Deep in the Stacks
For someone who likes to read, working in a library is a terrible, crippling curse.
For four years I have compiled a list entitled “Books I Someday Plan to Read,” which has grown to a staggering 55 pages. Sadly, the number of these books that I have gone back and actually read probably numbers in the extremely low double digits. This is due in large part to the unbelievable amount of cool books I notice, one way or the other, every day in the library.
Just on the short walk from the front door to my desk this morning, I glanced at two titles that absolutely had to be added to my list based on the book covers alone: Lives of the Monster Dogs, by Kirsten Bakis, and Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, by Tim Sandlin.
While I waited for the elevator at lunchtime, I stole a quick look at the shelves full of new books customers have ordered from all the other libraries in the county. As the elevator door impatiently opened and closed behind me, I wrote down more fascinating titles like Souled American: How Black Music Transformed White Culture, by Kevin Phinney, and In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan.
Daily I fear and avoid the enticing displays of brand-new books, and the maliciously arranged themed displays with which the librarians lure hardcore junkies like me. (But there’s just so much cool-looking vampire fiction I’d never noticed before. It’s like the genre that, *shudder*, can never die . . . .)
They’ll all go on the list, these enticing titles, waiting for the day that I’m conveniently bedridden by an incurable but extremely slow-acting disease that will allow me 12 to 15 years of pure, uninterrupted reading.
The real problem is that I rarely even go back to the list to find books I once recommended to myself. Too many new ones appear in the meantime while I’m already juggling three or four books whose first few pages, at least, have been totally fascinating. I hardly ever really need these weeks- and months-old suggestions since I’ve repeatedly filled up the allotted 30 items on my library card account in the interim.
Compounding my difficulties is an awesome new feature of the Metropolitan Library System’s website at www.metrolibrary.org. From the homepage, a quick click on the “RSS” (Really Simple Syndication) link reveals a diabolical menu on which a reader can see the newest titles added to the library’s collection in dozens of helpful (or fiendishly alluring) sub-categories.
If you’re like me, and the only way you’ll eventually get to read everything you’d like to is if your eyes and brain are actively preserved in a cryogenic chamber for the next three centuries, I would sincerely like to dissuade you from ever consulting that website.
On the other hand, if you’re too curious to look away, and if you’re interested in what other people are reading and recommending and arguing about and reviewing, check back on the “Bookmarking” blog here and add your thoughts.
Despite my ridiculous list and the increasing likelihood that I won’t live long enough to read even one one-thousandth of all the fascinating books in the world, I’m always looking for new recommendations.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
My TBR pile is threatening to collapse on top of me now, but I will check out the link you suggested. There is nothing like a good book. I love the pic you chose for this article. Even if the digital image had a scratch and sniff capability and I could smell that great fragrance of a library, I’d still want to hang out in one. Too many fond memories from when I was a kid and got addicted to reading. And that hasn’t changed since I became an author. Kudos to this new feature of newsok and to you for your contribution.
I so agree that work, laundry and life get in the way of all the great reads out there. Thanks for sharing Metro’s new feed, I still love new lists whether I’ll ever be able to conquer them.
“Genre that can never die”–hee hee. I find the transformation of creepy vampires into sexy romantic leads rather strange.
I’ll never forget reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula and getting truly creeped out at the description of the vampire scaling the wall outside Jonathan’s bedroom window. Shiver.
Wow, that feed is awesome! Now I totally want to check out like 50 books….uh, thanks.