performers.»
The original novel remains at the top of bestseller lists, though many copies are now sold only after a live reading has been completed. One bookseller noted that the store's return policy has been updated to exclude «any book that has been emotionally performed at the customer.»