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Bookstore in Oak Cliff pulls the plug on weekend Wi-Fi

Hey, you, with the laptop! Turn that thing off.

Owners of Oak Cliff bookstore The Wild Detectives want their customers to, y'know, talk to one another or read quietly when they visit the little shop located near the Bishop Arts District on the weekends. Effective Nov. 27, Wild Detectives has outlawed Wi-Fi from 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday night.

Chesley Antoinette, Cat Cole, and Pilar Zornosa sit at the bar, sip cocktails and eat cheese...
Chesley Antoinette, Cat Cole, and Pilar Zornosa sit at the bar, sip cocktails and eat cheese during the book signing of 'Mad Men Carousel' written by movie and television critic Matt Zoller Seitz. The Wild Detectives hosts book signings and social events regularly.(Alexandra Olivia / Special Contributor)

Free Wi-Fi will be continue to be available on weekdays, like before.

Andrés de la Casa-Huertas, brand director at The Wild Detectives, says the change was made so that their customers will disconnect from work -- and also from web surfing, Facebook scrolling and Twitter lurking, we presume -- and just hang out. The bookstore regularly hosts events on the weekends, and customers treat it as a cafe, where they buy books, beer and wine, and little bites called tostas.

The move is a clear effort to steer Wild Detectives' atmosphere into a productive, unplugged zone. "While the books act like a magnet for creative and interesting people with a lot to say, sometimes it feels that they also give the wrong impression and make us seem like a library, which we are not," de la Casa-Huertas says via email. "We've always wanted The Wild Detectives to be a place that promotes a lifestyle around culture, a place in which somebody could always crack an interesting conversation with a stranger and talk about things that matter."

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He calls it a "difficult decision ... as we don't want to exclude anybody who wants to spend his or her time here."

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Those who don't want to talk are free to sit quietly, of course. Just stay out of the wwws.

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Here's a performance of "Shakespeare in the Bar: Much Ado About Nothing" in March.
Here's a performance of "Shakespeare in the Bar: Much Ado About Nothing" in March.(Smiley N. Pool / The Dallas Morning News)