21 January 2011

Twould be good to have my library back

My town library might be open, but I doubt it.  And in twenty times the time it would take to pick up the phone and find out if it is open or closed, I will tell you that it's probably closed and why that's keeping me from sleeping properly.

So: first thing's first - it's probably closed.  Its lower floor was flooded last week, and there's a sign hanging outside it saying that "This Building Has Been Evacuated."  So I figure the chances of it being open are slim.

This is keeping me awake because I rely on intellectually consuming crime fiction in order to sleep.  Perhaps using the word "intellectually" is going too far - I just need a run-down of the hows and whos of the detection of a theft or a murder or some other dastardly act.  It's part of my Sleep Routine, just like Woody has his sleeping song and Buzz has his stories and Jessie has her "I can't sleeep because I'm not tiiired" tantrum.  All completely essential parts in the process that culminates in falling asleep.

The current books we have on loan were renewed a month ago, back when we had no idea that on 10 January 2011 our town including the library would be flooded to levels we've never seen before.  This means that our current library books have been here for two months.  One-sixth of a year.  Yawn.  The children's books are very well read and mine are all read once, which is pretty much all I can handle before I go scurrying back to the library for another large pile of trivial crime fiction for bedtime consumption.

Over the last few weeks, I have been looking forward to getting a new pile of books.  This is because recently, in my haste to get out of the library before one of my children disgraces me, I have taken to grabbing piles of books that look like My Type Of Book from the returns trolley before they are re-shelved.  I figure that if someone borrowed, for example, this pile, and if the top book looks like My Type Of Book, then I'd like them all.

In the most recent pile of books that I borrowed, I noticed a disturbing trend.  As I read through the pile, the genre subtly morphed from crime fiction, to crime fiction with a little romance, to "high-stakes romance" which was basically a romance with an outrageously unbelievable mystery to solve when they can take their hands off each other, to -er- romance.

And so now, I find I'm reading "heaving this" and "throbbing that."

All I wanted was "purloined this" and "dismembered that."

And having broken my Sleep Routine, I am having trouble sleeping.  'Twould be good to have my library back.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

My sister works at the library (this is sooo handy - you would never imagine just how handy it is to have someone on the 'inside'... ) and she says the library is nearly ready to open. As far as flooding, it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked. The water came in through the loading bay and actually did not make it to one shelf of books! They have washed and dried the carpets, so it is nearly ready to open up again.

I am so glad that they have been otherwise engaged with fixing flood damaged carpet, as I have just found a book we borrowed in the last week of NOVEMBER - they have had no time to email me or write to me demanding either the book or the dosh to replace it!

Mwah,
B

PS - The mental image of librarians being called to work wearing gumboots and hauling buckets has given me lots of sly chuckles!

Givinya De Elba said...

Awesome! Nearly time to get back to the purloined and dismembered!

veiledturnip said...

The library said in one of their Facebook posts that we should ring and renew our books over the phone if they're overdue - I thought that was a bit funny seeing no-one else can actually borrow them.

Anyways I was going to suggest you head over to the Highfields library if you are really desperate.

Unknown said...

Renew books? Gosh, I've had overdue books from the library for over a month and never got a notice from them, so considering the floods I think you are well and truly safe there.

Good luck on your quest to adhere to your sleep routine. I personally read the Bible and then fall to sleep. I hope that doesn't offend God.

flask said...

i do not know what it's like with libraries where you are, but here where i am, my library lets me borrow books from other libraries nearby. they have an arrangement.

my lbrary also lends e-books that i can read on my computer. not the same as page turning, but worth a try in your circumstance.

i can also borrow audiobooks online. maybe your library does that, too?

worth checking.

librarians can be awesome.

good luck. i am still thinking of you. precipitation keeps falling out of my sky every day here, but it falls harmlessly to the ground and stays there, quiet and white.

Tracy P. said...

Wow, I can tell that my vocabulary would really get a boost if I would actually start reading books. I love books. I have books. I am apparently going to have to start listening to books, or something. Because purloined has not yet arrived on the list of words I know and can use.

But now here is and interesting word in the verification box: revelaxe. Maybe that's what you need. A combination of reveling in a day well spent and relaxing in the thought of some nice sleep as your reward?

Andi said...

I love romance books...I do! However, I'm not so into the heaving and throbbing stuff. Just a love story.

Check out your online library and download some library books to your laptop! It's not the same as holding a book, but it can satisfy the itch!

The Accidental Housewife said...

I'm a fan of the purloined and dismembered genre too! I have a bookshelf full of books I can't read again, cause I've read them once and if I try to read them again I immediately remember whodunnit and how, and the whole fun of the book is kind of ruined.

If you send your IRL address to my email, I'll post you up a care package of second hand books. It's the least I can do - I know how much it sucks to have no reading material. When I moved house last time my grandpa sent me a care package of books and it was awesome!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

I find that when you get to the heaving and quivering bits, just skim ahead to the next quotation marks, so you know they've finished whatever and are back on the highly improbable case again.

Long dark hair, blue eyes said...

There really is nothing better than a good romance novel. I cant bring myself to buy mills and boon or anything overtly romancey (new word!) but I am not above reading science-fiction with heavy romance flavors. That sort of light confection reading is perfect for planes!

Word verification is blesses - how apt!