Crowd control for bookstore readings? Conceivable!

Blogger MKP reports from the field on "priority seating" at a Wallace Shawn reading at a New York Barnes & Noble:

Anyone who shows up and buys a book by the author can go right in and have a seat. Everyone else has to wait in a line which, for this particular event, they never let inside the room. They proffered "overflow viewing," aka 15 square feet of standing room in front of a TV under the escalators as a placation.

Naturally, people in line went crazy, and there were still empty seats in the end. Oops. (Helpful side note, here's her explanation of what a 3Q is.)

I'm with MKP on seeing why B&N or another bookstore would do this, but since I rarely buy the book when I'm there, I would be stuck in the line -- which is a shame, because readings like this are (normally) great free entertainment.

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On that note, it's Labor Day Weekend! Hooray! I'm not actually going anywhere, unless you count the Slough of Despond, but I'll have some time to read, and I hope you will too.