(no subject)
Yay for books and random library trips!
And what did we pick up? --
The Game by Diana Wynne Jones
Johnny And The Bomb by Terry Pratchett
Sorcery and Cecelia and The Mislaid Magician by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
Leonardo's Shadow by Christopher Grey
The Infinite Gift by Charles Yang [nonfiction; all the rest are J or YA fiction]
I took a look in the library catalogue, and it turns out that the Rai-Kirah series by Carol Berg (Transformation, Revelation, Restoration) is no longer in the library system. This distressed me -- I love and adore that series, and I would never have even picked it up in the first place if I hadn't come across it pretty much every day for weeks and months (and dare I say years?) until I finally just gave in and read it already.
The fun of libraries is wandering around looking for books to try, with no obligation to like or keep whatever you happen to pick out that day. And the cool part? Coming across something completely random that you wouldn't have even thought to look for till you found it.
So, what's up with taking books off the shelf/out of circulation due to lack of popularity? What is the purpose of this? Selling the books doesn't make the libraries enough money to really make much difference... is shelf space really that precious? Is it worth it?
[I sort of want to say things like "I can't believe you're trading Transformation for Meg Cabot's latest waste of space," but that's precisely what I don't want to be saying. I don't, can't, dictate the relative value of various works to the general public.]
But it makes me sad, sometimes, to see thirty copies of Harry Potter on the shelf and know of all the books that aren't there.
--
I recommended the book to the librarian, anyway. She filled out a little piece of paper with the title and author and publication date, and we'll see what happens.
And what did we pick up? --
The Game by Diana Wynne Jones
Johnny And The Bomb by Terry Pratchett
Sorcery and Cecelia and The Mislaid Magician by Caroline Stevermer and Patricia Wrede
The New Policeman by Kate Thompson
Leonardo's Shadow by Christopher Grey
The Infinite Gift by Charles Yang [nonfiction; all the rest are J or YA fiction]
I took a look in the library catalogue, and it turns out that the Rai-Kirah series by Carol Berg (Transformation, Revelation, Restoration) is no longer in the library system. This distressed me -- I love and adore that series, and I would never have even picked it up in the first place if I hadn't come across it pretty much every day for weeks and months (and dare I say years?) until I finally just gave in and read it already.
The fun of libraries is wandering around looking for books to try, with no obligation to like or keep whatever you happen to pick out that day. And the cool part? Coming across something completely random that you wouldn't have even thought to look for till you found it.
So, what's up with taking books off the shelf/out of circulation due to lack of popularity? What is the purpose of this? Selling the books doesn't make the libraries enough money to really make much difference... is shelf space really that precious? Is it worth it?
[I sort of want to say things like "I can't believe you're trading Transformation for Meg Cabot's latest waste of space," but that's precisely what I don't want to be saying. I don't, can't, dictate the relative value of various works to the general public.]
But it makes me sad, sometimes, to see thirty copies of Harry Potter on the shelf and know of all the books that aren't there.
--
I recommended the book to the librarian, anyway. She filled out a little piece of paper with the title and author and publication date, and we'll see what happens.