The April, May and June Tally

I have been lax on reporting my book savings for the last three months. You can chalk this up to it up to sloth and baseball season, but I have also checked out less books because my serial borrowing habits had resulted in an ever growing pile of unread books. Since April I have tried to borrow less and give more attention to the books I truly want to read.

That said, I went to the library on Sunday and checked out five books. Sometimes I cannot help myself.

Let's take a look at the last three months.

In April, May and June I checked out 19 books, two of which I acquired via inter library loan.

I determined that if I was currently buying books I would have bought 11 of the titles I borrowed for a combined total of $170.44.

According to the Denver Public Library's Value Calculator I received $305.00 in value from the Denver Public Library, and my personal return on investment for the three months was $73.35. This means that for every dollar I spent in taxes, I received $73.35.

So there you have it, I am half way through my year of not buying books and so far so good, though I must add that I have used my lifeline. I will fill in the details with my next post.

The Putnam Rolling Ladder Company

The New York Times ran a delightful piece on the Putnam Rolling Ladder Company this weekend. I mention this because I've encountered their ladders, well, one of them, while in library school at the home office of one of my bosses.

He was so proud of his library ladder. "The Putnam Rolling Ladder Company," he'd say with a profound sense of joy as he eyeballed the creation they'd sent him.

It's a bit like gardening

One of the unintended consequences of not buying books for a year is that I have not kept up with the books I currently own.

When I am actively adding to my library, I constantly shift and reorder my books to make way for new items or to highlight emerging themes. Without adding books, however, my shelves now sadly occupy a nearly forgotten corner of our apartment. I still read individual titles quite often, but a sense of maintaining them as a collective has suffered.



I noticed this afternoon that my modest collection and the shelves it rests upon have started to atrophy. Several shelves featured slanted books (bad for the spine) where gaps had not been properly closed, and every shelf was covered in a layer of dust (bad for the paper) that suggested neglect.

To that end I spent the evening listening to a truly atrocious Brewers game while I dusted, reordered and reshelved my books. It may sound boring, but it was actually a relaxing and welcome chore that took my mind off of a busy work week and a child with an ear infection.

I was also reminded how maintaining a library is a bit like gardening, for libraries, like gardens or cemeteries, take on a life of their own when not tended to. In some ways it is comforting to know my library will morph into something that resembles a more natural state without my presence, but then, what fun is that for me?

The March Tally

Mismanagement of my fantasy baseball team and a seventeen-month-old with an ear infection have kept my hands full of late, but I will get back into the swing of things as I have several observations and items to share about not buying books.

After three months I am surprised at how easy it has been to acclimate to what I thought would be a major shift in my spending and reading habits. Maybe it is the ease with which I can reserve books online, or that the library is so close to my work. Three months into this thing I have not had a major urge to buy a book.

I will be curious to see if that trend continues as the days get longer and, more importantly, hotter. Not being a native, I find Colorado summers rather unpleasant. Many people hole up and read during winter, perhaps I will reverse that trend and increase my reading – and perhaps my desire for books – in the summer.

More on that later, let’s take a look at the March tally:

I checked out 12 books this month. One of these books I acquired via Prospector. I am proud to report I actually finished a few of them, including Graham Greene’s The Ministry of Fear.

Of these 12 books, I determined that I would definitely have bought 7 of them. These books would have cost roughly $95.25.

When I plug these numbers into the Denver Public Library's "Library Value Calculator," for my 12 books (1 of which was an inter library loan):

My individual return on investment for March was $45.69. This means for every dollar in taxes I spend on the library, I received $45.69 value in return for the month.

In addition, the Library Value Calculator reports that for the month of March I received a monthly value of $190.00.

More soon!

That uncertain feeling

I just got back from the library on my lunch break and it hit me that I had nothing to pick up from the holds shelf. I cannot recall the last time this has happened.

The February Tally

Alright, it's the first of March and I've got my February book tally. I checked out 12 books this month - 3 of which I received via the Prospector inter library loan service. I used many of the books as reference or read just a chapter or two of. Others, like The Moviegoer, Zazie in the Metro and How to Rig an Election I am on my way to completing. But more on those later, for now let's go to the tally!

As explained last month I keep a spreadsheet of the titles I check out and what each one costs according to the book jacket. Then I take the price of each book from the web sites for Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble to come up with an average price. Finally, I determine which books I would have definitely purchased were I buying books to come up with my monthly savings. In addition to this I enter my books into the Denver Public Library's value calculator.

I determined that I would have purchased 7 out of the 12 books I checked out for a savings of $103.46.

According to the Denver Public Library's "Library Value Calculator" for my 12 books (3 of which I obtained via inter library loan):

I received $50.50 individual return on investment meaning for every dollar in taxes I spend on the library, I received $50.50 value in return for the month of February.

I received a monthly value of $210.00 for the month of January.

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As an aside, tonight I am going to see recent Oscar nominee Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight! at the Temple Buell Theater. Hope to have a report for you tomorrow.

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.

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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."

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.

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.

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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.

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…

An early start

Though my year of not buying books does not officially start until the New Year, today I got a head start.

Several coworkers have recently recommended the David Maraniss biography of Vince Lombardi, When Pride Still Mattered. The downtown Barnes & Noble had a copy but upon picking it up my instant reaction to the 500+ page tome was "Egads, that's a lot of Vince Lombardi!"

And so I defied tradition, placed the book back on the shelf and checked out a copy from the library on my walk home.

In the upcoming week I'll write more about my experiment, why I am doing it and what I hope to accomplish.

Stay tuned...