And all these books are mine for the reading? DUDE

[annathepiper]

I am really rather starting to groove on having a library card. Not only has it let me start getting caught up on favorite authors who have gone into hardback (I just picked up jimbutcher's Small Favor tonight) it's also let me track down a few much older, obscurer novels by people on my very own Friends list.

To wit: hey desperance! The Samaritan is now on my Hold list and I expect to be reading it soon. They did not, sadly, have Dispossession. I looked!

I also found a few really old Elizabeth Lowells written under her other name, Ann Maxwell--a couple of which have been re-written under the Elizabeth Lowell name. I wanted to check these out just to see if I could pick out the bits she's changed.

This sits well with me, and I shall have to think about what other obscurer novels I may want to read courtesy of my shiny new library card. Recommendations are welcome.

Comments

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

this isn't exactly a book recommendation, but .. put the due dates for your library books in your PDA, with an alarm set to remind you a day or two beforehand. Also, if your library offers a service to email you reminders to return stuff before the due dates, sign up.

Libraries are truly a gift directly from the Divine, so long as you don't end up spending more than you would have on the book in overdue fines. Enjoy!

[annathepiper]

Thanks for the tips. :)

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

Also, I know zip about how greater Seattle libraries work, so I'll tell you how greater Vancouver libraries work and you can extrapolate/investigate. Until fairly recently, they were separate systems in the separate cities but you were entitled to cards from any of them, so long as you could show a valid card from your home community system and photo ID. As a result, I technically have four library cards, though only one of them is currently functional due to outstanding fines (see previous comment ;) ). Now they're more tightly integrated, and you can register your card for your home system with any of the others, and have borrowing privileges at any of them.

Point is, if there's a sister library near work or somewhere on the route between, you might still be able to get your hands on the desperance book your home library doesn't have. Said sister library's catalogue is probably searchable online, as are the rules for sister library relationships. Have fun!

[annathepiper]

All the King County library branches are integrated, with a central searching system. So in the case of desperance's novels, the search I did came up with all the ones of his that they had in any branch in King County, not just mine.

The web page for the King County Libary System is cool, you can just log in, do a search, and no matter where the particular book you might want is, they can send it over to your chosen branch and you pick it up when it gets there. It's pretty awesome. :)

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure if the GVRD libraries are headed for that level of integration, but i'd sure like it a lot if they did :)

[annathepiper]

It's very neat. :) I learned about this kind of over Dara's shoulder; the last time I had a library card was way before they had this system in place. But it was one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and get a new one!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Old and obscure - whoo, yeah. That pretty much covers it... *g*

The Samaritan is the first book that ever had my name on the cover, so it is. Enjoy! (And report back, yeah? You'll find me trudging off thataway, into age and obscurity...)

[annathepiper]

Hee! I shall certainly report once I read it!

[firni.livejournal.com]

Go read my last post, it has suggestions in the comments. But only if you can figure out if littlezen got the question right.

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

My library card is so old it still has my four-year-old, can-barely-manipulate-a-pen signature on the back. I refuse to give it up. ;)

[annathepiper]

Hee! That's awesome. :)