Taylor Swift was out in SoHo again today, presumably with all of the tags cut off her clothing this time. She was spotted browsing the New York section of the bookstore McNally Jackson, which just so happens to be two blocks from the Gawker office, so I walked over to get a glimpse of an abnormal person attempting to do normal person things.

McNally Jackson was, as bookstores are, dead quiet when I strolled in at a quarter after three. I did not know if Taylor Swift was still there, but for some reason I thought I might find her having a quiet, relaxing afternoon thumbing through books undisturbed. SoHo is peaceful in the afternoon—it seems like an insanely famous person could move about with relative ease. This belief, among a bunch of other reasons, is why I would make a poor famous person.

I passed through each section of the bookstore—Philosophy, Poetry, Ideas, etc.—but saw no blonde women, let alone Taylor Swift. I did find two young women tucked away in one section discussing whatever it is people discuss in bookstores, and asked them if they had seen Taylor Swift. "Wait, really?" said one of them. Her face expressed astonishment and skepticism in equal measures, which is what I guess your face might look like after being told you were sitting somewhere Taylor Swift was standing just 30 minutes ago.

Thankfully, there were people at McNally Jackson at the same time as Taylor, one of whom works for this company. He writes:

She had a small stack of books which I couldn't really make out. Saw that she took a few selfies with some middle-aged fans. There were probably sixty people outside waiting for her. Got into a big black truck. She was browsing books in the New York section now that I'm thinking about it. Seemed like she was having a pretty normal day.

So, what's a "normal day" for Taylor Swift? Something like this.

She had one guy with her that said to stand back for a second while she got rung up. Can't confirm if he was a bodyguard. He was dressed in Dad-clothes. The bookstore was totally normal inside, definitely chaotic on the outside. Lots of anxious people with cameras.

After my fourth lap around the bookstore—good magazine section!—I walked up to a young employee working the information desk and muttered, "So, I heard Taylor Swift was just here." Her face soured and she flicked her eyes up at me.

"Why don't you ask Google?"

I think, in retrospect, she might have meant Twitter.

[image via freee_lys]