Quietly furious .... at my local library ( Rant )

[normzone]

As a regular patron of the library, and an addict of the printed word, I'm pretty familiar with my local library's selection of science fiction. So when they began redecorating the library, I noted the shuffling of zones and stayed out of their hair for a few weeks until things had settled down.

I went back yesterday to discover that the science fiction section had been reduced by fully one third.

Okay, a lot of it was dated, and it was old when I read it the first time as a boy. This could be good news even - worst case scenario it went to a used book seller, or perhaps a local thrift store. And there was a totally thrashed edition of the  " cubical Dhalgren " that is so rare that more than once I'd had to talk myself out of checking it out, then reporting it as lost and buying them a standard edition.

https://www.abebooks.com/Dhalgren-Samuel-R-Delaney-Gregg-Press/15612343006/bd

But every piece of Roger Zelazny was gone as well. What the heck?

And the library maintains a little nook store where they sell donated books for pennies - granted, most of that is junk, but there is the occasional gem. Surely it went there. So I checked.

Nope, they didn't know anything about it. Further inquires led to the answer that they had been "recycled". More further inquiries led to the head librarian honcho sending me an email saying they'd disposed of books in "poor condition".

I call BS, although I won't vent that to them. Somebody went through the checkout records, and culled the least popular third of about 1500 books. I don't blame them for that. But they threw them out !

I told them I would have given them a hundred bucks just for the Dhalgren. Damn fools ....

[oldbike54]

 That is maybe the strangest rant ever posted on WG 

 Wait , it's Norm , never mind 

 I liked Roger Z also , but haven't read any of his stuff in years  .

 Dusty

[normzone]

I knew that if ANYBODY would have something to say about this, it would be you.

So how will you take it if they got rid of the Jack L. Chalker ?   

So far today I have talked myself out of:

Demanding face to face negotiations
Picketing
Calling the newspaper
Cutting my library card in half and mailing it to them.

I AM considering making faux library books and dropping them in their return box. I wonder if I can crack their barcode schema.

Aw screw it - I've always wanted to smuggle books in and just put them in the proper place on the shelf. I'm going to skip over the manifesto and wearing a mask part and go to direct action.

[yogidozer]

maybe it's aliens? the outer space type, not the earth/illegal ones 

[Aaron D.]

Dhalgren! I thought I was the only one who read it...

[guzziownr]

Dhalgren!

My local library is linked to dozens of other local branches and you can reserve books online and pick them up at the branch of your choice.  I won't be rereading Dhalgren or anything about Amber but I stay up-to-date on the newest SF.

[normzone]

Yeah, Dhalgren is not an easy book to read once, much less re-read. But that thrashed version of the cubical Dhalgren would have been great in my book shelf.

Story has it his publishers sent the massive tome Dhalgren and one of his short novellas to the publisher at the same time, with instructions to print the novella on thick paper so as to make it look like something, and to print Dhalgren on thin paper because it was a gazillion words long.

The publisher got it backwards, and the cubical Dhalgren was born. I'll never pay $300 - $700 for a copy though.

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Getting furriest at them won't get you books back, you have to take hostages.

[twowings]

Didn't know there were any classic speculative fiction fans here...reading suggestion:  "In The Queue" by Keith Laumer...hope you find another venue for your habit...

[Aaron D.]

I find some great stuff available on e-readers, including Delany.

My current read, Kenneth Roberts. Actually bought a copy of "Northwest Passage" some years back on a Guzzi trip, and had misplaced it. Found it and I am happy.

[normzone]

  Getting furriest at them won't get you books back, you have to take hostages.

Funny you should say that - great minds think alike. I'm thinking a black bag over the head and some zipties.

But my wife said I should just ask for what I want, then read my horoscope from the paper. I'll go get it and transcribe here.

Okay, I'm back.

" Investigate what is happening with a commitment involving others. You might not be getting the whole story. Refuse to come to a conclusion right now. What you hear and what comes up could be different from what you originally thought. "

So tomorrow, I'm going to ask them for the Dahlgren. If that fails, THEN hostages.

[circlip]

Dhalgren? I still have a paperback copy that I bought in the mid-seventies, while in college.
I haven't read it in years (but more tan once), but it proudly sits on my bookshelf.
I read Dhalgren, Nova and Triton all in the same year.

