A Librarian's Joys

BG finally put in orders to Amazon about a week ago, so we've been getting boxes of new books practically every day this week. This means I get to catalog, laminate, label, and shelf all of them. Yay.

He asked for suggestions from me, and I gave him a list of 15 or so of my favorites. I already own most of them, but somehow every time I open a new package and see one I requested, I get really excited. As if the book was my own! Again! Maybe I'm just excited to share them with others.

An unforeseen problem: now I have to make sure these "others" actually read them. Most of the books are from my college classes, so they may be over these kids' heads or outside their circle of interest--most likely both. But hey, I'm trying to broaden their horizons here.... And I'm happy to report that Washington's Crossing has already been checked out. Now if I can just get a few to read The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip (possibly my all-time favorite), my life's work will be over.
Pathetic, you say?

Have you heard of, seen or read any Manga? This is the new PC (um, politically correct) term for Anime, formerly known as Japanimation. Apparently that word is now offensive.
[Like Lindsay Lohan calling the President-elect "colored."]
Whatever.

Manga and its English counterpart, the graphic novel, is sweeping the nation's school-age literature. Kids eat the stuff up. Or, I should say, some kids eat the stuff up....because this "sweeping" of the nation is only happening among a select group of people. People that might be called, by other people, "weird."
I'm just saying.

Manga reads right-to-left so, if you're like me, just looking at the book blows your mind into a million pieces. Literally. I'm finally getting to the point where I can look at one and almost comprehend what I'm looking at. It's taken some time and brain-training to get to this point. At least it gets kids reading, right?

Well, about a half hour ago I put the boxed set of Deathnote, newly-cataloged and labeled, on the shelf. [We've been receiving requests for the series for months.] I heard a gasp and looked up from my desk to see a young man staring, hand-covering-mouth, in disbelief. He stood in front of the shelf for several seconds. I thought he was going to pass out or something; instead he ran - RAN - out of the library.

He came back a few minutes later with 4 books to turn in. Then he grabbed the first 4 books of the new series, I checked them out, and he took them to his seat. I watched him for a few minutes as he gazed lovingly at the books until his class left.

I felt like Santa Claus!

I can't help but wonder, What's the big deal? This phenomenon and all the hoopla makes me curious enough that I just might read a series or a book...or at least couple of pages. Do you think that will be enough? But then I might get hooked and become weird. Who knows.