Wednesday, November 4, 2009

more libraryworld

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.
Posted by at 7:08 PM
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6 comments:

  1. So, what did you turf out?

    Spill.
    ReplyDelete
  2. 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.
    ReplyDelete
  3. i would never have the heart to weed.
    (you should see the eclectic mess that is my personal library...)
    good for you.
    ReplyDelete
  4. 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.
    ReplyDelete
  5. 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.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Icelandic knitting, scandinavian interiors, Cuba and Dorothy Parker? How splendid - I only wish you could be at my local library.
    ReplyDelete

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