Sometimes, the classics just have to wait.

Or so says Barnes and Noble, which shoved Dickens and Dostoevsky aside last night to make room for a new classic: my friend Jennifer Oko's "sleek, sly and irresistibly dishy" new novel, GLOSS. This was a photo op I could not resist: the tower of GLOSS threatening to topple and crash all over the cornerstones of Western Literature.

Plus it was the first time I'd attended an event there that did not involve BYOSC (bring your own sippy cup). It was sort of an "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog" moment. In Barnes and Noble at a book reading held after dark, nobody knows you're a mom. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Even more embarrassing for the masters (the shame, the shame), their books languished with their "Buy Two Get One Free" promo stickers whereas GLOSS was flying off the shelf at full retail price.

Of course, none of the masters were alive (much less living in the greater Washington area) to give book readings, which tend to lead to spikes in sales. But that's not really the point. For the moment... and it was just a moment, for as Jen signed her last book the GLOSS display was moved away from the classics... Jen was able to be the embodiment of the new literary guard. Alive, radiant, bursting with energy and new life (she's about to have a baby any second now), wielding a feisty, witty pen and taking no prisoners!

I'd like to think that the masters, many of whom were rebels of their own times, would have been proud.