In general blog upkeep news, I finally updated my Review Guidelines to reflect that I have a Sony Reader, and therefore can take electronic copies of books for review. I'm a girl true to my word. See, I told you I had nothing against ebooks - I just didn't have a reader. Well now I have a reader, and since Sony launched their software update that makes their reader DRM-PDF file friendly? Yeah, it's pretty much rockin' my world.Also a shout-out to Kelly Watson who gave me a shout-out in her Romancing The Blog column today. You know, I've been blogging for almost six years now, and it never gets old when someone links to one of my posts. Just sayin'.
In more cleaning news, I spent my morning over at one of our libraries sorting through nasty, old fiction books. I'm about to share with you all my dirty little secret. Ready?
I love to throw away books.
Before you all pass out from the shock, let me clarify. I love throwing out old, nasty, smelly, falling apart books. Some librarians do not like to do this, and you'll know who they are if you're ever in a library where the collection looks like it's 30 years out of date. I know this is hard for laypeople to understand, but sometimes books have got to go. They look bad. They smell bad. They could be mistaken with toxic waste. Heck, even after doing my best Lady Macbeth impression and washing my hands a dozen times? They still itch from all the dust, mold and god knows what else was on some of those books. I probably should have worn gloves.
The library in question that I was helping out today is in the process of getting a brand, spankin' new facility after the first of the year. And the only thing worse than walking into a new library that barely has any books on the shelf? A new library with nothing but old, nasty books on the shelf. It just looks bad.
A revelation I had today while sorting through the moldy oldies - man, did everything suck in the 1970s or is it just me? I know times change, and therefore tastes change, but dang did publishers slap some fugly and bizarre cover art on books in the 1970s. Minimalistic ones, poorly painted ones, and cartoon fonts reminiscent of the The Electric Company. Seriously, you think book covers suck now? Take a trip through a library that hasn't weeded a book in 30 years and you'll discover new levels of horrifying.
I wouldn't be surprised if I have nightmares tonight.
Lucky for me I'll have a nice long weekend to recover. Yep, I'm being positively hedonistic and not working on Monday or Tuesday next week. Now to kick my butt into gear and actually get some reading done.
5 comments:
Ok those books sounds disgusting and I'm GLAD you threw them away!! I normally would be against throwing books away but that's only when they're new and just in the way. Old ones - heave ho! :)
Enjoy your loooooong weekend!
I was our town's children's librarian between the tall kid starting preschool and the short kid being born, but it's a very small town, so my job extended beyond the children's room.
During a little weeding, I found a book on having/raising a baby (I can't remember the title, but it's a classic). I flipped through the edition we had on the shelf and happened to stop on the safest way to transport an infant in a car...
In as basket, on the floor behind the driver's seat.
*cough*
We couldn't bear to part with the book, but we did lock it in the 'old and special' books cabinet.
Shannon:
Oh. My. Gawd. I would have hung on to it too - what a great teaching tool! See, this is why the library gets rid of books....
I had a similar experience at The Old Job when my adult librarian found an etiquette book for teen girls on the shelf....that was published in the 1950s. After we got over being horrified that it was still on the shelf, we were able to have a good chuckle over it.
Mold makes me sick, so I'm glad you threw out the icky old books. Plus new books are pretty and will make the shelves look nice.
I get to do this every day. :-) You'd be amazed at what people will bring in to a used bookstore.
And we also have to throw away a huge number of books with broken spines. Why do people do this to their books?! I can't sell a book with a broken spine no matter that it's the newest book out. So out it goes.
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