July 22, 2006

  • By golly, I'm really frosted.  


    The library's apparently been selling off some of the books I like to occasionally read!


    Edward Streeter is mostly known as the author of the original "Father of the Bride," and to a lesser extent "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation", but those aren't the only books he wrote.  There's also "Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter" and "Chairman of the Bored," for instance.  I had to buy the latter book, the library not owning it, but could get the rest of them downtown.


    Ha!  Now there is ONE copy of "Father of the Bride" and it's at the SW Regional.  No "Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation." No "Merry Christmas, Mr. Baxter."


    They're gone, per the catalogue.  I've noticed over the past year or two that many older novels like that seem to be disappearing at the same rate as old-growth forest, and this just confirms it.  'Twould appear I should have been attending the library's annual book sale, seeing as how they've been selling off some of my favorites. 


    If the shelves were full to overflowing, with books crammed in cheek-by-jowl, there might be some cause for it, but that's not the case.  There's heaps of space for more books.  Come to that, the revolving paperback stands in several of the libraries are emptying out, yet there will be signs up advising people they're not taking donations.  What's the sense in that, eh? 

Comments (4)

  • Our library in Hampton used to have the McGuffey readers, which I checked out when I was teaching Stephen to read.  When it was Mosey's turn, they were gone - sold.  Can you even imagine?  That's when I started going to library sales.  I'm telling you I'm surprised there's anything in libraries anymore at the rate they're selling off the good stuff.  It's crazy.

  • It's like all they want to have available is the new stuff. Well, let's see....that's the stuff readily available, unlike the other, out of print materials.

    Surely one of the primary points of a library is to make available that which is out of print, not merely cost Barnes and Noble a sale.

    It's pitiful. Just pitiful.

  • Our library has 7 (or 8) branches and each one manages to have books for sale at all times. I've not found that they've sold off the last copies of their old books. They actually have a respectable number of old titles and out of print books!

    Of the Edward Streeter books our library has "Father of the Bride", "Mr. Robbins Rides Again", and "Mr. Hobbs' Vacation" one copy each. It's a shame when you can't get out of print books from the library, how can one read them if one cannot get one's hands on a copy?!

  • I've never read "Mr. Robbins Rides Again"! Need to get it via interlibrary-loan.

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