Old Men & Chick Books

When old men come into the library to look at books and NOT ask me out on dates, I love it.  Old men are awesome.  Especially the cranky ones. 

The other day, this old man was in looking at large print books, which is where I was busy organizing and such.  He made sure he wouldn't be in my way, hung his cane on the shelf and made sure that it wasn't in my way either, and then pulled out a typed up packet of papers and started looking at books and comparing them to his papers.  He told me that he has to type up all of the books that he reads so he doesn't read the same ones twice.  Makes sense.  I don't know what it is about me, but I usually mind my own business, but it doesn't stop people from talking freely to me anyway.  I don't mind, really, but I know I don't strike up conversations with people just because they're in a five foot radius of my body for an extended period of time.  Anyway, he says "My son gives me a hard time about the books I read.  He calls them 'chick books.'"  He points to the books he is currently going throuh and choosng from.  "These here, written by Debbie Macomber."
While part of me was thinking "Ha!  Your son is right!  Those ARE chick books, what the hell, dude?" the rest of me was thinking what I actually said out loud to him: 
"Well, if it makes you happy, then who cares, right?" 
And he said "That's exactly what I say to him."

We had a little moment.  It was pretty cute.

So, what I was doing while I was organizing was pulling books off the shelves from other libraries to make more room because they were getting really packed.  We keep other libraries' books within  the county on our shelves, but when it gets too crowded, I see no point in having them there.  So I told him "The top two rows of my cart here are full of books I'm sending back to the owning libraries, if you want to look through them before I take them away."

I went off to do some work somewhere else so I wouldn't get in his way.  But he made a point of telling me that he took two off my cart, and thanks for telling him.

While he was up checking out, I noticed he left his list of books sitting on the shelf.  I picked it up to return to him, and all I can say is WOW.  That was one hefty packet.  Dude reads A LOT.  I wonder if he's into Fern Michaels and Danielle Steel too!  I didn't peek though.

Summer Reading

Summer reading has taken its toll on me.  There is always about ten times more work to do in the summer than the rest of the year.  And it annoys me that we bribe kids to read with toys and candy and stickers and what not.  Come on people, when I was your age, I looked forward to summer reading because I like to read!  Not because I wanted to win prizes!  This was months of free time for reading without school getting in the way!  Anyway, the extreme workload makes me very tired and cranky and this is why I've been out of commission for a while now. 

However, I have more fun stories to tell.

Here is one of them.

Talking to kids is usually the greatest thing ever, because the ones who aren't shy are so uninhibited, they'll tell you all kinds of stuff you didn't want to know.

This kid was in a few weeks ago, and he was kind of talking to himself, but in a way that I could tell he wanted me to overhear.  He kept saying "Oh, man, I have to get this out for my sister!  She'll have to read it!"  He then explained to me that if he gives her a book, she is compelled to read it, even if she thinks it looks stupid.  So he will purposely pick out things that he knows she doesn't like, just so she is forced to read it through her own compulsions.  How deliciously evil.  I like this kid already.

Then he told me how she gets really into books and will throw fits if something happens in the book that she doesn't like.  At this point, I thought, "I kind of want to meet this girl!  She sounds like she might be slightly insane, and I like that!"  He then went on to explain to me that when one of her favorite characters got killed off in a series that she was reading, she got so mad she threw the book just as he was walking in the room and it hit him in the head so hard that it knocked him out.  He seems like the type to exaggerate and/or make things up, but I decided to believe this story simply because it was too good not to.  I said "Wow, she must really be into those books."
"Yeah, she always reacts that way when she's reading stuff."
"Has she ever done anything more extreme than throw a book at you?"
He thought about it for a bit and then said "Does locking herself in her room and crying for six hours count as more extreme?"

Heck yeah it does!  I can't wait to meet this girl.