Zazie in the Metro? Oui, oui!

As noted in my last post I was in need of a copy of Raymond Queneau's Zazie in the Metro middle of this week. When I could not find one at either Denver Public or the 16th Street Mall Barnes & Noble (this all took place on a lunch break) I decided to let it go for the moment.

That is when Michelle from Denver Public gently reminded me about Prospector:

Hi,

I have a search feed for Denver Public Library so I occasionally see your
posts. I checked Prospector and a couple local libraries have the Zazie book,
including DU, and it says it's currently available so with your DPL card you can
place a hold on it and should get it in a couple days. http://prospector.coalliance.org/

Hope that's helpful.

Michelle

February 20, 2008 6:13 AM

It was helpful and I now have a copy of Zazie courtesy Prospector and the University of Denver Penrose Library.

I know I have mentioned Prospector before but I do not think I've explained or described it. Basically it is an agreement among some libraries in Colorado and Wyoming to provide inter library loan services to members of those libraries. It also offers a singular search platform.

Their web site describes it as:

Prospector is a unified catalog of twenty three academic, public and special
libraries in Colorado and Wyoming. Through Prospector you have access to over 20
million books, journals, DVDs, CDs, videos and other materials held in these
libraries. With a single search you can identify and borrow materials from the
collections and have them delivered to your local library.

I am quite a fan of Prospector, actually, and I believe this is my 4th book this year that I have obtained through the system. Part of what makes it so user friendly is that I do not have to go through a Denver Public search before accessing it. If I have the feeling that a certain title might be somewhat obscure, I often go to Prospector first. That way it will search Denver Public's holdings as well as the other libraries in the Prospector system. It's a nice intermediate step between my local library and WorldCat.

---
On a completely unrelated note I downloaded the latest album by The Mountain Goats, Heretic Pride this morning. Somehow I found the time to to listen to the album twice in its entirety today and I am particularly smitten with the first two tracks, "Sax Rohmer #1" and "San Bernadino."

To say I have been meaning to check The Mountain Goats out for a while would be an understatement. A friend first played them for me back in 1995 or 1996. Though I remember liking them, my introduction came at a time when I was trying to break out of my indie rock shell. And so I shelved them, but only for a dozen years.

That initial impression stuck with me, though, and work this evening I tracked down the first song of theirs I ever heard, "New Star Song" from the 1996 ep Beautiful Rat Sunset, all based on the way he sang "Canada."

Zazie in the Metro?

I went to the Barnes & Noble on the 16th Street Mall today is search of Raymond Queneau's Zazie in the Metro. Denver Public Library doesn't have a copy and rather than wait for an inter library loan I was tempted to use my $25 "lifeline" to pick it up.

Alas the Barnes & Noble did not have a copy either.

This was my first real trip to a book store since I started not buying books. It was like visiting old friends. I stopped and read the opening passages of Fahrenheit 451 and was intrigued by the cover of the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel pictured below.

But I didn't buy any books. Not even this one:

The customer copy of the The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings at Twist & Shout Records has a cracked spine

But shows no signs of stopping.

The book I would buy if I was buying books

The Almanac of American Politics.

Chris Cillizza told me to get a copy last fall, but did I listen? Nope.

We have a copy at work and I turn to it often. At $65 it's out of reach of my $25 lifeline.

Alas...

I loves me some GoodReads

I joined the literary social networking site GoodReads late last year after my friend Dave invited me. At first I balked at participating, I was already a member of LibraryThing and had spent considerable time building my catalog on that site.

But I joined GoodReads anyway and am happy for having done so.

In many regards, GoodReads and LibraryThing are very similar. Both allow you to catalog your books and reach out to other readers. I have become a convert to GoodReads, however, because it better promotes the social networking aspects of its capabilities than LibraryThing. For some reason the Thing got my cataloging juices flowing, but not my desire to communicate. This is well and good as it is a far easier platform to maintain a catalog of my collection than, say Excel or Access, yet, there it sits.

That said, I visit GoodReads several times a week. I cannot recall the last time I added anything to my LibraryThing site.

Janaury Tally

One month down, eleven to go. In my quest to not buy a book for an entire year I checked out 7 books in the month of January. At first glance I was surprised at how few books I did check out, but that is close to two a week.

I kept a spreadsheet of my titles, what each book cost and whether I thought I would have purchased each title or not. Then I took an average of the book cover price and what it sells for on Amazon.com and through Barnes & Nobles web site.

I determined that I would have purchased 5 of those 7 books. Since I checked them out instead I saved $79.71.

According to the Denver Public Library's "Library Value Calculator" my 7 books:

I received $27.66 individual return on investment meaning for every dollar in taxes I spend on the library, I received $27.66 value in return for the month of January.

Also according to the calculator, my seven books, one of which I received via inter library loan, I received a monthly value of $115.00 for the month of January.

Not bad.

The Brilarian

I will have a recap of how my first month of not buying books went later on this weekend. For the time being, though, it's Friday, The Soup and Best Week Ever are on. And also this is what my wife thinks I look like as an M&M:

I've dubbed it The Brilarian.

This post has nothing to do with libraries, save that my M&M self is holding a book.