Authors librarians love

Just today a coworker shared a quotation with me:

“Then I used the most valuable and unlauded investigative resource in the United States, the lowly reference librarian. Their salaries are wretched and they receive credit for nothing. Their desks are usually tucked away in the stacks or in a remote corner where they have to shush noisy high school students or put up with street people blowing wine in their faces or snoring in the stuffed chairs. But their ability to find obscure information is remarkable and they persevere like Spartans.”

James Lee Burke
Tin Roof Blowdown, 2007

Of course it was a reference librarian who brought this to my attention. Burke really hit the nail on the head when he described their job. Over the years there have been lots of hidden tributes to library professionals -- and para-pros for their insatiable appetite for finding the answers to your questions.

Do you have a favorite library/librarian quotation from a popular -- or not so popular -- novel? Will you share it with me?

Thanks -- Patty

Adults and reading

Did you read the articles about the Associated Press-Ipsos poll with the headlines about 1 in 4 adults read no books last year?
Can you believe it! Instead of celebrating 75% of adults who do read a book every year, they chose to underscore the number of healthy reading habits for American adults. There are so many things going on in our lives -- and most of us read every day. Sure you do. You read road signs, cereal boxes, instructions, newspapers, and internet information. You read fiction for escapism, and you read nonfiction when you want to know something. A good biography can be inspirational, historical and just plain entertaining. Car repair manuals, quilt books, baseball coaching, cookbooks are in continuous demand in book stores, libraries and on your home bookshelf. So don't try to convince me that adults are not reading.

What is your favorite reading habit? Are you an internet junkie? Are you reading anything special right now? Let me know.

Patty

Finding a good book

It's such a pleasure when you find the perfect book. Amazingly that perfection varies and changes--if not day to day, at least year to year. I've been puzzling about reading perfection ever since I picked up SMILA'S SENSE OF SNOW several years ago now. This month I read DYING IN THE CITY OF FLOWERS by Victoria Edwards Tester. It's a small book, and it does not seem to fit a genre. I have finally decided my excitement in little books is a purely visceral reaction to the words. This first person account about a rather ignorant woman whose child is stolen by her no account husband and her Peruvian mother in law. So why did I become attached to her? Why did I wait eagerly to pick up that book in every spare moment? Why did I lose sleep over her? I don't know. I was rooting for Viola's success, and I fell in love with her and her child. And the only reason I can almost define is the pure beauty of the lyricism, the rhythm of the sentences.

Do you have books that you just love? Do you want to share the authors and titles with us? Can you explain why you love a book? Is it the story? The character? The joy of the reading?