helpful librarians

I’ve been spending too much time reading books and watching movies. I try to pick the best stuff so my brain doesn’t completely atrophy, but still. I waste too much time. Movies bring on the guilts far worse than books, and lately I’ve been watching far too many. Recently I had a friendly prod, though. I stopped at the county library and grabbed two movies that I’ve been waiting for. One of them was The Book Thief.

When I got up to the counter the librarian said, “Oh, Dave, (yes, they call me by name…) have you read the book? It’s so good!”

I had to confess that I hadn’t read the book. At this point another librarian chimed in and said that the movie was very good too. Great. But undeterred, the first librarian said, “Really you should read the book. At least before you see the movie.” Minor dilemma. They really didn’t want to let me take it out.

The librarian that liked the movie wavered a bit and said, “Well, yes; you should read the book before watching the movie. It fills in so much.”

Okay okay. I took both movies, and hung on to The Book Thief an extra day to make sure, but I ended by not watching it. I checked online and all copies of the book in all county libraries were checked out. When I told the librarian, she said she’s bring me her copy.

That’s pretty amazing wouldn’t you say? I would have been too uncomfortable to take her up on it. Then it turned out that the libraries copy came back early. It actually said, “On shelving cart” when I checked the digital catalog. What kind of crazy timing is that? So I followed the cart, checked out the book, read it over the weekend, and have to confess I loved the tale. I asked the librarian if the movie had a narrator, and she said yes, although it isn’t featured as prominently. But you know what? I don’t even care. I currently have no motivation to see the movie. The book was perfect. Buy it for your kids.

The next time I grabbed a movie, it was because an old friend recommended MirrorMirror. This time, when I got to the desk the librarian smiled and said, “Have you seen The Fall? It’s by Tarsem, too (Meaningless reference…). Oh you’ll really like it.” She ran from behind the desk, grabbed the library’s DVD of The Fall and checked it out on my card.

And she was right. I enjoyed finding out who Tarsem is, and The Fall easily surpassed MirrorMirror. I’ll bet The Book Thief book surpasses The Book Thief movie just on the librarian’s say so. Smart folks, those librarians. I think I’d love working in a library, except there’s no way I’d be able to provide that calibre of friendly personal service.