Monday, January 26, 2009

Living inside of the dog*


So, what do you do when your kid is sick?

You read books.

I have three lists of books to read before I die, totalling around 250 titles.  Most of them are classics I should have read either in high school or in college as an English major.  

So I've been searching on the library website for the books I'd like to read, seeing what is available here and reserving copies.  

It's rather discouraging.  Hardly any William S. Burroughs, scant Huxley, Nabokov, or Spark, and it's as if Miller, Percy, Bowen, and Ford never existed.  

Maybe it isn't a huge priority for this small-town library to keep a stock of all the classics, especially the more controversial things.


But it still puzzles me.  I've wondered about buying copies of the missing books to stock our local library a bit better.  

Then I think...isn't that their job??



*This is an allusion to a famous quote; who gets the reference?

6 comments:

Cynthia said...

I think you can request books for them to purchase. But no, I have no idea where that reference comes from...

Anonymous said...

I get it Jenn. Tell me if I am correct?... could it be this one:

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. --Groucho

hmmm.....

Love to you all
Karen the Aunt

jenn said...

Well done, Karen! :)

Missy said...

Your Aunt Karen rocks! I had no idea. Hopefully you can get your library to purchase them. We've been really fortunate that way.

Anonymous said...

You might have luck with your library, or better luck looking for another library. Perhaps you could get on the library purchasing dept and have a free for all.. Or, check out Amazon, then when you are done reading and do not want to have your own personal library, you can put the books on e-bay. :)
Love ya
MOM

Anonymous said...

btw - how is Elizabeth feeling??
MOM