Another productive weekend at work.. I withdrew dozens of slightly tattered, unreplaceable momentos of my youth, because its library policy not to keep books that look used. *sigh* Many books that are very good are out of print now, and therefore once you withdraw, the library will never see that book again.

I weep for the loss of brilliant books, though I admit some of the things we're removing are real stinkers that were perhaps very cool in 1983, but time has shown that they are really third rate. I'm really not so unhappy that book about the puppy who leaves his mother to go live in an orphanage with fifty unnaturally good tempered boys is leaving the collection. Hopefully quite a few tattered but popular books will be replaced with shiny new copies which kids prefer reading. Because a moving collection is not about my nostaligia, its about what little Johnny will actually sit through.

Interestingly enough I worked with my Boss on desk Sunday. When I first saw her walk through the door I nearly had a seizure, because I had a box of illicit candy stuffed in a drawer (No food!) and my water bottle placed at my feet (No drink!), and several books I was planning to read (No reading!) right in front of me. I was all set to break three cardinal rules on that breezy Sunny day when NO ONE in their right mind was going to be at the library. So I snuck the water bottle back to my cubicle when she wasn't looking, and tried to stuff my face with candy to get rid of the evidence.

I was right about no one in their right mind being there. Just the regular crazies showed up, and some overwhelmed, under-imaginative parents. And the Boss.. was incredibly laid back, to the point that she was petulent, PETULENT, about having to work desk on Sunday. Not that I blame her, but it was kind of funny to see her grimacing comically half the time and the other half counting off the minutes until six. I even offered her a candy, but by that time I had eaten them all so she just got one little Mike & Ike. I was rather sad about this, because I don't like M&I much, and it would have been cool to get brownie points for giving the boss candy I didn't want anyway.

Oh, before I go, remember to Read Meredith Ann Pierce. Great youth fantasy author. More girl oriented though, just to warn you. Funny thing about fantasy, girls can read just about any of it, but boys are socially limited to the, you know, boy stuff. There's an alwful lot of mush in some of those 'boy acceptable' books too, so its not just that. The world will be a better place when young men can read stories centered around strong woman characters and not feel immasculated, or get weird looks from librarians and checkout clerks.

"McCaffrey.. gettin' this for your girlfriend?"

"Uh, yeah , that's it.."