Before Book Clubs and Blogs, how did we hear of must-read books? Knowing there was no “must-see” TV in my “Now Playing” TiVo queue, I headed to the library to pick up four books on hold and a mental note to check the staff-recommended DVDs.
One of my first career lives was that of a paralegal and in my fourth law firm, an associate attorney was trying to keep us awake in the middle of the word-processing room as corporate and litigation documents were typed and printed for an early morning court appearance. In her words, she was a lawyer until she sold her first novel, a mystery involving health professionals (come on, she was a lawyer, no other plot details were divulged); and I told her my second-grade teacher, Dolores Hitchens, was a teacher until she sold her mystery novels but, unfortunately, I couldn't find any of them; this was 1988-90 and it wasn't until several years later that I was able to find Mrs. Hitchens' books at the Los Gatos library. That's all it took for her recommendations to spew until I could find Mrs. Hitchens' books:
By this time, the office manager had wandered into the word-processing room and added her two cents:
His other two series are equally good and I'll leave you, Reader, to explore.
Even though this author was recommended to me more than 20 years ago, it was just last year that I picked up her first novel in the Outlander series.
By 1991, I was out of the paralegal career life and into the start of my campus/academic/university career life and, more importantly, had my initial access to this thing called a "world wide web." I spent many hours perfecting my "SQL" (standard query language, aka search engine language aka "Google" before there was Larry and Sergei) technique to both complete grant reports to federal agencies and to find out the weather on the other side of the world. In my "travels" there, the whole world of ILL, Inter-Library Loan, opened and I was hooked. We're now back to the future and here are a just a few of the authors I have recommended countless times as they all offer a bit of everything necessary to spin a great tale: plot, place, pace, character.
My four books on hold in hand, I walked the scenic route home (up through the redwood- and oak-tree covered hills) and gave the
the little grey cells over to my recent return from a retirement reconnaissance trip to northern Humboldt County. I was eager to compare and contrast my list of retirement must-haves between my current and potential future homes. And, of course, one of those must-haves is a library open seven days a week (Since moving out of my parents' home some 30+ years ago, my "home" towns [7 of them] met that requirement). And although neither the library in Blue Lake, population 1,103 or Arcata, population 16,000 +/-, is open seven days a week, it might be time re-think "how" a library is open seven days a week given this little thing called the "world wide web."
So, you're gonna think I missed the whole point (!!!), but I'm going to check out (library pun!) for you the hours of the local library here in St. Louis! :)
ReplyDeletePlease do! And "check out" any bungalow/cottage within walking distance of the library, too. I'm "open" to look at most anything.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed numerous selections from your suggested authors over the years; keep them coming! And, let me remind you, this part of paradise has libraries open seven days a week! But I have started perusing my own (limited) book shelves and recently read a memoir on Hemingway covering the last 14 years of his life. I do believe I picked this off one of the many shelves from home eons ago. Sometimes it's still worth it to 'check out' our own corners of the world! ~jm
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