Monday, March 29, 2010

My Q Book



For my A-Z reading challenge, I did a search for a Q book in the public library's online catalog. I found this one: Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas.

I really enjoyed it! I never would have stumbled across it had I not needed a Q book for this challenge. It's entertaining, refreshing, interesting, and humorous. There is a lot of information on what it's like to have a job! That wasn't his goal in writing the book, but it was an extra bonus that I wish I could share with our students. We talk a lot about job skills and what it takes to keep a job. I wish they could all read this book, too. (Most of them would not consider reading a 300-page book.)

Here's an example of his humor -- in the end of the book he has a fairly long acknowledgment section. He lists some of the usual stuff, thanking various people, and also this:
The following bands/musicians (listed in alphabetical order) provided the white noise to my writing: ....
I hereby acknowledge the following locations, which offered me excellent places to write this book
(and here he inserts one of his many humorous footnotes) - footnote: And by excellent I mean they had chairs, lighting, and tables. I in no way mean that they were actually nice places, though some were.
Most locations are libraries, with some hotels and even a couple of plane rides in which he states where he did his writing (above the Atlantic).


There's more, but if interested, you should read the book and enjoy the chuckles yourself.

Now I'm working on a D book. Since it's Spring Break, maybe I'll even manage to finish it!

2 comments:

Scott Douglas said...

Thank goodness for the letter "Q" and thank goodness for Google alerts which makes these kind of post warm my narcissist soul.

Sweet P said...

Sounds like a wonderful book. I thought about becoming a librarian when I was in high school. I need to check out this book. Thanks for sharing it.