Originally Posted By alexbook This story raises an important question: What does "toey" mean? >>One of the world's most famous authors, Stephen King, was mistaken for a vandal in an Alice Springs bookstore on Tuesday. Dymocks store manager Bev Ellis says a customer saw the horror novelist walk into the store. Once inside, King found copies of his books and began signing them. "As the owner of a bookshop, when you see someone writing in one of your books you get a bit toey," Ms Ellis said.<< <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/16/2006725.htm" target="_blank">http://www.abc.net.au/news/sto ries/2007/08/16/2006725.htm</a>
Originally Posted By christiemarsh88 That's awesome. How cool would that be if they hadn't noticed? You go to the bookstore, pick up an old copy of "The Shining", buy it for 15 bucks, and it's signed by Stephen freakin' King! I love celebrities like that who know they're famous, but don't really make a big deal about it. He didn't announce that he was there, just signed a few books, left them for some lucky reader, and left.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<"As the owner of a bookshop, when you see someone writing in one of your books you get a bit toey," >> Hmmm... I don't get it. According to my web search 'toey' is Australian slang roughly equivalent to 'horny'. Watching a guy scribble in your books makes you horny? I guess you have to be either a bookstore owner or a librarian to see the eroticism in that... ;-)
Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x That would be awesome to be buying a SK book that had been signed, but not marked up! I wish he'd do something like that in Palm Springs! Now I'm going to keep a look out on his books next time I hit the major book stores!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice *LOL* RT! Too bad they published this story, though... Now idiots everywhere will be in stores signing counterfeit Stephen King autographs in books (would be funny though... if they signed his name in books he didn't write... heh heh heh.)
Originally Posted By BeautysBeast FRom reading the topic of this post ..i was worried he may have been hit by a van after someone thought he was "vandalizing" one.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but if he walked into a bookstore and did not ask the bookstore owner's permission to write in those books, then he IS a vandal. Those books may have been authored by him, but they were purchased by the bookstore owner and they belong to her until someone else purchases them. I'm not saying it wouldn't be cool to find a favorite book signed by the author, but Stephen King has always seemed a little "off" to me. I mean, technically he was vandalizing someone else's property. I get that he was probably doing it to be nice, or to give someone a surprise. But I think he should have notified the bookstore of his intentions first. I'm probably overanalyzing - so feel free to ignore me...
Originally Posted By alexbook At least he didn't start rearranging things. There's one mega-selling Romance novelist who has reportedly been seen more than once moving her books out of the "Romance" section and into the "Literature" section of stores. When confronted by store employees, she is said to have gone ballistic. Then there are the non-bestselling authors who come into stores and start rearranging things so that their books are more prominently displayed.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut hey, merchandisers do that all the time at grocery stores. Its all about visibility. Why bend down to the bottom shelf when you can settle for the middle shelf item.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<Stephen King has always seemed a little "off" to me. >> Well OF COURSE he is. Have you read his stuff? You would have to off to write like that. Normal people don't think that stuff up. He is weird, but he is genius weird.
Originally Posted By debtee In this context, Toey would mean aggitated not Horny, it has a double meaning. I would think the store owner would be aggitated to see someone writing it their books without getting permission first! Stephen King is a bit weird though isn't he.
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 <<Too bad they published this story, though...>> I totally agree. While Stephen King MUST be a bit off to write what he does, and definitely seems a bit drawn toward the light of "celebrity", it also seems that he's a down-to-earth, genuinely nice person. He's done a LOT of quiet philanthropy. And he walks around and interacts like a normal person. People in Maine can't say enough good things about him. I understand that technically is was vandalism. But I think it was very cool of him.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Vandalism by it's very nature defaces and or destroys something, what SK did was increase the value of the books. Not vadalism to my way of thinking, but it would have been good form to let the owner or employees know he would be signing copies of his books.
Originally Posted By debtee I think they published this story because it would be big news in Alice Springs! Even though SK may be well known by the people of Maine, the fact is he wasn't in Maine he was in outback Australia, BIG difference. Being a tourist he should have introduced himself and asked if he could sigh the books and then this story would have taken a whole new slant, he would be the hero coming to sign books in a outback country town, not looking like a bit of a dope that thinks everyone should know who he is. I bet the locals took him down the pub and they all had a laugh over a beer!
