Adventures In Bookfinding

[sisabet]

I finally finished "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (and man, I felt like - forced to read it as soon as possible just as a defense mechanism. Also, I kinda am enjoying the insanity at fandom wank). I have this to say about the book: I liked it much more than "Revenge of the Sith" but not as much as "The Empire Strikes Back." Freeze someone in carbonite and then we will talk, JKR. Actually... the carbonite freezing is only effective if it is Han Solo who is frozen so, yeah. Those books need Han Solo. Of course, I've thought everything needs more Han Solo since I was five years old, so this is not news.

In other book news, I went to the library yesterday after work and this woman followed me in from the garage and started talking to me, remarking that I was bringing back a lot of books (I had 4 - which I actually consider a model of checking-out restraint) and I said that I was actually gonna renew Anne Applebaum's "Gulag: A History" as it just wasn't the quick, feel-good beach read I was expecting. She then asked if any of the books had been good and without hesitation I handed her "American Gods" and so she followed me to the return desk to grab it once I had it checked back in. She then looked it over and asked me if it was "a mystery or a thriller or..." and I was kinda stumped. I mean - I didn't know how to describe it in terms that would actually make this woman give the book a chance and so I just said that it was difficult to summarize but very very interesting. I compared it to really early, well thought out Stephen King. In hindsight this is probably a disservice to both Stephen King and Neil Gaiman but I am not that great thinking on my feet and this is why I surround myself with all of you. You guys would have been much better dealing with strange woman and their fiction demands.

I then used the internet computers for a bit and then failed to find Harlan Ellison's "Deathbird Stories" where the computer said it would be located at in Sci Fi. So I went to the desk where I had to convince the Younger-Than-Me-Librarian that there is actually a writer with the last name of Ellison who is not Ralph and he actually wrote a lot of books, several of which this library is supposed to carry and there are 3 actually in the Sci Fi section but none are the book I want.

She then did a search on the book's history and it turns out it has been checked out one time. This made me really sad. She didn't note my depression (which was probably more internal and also the state of my emotional well-being is not a responsibility of the Lexington Public Library System, although the two can be closely linked) and suggested that maybe the book had been misfiled in regular fiction. So I looked and success! She then caught me on the way out with the book and put a SciFi sticker on the binder so it won't be incorrectly filed when I return it.

Which is possibly *why* it has only been checked out once since 1996. It never found its way back home to its people. But now, once I've read it, it can -- you know -- make that leap home.

*Sniff*

This book is either "Homeward Bound" or "Quantum Leap" or something else that gets lost and returned, only sinister and not so much with the cute dogs and cat or Sam.

I appreciate the warning not to read this book in one sitting. Again, I do think my emotional well being is my own responsibility, but it is so nice when a book cares.

Comments

[qafhappy.livejournal.com]

It had to be nice and warn you... you rescued it!

[caphricacorn.livejournal.com]

1) Do you have nothing to say about HBP except you like the wank?

2) Did you go to the William T. Young library or the smaller one (on Main Street?)? Because I don't want you to taint the image of my perfect $60 million library...

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

1. There was a lot of kissing.

2. Lexington Public Library means that I was at the Lexington Public Library (Central Branch on Main, yet). The campus library is a different system.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

You have so many exciting library adventures! I cannot imagine how I would have dealt with the woman from the parking lot. I don't understand people who can talk about books concisely.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well, she was all "I never know what to read" and I was just... truthfully, other than when I was a child (and had restricted access to books) this is not a problem - I can always find something to read.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm not sure what to read next. But that's not quite the same thing.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Sometimes it isn't even *what* to read next - it is what *stack* to approach next.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

See, you are the kind of person I could talk to about books in a library parking lot. I mean, for one thing, you wouldn't expect me to be concise.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Not at all! I'd say "Is there anything in this stack you recommend?" and you'd say "Yes, this" and hand me a book and I'd say "What is it about" and you'd say:

"Well, there is this schoolboy who is actually a demon slayer and is actually not 15 but 1000 and also? Not a boy. So he is attending class when his former lover, who has now been reincarnated as his demon counterpart, destroys the building and his twin sister who he may have been having sex with. So he goes on a quest and this is the first 3 pages. Oh, and he meets Angel."

and then I'd say "Oh, brilliant!" and we'd laugh and go get coffee.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

"Also, there's lots of scenes where he gets bound to crosses and bleeds. You'll love it!"

