Then you find the Uzbek warlord

One album I cannot stop listening to in the year or so since I first picked it up is Olé! Tarantula by Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3. I've always liked Robyn, but this is the first album of his I've become fanatical about. It doesn't hurt that his band includes Pete Buck of R.E.M. and Scott McCaughey of the Young Fresh Fellows, who help give the album a late 80s college rock feel that sounds remarkably fresh and undated.

Of my favorite tracks is the acoustic guitar and single-finger piano tune "Belltown Ramble." When I lived in Seattle I worked very close to Belltown, and thus know the neighborhood rather well. In his narrative Robyn walks its streets, muses on life and:

Then you find the Uzbek warlord
You collide with Tamerlane
His teeth are brown

Tamerlane. I know that name, but from where? Ah yes, the 14th Century Tatar ruler and conqueror. Hasn't someone written a biography on him?

Well yes, as a matter of fact, several people have, the recent book of most note being Justin Marozzi's Tamerlane: Sword of Islam, Conqueror of the World.

Only Denver Public Library does not hold a copy. Fortunately, nearby Jefferson County’s library does, and through the remarkably easy Prospector Inter Library Loan service I was picking up their copy on my lunch break yesterday.

"This was easier than falling off the couch," I told the circulation librarian, who seemed quite pleased to hear it.

Thanks Robyn. Thanks Prospector.

(Photo from Wikipedia.)

Holding

Last night on A Daily Show, John Stewart interviewed former political operative Allen Raymond on his book of campaign dirty tricks How To Rig an Election.

With the presidential primary campaigns in full gear, this is one of several books on the topic currently floating around, and one I probably would have picked up on my lunch break this afternoon.

Instead I placed a hold through the library. The library's one copy of the book is currently being processed and I am number 7 in the holds list.

I am posting this as a place marker as I am to see how long it takes before I get the book.

Update:

I checked out my copy of How to Rig an Election on 2/28, the day after I was contacted that it was available. By my count it took 37 days for me to get my copy. At the time of my request there was one copy in the system. I just check the library's holdings and they now have eight, reflecting some demand for the book.

For this title - which I read completely - the wait was acceptable. In fact, it was a good but not great book, but one that I would have bought nonetheless. Waiting for the book to become available definitely saved me money.

On a related note, once I place a hold on a book I rarely cancel it before it comes in. I think this reflects my needs as a reader and the Denver Public Library's ability to respond in a timely fashion to those needs.

A funny thing happens when you stop buying books

You buy more records. Or at least I do.

Today it was Al Green's I'm Still in Love With You, last week it was two albums by Wisconsin polkabilly legends the Goose Island Ramblers.

I can already hear people telling me 'But Barry, you can get music at the library too.'

Yeah, well...

Instant gratification

I can easily think of half a dozen books from the last six months that I simply had to pick up immediately upon becoming aware of their existence, the last of these being Millard Kaufman's Bowl of Cherries.

In fact it was on a lunch hour trip to Barnes & Nobles with a friend where I struck out on picking up the nonagenarian debut novel, when said friend asked "you still buy books?" That question partially planted the seed of my attempt to not buy books. I later found the book at Tattered Cover after deciding the library's wait list for their one copy was too long.

Invariably, my experience with Bowl of Cherries mirrored many of my must-read-right-now purchases; I devoured the first third, slowed down through the second and the final rests on my bookshelf caring not a whit whether I ever get around to finishing. Not that you have to finish a book to enjoy it.

And so the familiar madness afflicted me late this morning when I learned of an overlooked gem of a baseball book that featured the 1982 Brewers, Daniel Okrent's 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game. How could this be? How could I not read it already? I must have it right now!

And there it was on Amazon, presumably not in local bookstores (it was written over 20 years ago), but easily obtained within the week.

Except I’m not buying books.

I logged on to the Denver Public Library's site and steeled myself for the prospects of an interminable wait while my ILL request traced through the nation’s federated library systems. Then, huzzah! There it was, in DPL's system and even on the shelves. What luck! What happy, happy luck!

Within half and hour, my transaction - not purchase - complete, I happily thumbed through my book with thoughts of really sinking my teeth into it later this evening.

---

As a follow up to yesterday's list on the best bookstores in the world, today I came across an AP story on the Seattle Times site of must visit bookstores in the U.S. Happily they include the LoDo Tattered Cover along with Seattle's wonderful Elliott Bay Book Co., which I still pine for.

As if to taunt me...

I stumbled (via Andrew Sullivan) upon this list from The Guardian of the 10 best book shops in the world. I love that they had the guts to place a Borders (in Glasgow) on its list.

When in Denver it's hard to beat the Colfax Ave. Tattered Cover for atmosphere and selection of new books, unless of course, you counter with its LoDo location. For used and antiquarian I am also fond of The Hermitage in the Cherry Creek Neighborhood and Books Buffs down on South Pearl. And then there's Fahrenheit's Books on Broadway which rarely lets me down in the used fiction department...I could go on.

Alas, it will be some time before I dare peruse their hallowed shelves.

How much this free stuff?

We're into the second week of the year and I have four books and one CD via inter library loan (ILL) checked out from the library.

One of my goals in trying to not buy a book for an entire year was to save some money. You can tally the retail value of the books you borrowed rather than bought, but rarely do you pay full retail price for a book. Stores often have sales, run online discounts, or if you're like me you get to know you're used bookstores.

Another option that I like is the Denver Public Library's "Library Value Calculator" which asks the simple question, "For every $1.00 in taxes you spend on the Denver Public Library, how much do you receive in return?"

The calculator has you fill in the number of items or services you use per month from the library and it tallies a total.

