A long, long time ago when bookstores were still a thing, when we had B. Dalton at the malls, Waldenbooks, Book Star, Borders, Crown Books and many mom and pop stores, I used to spend a lot of time (and eventually money) at bookstores. I noticed a curious phenomenon: Whenever I was at the bookstore I got the urge to go poop. I knew where the bathrooms were. It never seemed to fail. Bookstore visits led to bowel movements.
Eventually I had kids and from time to time when they would get constipated, I would, half jokingly, tell them that they just needed to go to the bookstore.
Fast forward 30 years, and now my daughter’s two-year-old son likes to “hold it in” for some reason. When toddlers do that they get cranky and miserable, which of course is utterly frustrating to the parents. Anyone who has had kids knows that. The other day she texted me and said that it was so bad, she had to choose the nuclear option and — you guessed it — take him to the bookstore.
IT WORKED! She sent me a video of him standing at a little table with games visibly “pushing.” I wrote back and said that it proves he’s definitely my grandson.
Then she looked it up and found the “Mariko Aoki phenomenon.” IT HAS A NAME!
The Mariko Aoki phenomenon (青木まりこ現象, Aoki Mariko genshō) is a Japanese expression referring to a sudden urge to defecate that is felt upon entering bookstores. The phenomenon is named after Mariko Aoki, a woman who described the effect in a magazine article published in 1985.
Good old Mariko discovered the phenomenon in 1985, which was many years after it was already a certain thing in my world.
Two days after the the first success with our grandson, she went back today and recorded success within two minutes of arriving at the bookstore.
Which makes me worried: Please, let’s keep Barnes & Noble in business! We need at least one bookstore chain left standing. While I am a bookstore mooch (see my post to this effect from 2013), I resolved that I need to go to the local Barnes & Noble regularly and BUY SOMETHING every time. Our digestive health depends on it.
I told my daughter that her son would be a reader, being introduced to frequent visits to bookstores at an early age.
Good for a laugh to start the new year.