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

You know me so well.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I was talking to geekturnedvamp a few days ago and I realized that the really cool thing about fandom is that when you discover a series all about a boy who is in love with his sister where they are both actually reincarnations of incredibly powerful angels from the dawn of time, thus combining both hetcest and femslash, not only do you know there's someone else out there who will love this just as much you do--you know exactly who this person is.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever heard.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

A lot of Harlan Ellison's early work is out of print now, and you can never find it used: people don't want to part with it. I'm not at all surprised that it was misfiled -- people misfile things intentionally that they don't want other people to have! When it comes to Harlan Ellison, people are grabby bitches. (:

That said, I own several of his early books and would be happy to bring them to VVC for you. If you have a list, email it to me and I'll see what I can come up with.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I actually found a cache of his fiction at the library (just misfiled) so now that I know where it is - I should be set for a good while.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

EVERYTHING needs more Han Solo.


I love and adore Ellison. It is my dream to one day write so well as to have the same effect he does. That is: Goosebumps.

My favorite collections of his are Strange Wine and Stalking the Nightmare.
Of Deathbird Stories, I loved "Paingod" "Adrift just off the islets of Langerhans" and "O Ye of Little Faith." "The Place with No Name" is seriously slashy.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Cool - I'll probably read a story or two tonight sandwiched between the Gulag book and Black Sun Rising.

Oh and watch some Dead Like Me.

Stuff

[kimberlyfdr.livejournal.com]

Hans Solo makes everything better.

And dang it! I went to the library yesterday and totally forgot to look up the Harlan Ellison book I was gonna get. My memory sucks.

[luminosity]

Any book of Harlan's fiction is worth checking out. I recommend I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream and Strange Wine as first forays. He's written some *fantastic* speculative fiction. OTOH? If you really want to learn to hate him, read his essays. He's an intolerable, insufferable, angry little twerp.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I think we have talked about what a sad human he made on several occasions.

Hey - have you started "Black Sun Rising" yet? Let me know where you are at when you do. I've been reading it off and on (mostly off due to American Gods and HBP) this past week.

[luminosity]

I really just started it, but I plan to be a couple hundred pages in within the next day or so. I have to get work out of the way. And then there's finishing the BBP. And then there's actually rebuilding my house, since nobody in my family seems to be able to actually, you know, *clean* something when I'm gone. And stuff. But yeah, I like what I'm reading.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I'm all Miss Book-Mc-Bookerson lately. It is like a computer, only not!

They are installing the MB as we speak. I had to buy a new sound card. At this rate... well I am not thinking about it but at this rate I probably should have just *bought* a new computer. Except for the part where I cannot afford it.

But you will resend me the last bits of the BBP, right? Cause I hadn't moved all of it to the storage drive.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you for saying that. I have been unable to read most of his fiction because I've gotten so angry at him for the introductions he's written to other people's books.

By the way, Lum, I mailed you a mess of books just now. I don't remember what they were and probably most of them I haven't read and sent you because they're usually classed with authors you said you liked, so if you hate them, don't worry about hurting my feelings.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Your library story warms my heart.

[renenet.livejournal.com]

Less for its content than for its setting and your presence and engagement there. And you finding the misshelved books. You are righteous.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well, not *that* righteous. I actually found a cache of misshelved Harlan Ellison books in regular fiction and I left them there so I will know where they are when I go back for them. I figure that I'll make certain they all get the little sticker as I check them out.

So, I am actually pretty selfish.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Now I am feeling guilty about letting the remainder stay misshelved until I read them. I'll confess on my next library trip.

[luminosity]

DON'T GO GETTING ALL PURGED OF SIN TILL AFTER YOU'VE READ THEM!

[calms down now]