Thursday, February 2, 2012

Kindling

Oh my, that was painful. I went to the library today to get tax forms AND look for a book. That was a mistake. You should never go to the library to look for a book; stick with Amazon.

I recently discovered Erich Fromm. This guy is ancient history now, but I saw it on CSI  (and they say TeeVee can't teach you nothin). Having and Being and commercial storage space...  It was good stuff. I am definitely a be-er not a have-er.

So I thought I'd look in the used book section to see if I could find something.  Turns out you can't find a thing. It's really rather simple you could choose from a variety of options:  you could go by subject, title, author, alphabet, freaking dewey decimal, it IS a library after all.

I was shocked to find sitting on the edge of a shelf the very author I was there to see. Wasn't the right book, but hey! this must be the right section.  But... how... does... one... find.... anything?? I cry for help. The artifact behind the counter tells me it's a classic...look in Classic. Yeah, have you smelled this joint, pretty sure they are all Classics.

Uhm, yeah, okay, I know I just met the man but I'm pretty sure he's not a Hemmingway, Faulkner, or Gustav Flaubert. This dude is a philosopher, a sociologist, a psychologist...your Freuds, Hegels, like that. You do have sections, I see it on the index cards. If you've filed him in the Classics, you've made a mistake. No offense.

She went back to her book.  I went back to Sociology and exercised the tried and true...alphabetical by section. I just wasn't exactly sure where to look for him. I mean since he had just been tossed on a shelf sort of willy nilly like. Apparently a volunteer had also asked her where to file it and she waved, "over there". It wasn't in the space between Zimmerman and Pinker. Oh, I know.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised, a book person not overly adept in the social skillz. But I did expect a greater sense of knowledge with a panache to smother me with it. If they aren't going to encourage the reading, they really ought to give up the space.  I know next time I actually want something specific I'll hit up the interweb. I just type it in the box and Viola, Erich Fromm!

Might be a reason they shove the old books in the boiler room.  Isn't that where they make fire? Two words.  Kindle. Fire.

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