Based on my four books and ILL item my personal Return On Investment according to the calculator is...

$20.44 "For every $1.00 in taxes you spend on your library, you receive $20.44 of value in return*"

There is also a Value of Service calculator which reports my 4 checked out books carry with them a combined value of $60.00 and my ILL of $25.00 for a combined $85.00

I am working on my own tabulation of monthly savings based on some of the possibilities I mentioned above. At the end of the month I hope to have my own set of numbers to compare with those tabulated by the calculator.

In library school we were asked infinite times on how we would best to promote our library once we got out into the real world. It struck me yesterday, as I checked out some items that DPL should find a way to include these values on each library check out receipt. It couldn't hurt to remind people of a positive return on their tax dollars.

On browsing and drive-thrus

Today marked my second visit to the library in as many days. These were harried errands because the work was piling up and time too precious to spend taking a break. But I wanted my books as soon as I could get my hands on them.

And so I marched into the downtown branch of the Denver Public Library, went directly to the reserve shelf, grabbed and checked out my books (reserved each night before electronically) and strode out of the library without nary a moment to browse.

Though I'd have liked to.

Unfortunately for me the library's hours largely mirror my work hours. I clock in at 9:45 each morning and leave at 6:45. Three out of five workdays the library's hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The other two weekdays they open at 10 a.m. but do not close until 8 at night. Problem is, I have the tiniest of windows to get home before my young daughter goes to bed. It's a drag when you miss saying goodnight to your daughter.

What I wouldn't give for a 9 a.m. opening, just one day during the week!

For the time being that leaves my best, most convenient browsing option to the Internet. Don't get me wrong, DPL's virtual access is amazing and I can obtain nearly everything I want from my living room any hour of the day, just not so much the physical books or access to the physical library.

I've always felt at home at the library and some libraries even feel like sacred places. My first local library was in a former church, the children’s section housed in the area of the old alter. With the sacred also comes the profane, and when I was slightly older I first knowingly encountered homeless people at the downtown branch of the Milwaukee Public Library. There's nothing inherently profane about homeless people, but there is about homelessness. And on through the years I encountered wonderful, larger-than-life (yes) people at the library and the magic has never worn off. I met my wife at the library and it only took me the better part of two years to ask her out.

---

A friend in Wisconsin wrote me earlier in the week after checking out this site and he offered a very different take on the physical library than my own when describing his library uses. My friend loves his personal book collection but he also uses his library's electronic reserves and inter library loan quite a bit. He does not feel much attachment to the physical library, however:

"So, I'd reserve a book online using my library account, and when I was alerted that the book was on the hold shelf (under my name) I'd go pick it up and check it out. And then I'd quickly get the hell out of the library.

I have a few other librarian friends, and they couldn't quite get the concept that I don't want to "hang-out" at the library. They didn't understand, that for some, the library isn't a community center; it's a service provider. From that service, I want a book, and I want to pick it up quickly and easily and then be able to return it in the same fashion. I don't want to loiter."

I wonder if he's on to something. Will there come a day when libraries are more of a drive-thru service than community space? Have they already reached that point? I wonder if I haven’t adapted to that model already.

Clearing the first hurdle

I walked right into the lions' den today - Barnes & Noble - to find a desk calendar for the New Year. As expected they were holding a big post holiday sale and as I perused the calendars a Marvel Comics book of Spiderman sketches caught my eye.

Now this is something I'd normally glance right over, but it was 50% off!

Instinctively my hand shot out to give the book the once over and just as quickly I withdrew it. I suddenly remembered I wasn't buying books this year. I suppose I could have flipped through it, but why tempt fate?

In the end I didn't even buy a calendar, not today anyway. I had picked out an obnoxiously cute kitten calendar (I work with some real manly men and a kitten calendar on my desk would have really confused them), but the line was too long for me to wait through on my lunch break.

Why am I doing this and what are the ground rules?

I must be crazy because I love books and in particular I love my books. Whether I am an impatient product of my age or just impatient, when I want a book I go out and get it as soon as possible. I spend most of my disposable income on books.

And yet, for multiple reasons, I've decided to try to spend the next year not buying books. This might not seem like a task worth mentioning for many, but I suspect it will fundamentally alter the way I select and obtain my reading materials. It might ultimately change the way I read.

Why I'm doing this

I am a librarian and I love libraries. Though I am very happy with my current job as a special librarian with a private company, most of my customers are in-house and my job is industry specific. I started this blog in large part to create a way to stay connected with the greater library world. Not buying my own books will create a dependence on the public library I have never experienced before.

Other reasons include the simple curiosity of whether I can go an entire year without buying books, an attempt to save money, and to have something to write about that others might find interesting.

For the most part I hope to post shorter length items several times a week rather than sporadic, but longer posts. Though I briefly listed my reasons for starting this blog above, I plan on writing about those reasons in greater detail in future posts.

I do not know if this is an original idea or not, though I am guessing not. Once I decided to go forward with this, though, I decided to not search for other examples.

The ground rules:

For the calendar year 2008 I will try to not buy any books, but rather obtain my reading materials from my local library or other outlets, such as borrowing from friends. I will accept books as gifts, but I will not ask for specific books. If I do buy a book, I'll fess up and report the lurid details of my fall on this site.

In short, I will not buy any books this year, no exceptions.

Exception #1

I have a $25 Barnes & Noble gift card left over from Christmas. This will be my lifeline. In the event that I simply must buy a book, I will use this card. Once it is used up, there is no more.

Exception #2

I have several friends involved in the book arts, be it as a publisher, author or artist. If they roll out new material during the year I am going to purchase copies as I have in the past.


It’s too late to turn back, here I go…