[Publib] Reading Recycled Books

[Backwage at aol.com]

First, Oliver Sacks.  Did you know that his Anthropologist on  Mars has a 
glow-in-the-dark jacket?  I didn't, until I turned out the  lights last night.  
 
Next, the lesser Brontes.  You're a sick person if you've read  them, and 
need help.  I spent four years of the navy with those girls, and  I know.  I 
slept with each of them in turn, but you had to be quick because  they tended to 
die on you.  Friends shunned me.  Librarians clawed my  flesh when I left port 
with too many volumes.  I hid Agnes Grey in  a book jacket from Shane and 
per-tended to be a regular guy.
 
The argument (perhaps in the operatic sense) is that it is just easier,  much 
quicker for me to satisfy my sick need for certain elevated books via the  
dollar outlet rather than browsing/clicking/inquiring at the library.  It  just 
is.  For that matter, I have found many more personally suitable books  that 
were library discards than were on the shelves of my local library.   Of 
course, this reflects my own rather narrow tastes.  My desire is to have  some 
portion of them narrow tastes satisfied in a manner which the library  doesn't do 
now.
 
Another thing:  project Gutenberg is also much more better  for finding old 
desirable stuff than the library.  I just sit down and  look.  And the Google 
Scholar feature for finding articles.  And I  write this as a general dis-liker 
of computer literature.  You see, it  isn't that I don't like the library, 
it's that I have to be honest.  Not  being honest is why the library is losing 
its intellectual base and heritage and  (to use an apt but dated term) its 
birthright.
 
The library is engaged in a game of catch-up with technology and with the  
delivery speed of its competitors.  There didn't use to be any  competitors.  
Just ask the little old corner bookstore what that means--if  you can find one 
that's still open.  The difference between most public  library systems and the 
corner bookstore is that the library has a buffer of  funding which tends to 
perpetuate some of its anachronistic features.  Me,  I'm an anachronistic 
reader but want speed in the finding and the getting.   And also in the keeping, 
at least for a while.  Any solutions for  that?
 
Finally:  I write research papers these days on a variety of topics  and 
never visit the library anymore.  That alarms me.  The  documentation is superior 
to what I used to be able to obtain from visiting,  say, L.A. Central.  I am 
assisting in a couple of college courses whose  students also do not cross the 
portals of their university library, though their  papers cite adequately.  
Raises the hair on my neck.
 
M. McGrorty
**************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy 
steps! 
(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1218822736x1201267884/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Fwww.freecreditreport.com%2Fpm%2Fdefault.aspx%3Fsc%3D668072%26hmpgID
%3D62%26bcd%3DfebemailfooterNO62)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.webjunction.org/wjlists/publib/attachments/20090302/2032796a/attachment.htm