Library Miscellany

I'm glad everybody seems to like my reports about things I (or my co-workers) find in library items. Today I only noticed one weird one: four bobby pins.

One thing I wish I did more consistently is to remember weird books I see. There was one day a few weeks ago when I was working on the pick list* that I came across:

1) Barron's E-Z Grammar
Really? E-Z Grammar? Really?

2) The children's book Becoming Best Friends with Your Hamster, Guinea Pig, or Rabbit
Is it just me, or is that crushingly depressing? It gives me the very sad image of a child that would A) turn to any animal as a best friend (presumably because no human children like them) B) would try to befriend an animal as indifferent and boring as a hamster, guinea pig, or rabbit and C) would believe that this book would actually enable them to form an emotional relationship with said animals, which it would not, because come on, it's a hamster/guinea pig/rabbit. I know that's probably not what the author was going for, but that's all it conjures up for me.

I also get bummed out when people come to the library to research problems they have. Like when someone returns seven books about chronic insomnia, or when they order in a couple books about irritable bowel syndrome. (The winner of the Depressing Book sweepstakes [so far]: the children's book I Wish Daddy Didn't Drink So Much. Random, by-chance choice of the child, or purposeful selection by the mother? I'd rather not know.)

This is also a keen reminder that people are surprisingly willing to make library workers privy to pretty sensitive information. Why, someone handed me books to check out to them this very day that were of an . . . instructional nature . . . and I don't mean that they contained diagrams for how to make your own furniture. (Although I also checked out a half dozen books about sharpening tools to one person, and that was rather more disquieting--lots of pictures of blades and the word SHARPENING splashed all over the covers.)

One thing I enjoy is when it's clear that a kid is taking a very keen interest in a subject. Sometimes it's the mom who checks out seven books about boats, or the family that has rounded up every kids' book we have about firemen, or the tell-tale pile of seventeen picture books about snakes in the bookdrop. (More power to you, Snake Kid.)

Although, by the same token, there are some clearly terrible books we just can't keep on the shelves--in particular, the fairy books. It's not like I don't get it--I read every Babysitters' Club Book under the sun (except the mystery ones--even I couldn't bring myself to care about the mystery ones). And when I was a little girl, I liked colorful things and sets of things (OK, those might not be exclusive to when I was a little girl). But they're written by Daisy Meadows. Daisy Meadows. I just can't get over that.