It's OK, I Have a Permit

My sister works for the county library, and last night she told me some interesting library stories. I thought I'd share a few.

One guy came up and asked if anyone had turned in a gun to the lost and found area. That's right, a gun. When he was told that no one had, he said that he thought he left his gun in the library, but it was OK because he has a concealed weapon permit.

Maybe it's just me, but I see a couple of problems with that. Problem number one: children do go to the library, and it's not difficult to imagine a curious child picking it up. Problem number two: if you set down your gun somewhere in a library, it's not exactly concealed, is it?

The gun never turned up, so either someone found it and took it or he lost it somewhere else.

In another story, a senior citizen came up to the desk and said that some teenagers were having sex in a storage closet. (!) He went to the storage closet to get some chairs for a meeting. When he opened the door, he saw the teenagers. He subsequently shut the door and seemed pretty unruffled about the incident, although he thought he should let a librarian know. Soon afterward, the book slunk out of the closet. The girl followed shortly thereafter.

Then there's the woman who was frustrated because she couldn't check out more than two books without her library card. She did have her driver's license, which is why she was allowed to check out two books. She compared this policy to having her bra searched at an airport. There's something seriously whacked with that comparison.

Ah, the joy of working in a library.

Quick Update

This will be a quick entry. Sorry I don't have time to blog about a book just now, but I thought I'd provide a quick update.

• Seven days until air conditioning. It doesn't seem quite so long now that the number is in the single digits. It helps that I've abandoned ship, so to speak. I'm staying with a sister. Her swamp cooler works incredibly well.
• Eight days until Reno. Ack! How did that happen? I'm excited about the signing and about getting away, but I need to start packing. I also need to figure out how many books I should really take with me.
• My next Romancing the Blog post is scheduled for Saturday. I'm very glad I wrote it earlier this month, since I haven't had the time or interest to write much of anything lately. My topic is one I've spent too much time on and written several drafts. Now I can get it out of the way. :)
• I've almost finished a review for The Romance Reader. It won't go online until late July, but at least it's done. The heat was really making it difficult for me to want to read and write a review.
• I received Origin in Death on audio before receiving it in hardcover. This is a first for me, and I've set everything else aside to listen to it.
• My favorites page seems to be working better now that it's been going a few days. I can see this being a wonderful time-saving resource, since I can go one place to see what blogs have been updated instead of checking all of them one or more times a day. Yay!

I won't be online at all tomorrow because I'll be working a 15-hour shift. Oy. Wish me luck.

About Organization

I can't count the number of books I've collected over the years. I'm trying to sort them, but I have a hard time letting go, especially when I pay full price. It doesn't help that I'm a packrat to begin with. I moved into my first house last year and discovered that I have boxes of books that I barely remember reading. I must go through these boxes and decide what to keep so I can get things organized.

Used books are a little easier to let go. I frequent two used bookstores: one is 15 minutes away and the other is 30-40 minutes away. I've also started using my local library. Often I'll be intrigued by a book because of its plot or a book review. Now I search the library catalog first unless it's an author I buy automatically. I check out a book, read it, and make a decision about whether I want to buy a copy. I've saved a lot of money with this method. Still, I can say with honesty that I have too many books. Going through them will take time.

I have a considerable pile of books I'm waiting to read, sometimes called TBR (to be read). On Saturday, I resigned myself to the fact that I needed a larger bookcase for them, so I moved one upstairs. This has reduced the piles of books in my bedroom. I'm now using the smaller bookcases to hold my collection of audiobooks and the duplicate copies of books I have for my mini lending library. Now I'm hoping to make a dent in my TBR pile. This, too, will take time.

Alyssa