When I'm rostered to the Information Desk (once a week, for a period of 3-4 hours or so ) I entertain myself by stripping the display shelves of dull and worthy titles and filling them with subjects which reflect my own interests, or are a bit quirky, or both. Today the fiction display was OK but the non-fiction needed some work. Off went the boring stuff and on went:
- Hieronymous Bosch
- Icelandic knitting
- Border collies
- Drawing on the right side of the brain
- Dorothy Parker
- Cuba
- Scandinavian interiors
- roses
- vegetable gardening
- Bill Granger cookbooks
- picnic food
I'm always pleased when my choices are borrowed almost as quickly as I put them out.
Creates work, but it's a pleasant way to pass the time when quiet.
The other fun part of today's shift was being rostered to weed fiction for a couple of hours i.e. go through and pull off anything that looks horrible, then ultimately it will be thrown out. Because I love this job and am known to be ruthless, I get it as a regular gig. I was delighted to get rid of some shockers that I have a personal bias against. You may be relieved to know I don't get the absolute final say... but not much is ever challenged.
Sydney Home - Renee Anne
3 hours ago
6 comments:
So, what did you turf out?
Spill.
Whole blogpost in this Suse. But briefly -
chick lit (should be on the paperback stand with the Mills and Boons NOT sliming up next to
the good stuff), the later Patricia Cornwells (multiples, no-one reads them, they're awful),
lots of 3rd rate stuff ( publishers blurbs on the jackets say "writes like
Binchy/Trollope/Rowling"...they don't and no-one is fooled), dated late 90s early 00s American Judith Krantzy pot boilers. Anything with yellowy pages, bad binding. I could go on,
but you get the picture.
i would never have the heart to weed.
(you should see the eclectic mess that is my personal library...)
good for you.
I've only just discovered your blog, and love it. I worked in a library once, and can identify with what you write. The blog that recommended yours mentioned that you write for a paper ... can you tell us more, would like to read your articles.
You may be interested in the 'Reading Matters' blog by an expat Aus. living in London.
http://kimbofo.typepad.com/readingmatters/about-reading-matters.html
It's another of my favourites.
Hi Anon, thank you for the kind comment. Not sure who said I wrote for a paper - unfortunately not true. But as I have so much in my head and want to write something every day right now, I'll be posting daily - like a pretend newspaper column or something!
Will definitely check out the kimbofo reading blog.
Icelandic knitting, scandinavian interiors, Cuba and Dorothy Parker? How splendid - I only wish you could be at my local library.
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