My wife is a librarian, so I know about culling shelves. A lot of it is based on circulation numbers, but still...Delaney?

[cruzziguzzi]

[ITSec]

I'm in the middle of culling my personal library of all the books I have no interest in - mostly Yvonne's stuff. Right now I've got about 800 books in my living room and dining room being cataloged, having the covers scanned, and getting current values to be put on eBay (I like Abe Books, but it doesn't make sense for a one-time sale, it's more for dealers). It's a lot of work, and most collectors prefer to avoid library books, so I'm not surprised at the draconian approach taken by Norm's antagonist.

Anybody have an interest in fantasy, mystery, horror, and so on? I'd really rather get them out to someone who'll read them than dump them...

The hard-core SF is the stuff I'm keeping, including all the Ace Doubles, first print Andre Nortons, signed Heinleins, originalart for cover illustrations, and other residue from a 50-year period of collecting and of attending (and founding) science fiction conventions. *minor gloat*

[normzone]

I'm in the middle of culling my personal library of all the books I have no interest in

Anybody have an interest in fantasy, mystery, horror, and so on? I'd really rather get them out to someone who'll read them than dump them...

The hard-core SF is the stuff I'm keeping, including all the Ace Doubles, first print Andre Nortons, signed Heinleins, originalart for cover illustrations, and other residue from a 50-year period of collecting and of attending (and founding) science fiction conventions. *minor gloat*

My envy is now formally expressed. I'm a mystery reader, I'll PM you tomorrow.

[yogidozer]

I'd go in there, light sabers blazing!!!! 

[bacongrease]

 
  You need to get on the liberry board.   
 
Or  a support org., (we have "Friends of the Library.")

Wifey was, so I had an In.

  I was asked by the head librarian to select "guy" books. They knew I built fusils.  I selected a Blacksmith book , a  knife building book and Winchester, Parker shotguns, Colt  and various Golden Age gun books. 

All expensive and would be reference books forever. Rarely checked out though.

However, some were checked out never to be seen again.   


They try to listen to the patrons.    Speak up.

[donn]

The hard-core SF is the stuff I'm keeping, including all the Ace Doubles, first print Andre Nortons, signed Heinleins, originalart for cover illustrations, and other residue from a 50-year period of collecting and of attending (and founding) science fiction conventions. *minor gloat*

Andre Norton!  There's a name from the long past - when I was a kid, in the '60s, the local library had a kids sci-fi/fantasy section, with a lot of her stuff.  I read all of that, and then moved on to adult stuff that didn't always fully register with a 12-year old, but luckily Dhalgren hadn't been written yet.  I don't know if kids go to the library, any more, but that section sure made a difference for me.

[rocker59]

Happens all the time, and is nothing new.

My mom was a school librarian.  I've got some nice old books that were intended for the dumpster.

I used to know a guy who worked at University of Arkansas Press.  He'd occasionally stop by and offer me books that he was taking to the incinerator.

Nothing really special, or really rare, but some nice Arkansas History books, and a great old copy of "Argentine Road Race" are on my shelf as a result of a couple people who didn't like the idea of burning books...

[Chuck in Indiana]

Our library culls books fairly often. They'll have tables full of them.. pick what you like and pay what feels good. I had a stack and told the librarian that all the cash I had on me was 40 dollars but felt like a cheapskate, and she said, "That's *way* too much.."
<shrug>

[normzone]

Didn't know there were any classic speculative fiction fans here...reading suggestion:  "In The Queue" by Keith Laumer...

Wow .... that's kind of creepy. Reminds me all too much of real life.

http://hell.pl/szymon/Baen/The%20Baltic%20War/The%20Lighter%20Side/0743435370___1.htm

[twowings]

Now try 'He Who Shrank' by Henry Hasse   

[ITSec]

Some suggested and less well-known classics among early and Campbell-age SF and spec-fic:

• Cliff Simak's 'The Big Front Yard'
• Lester del Rey's 'Nerves'
• C. M. Kornbluth's 'The Marching Morons'
• Murray Leinster's 'The Ethical Equations'
• Jack Williamson's 'With Folded Hands'
• Robert Heinlein's 'Solution Unsatisfactory', '- And He Built a Crooked House -', 'The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag', and 'All You Zombies'
• Jerome Bixby's 'The Holes Around Mars'
• Damon Knight's 'The Cabin Boy'
• Arthur C. Clarke's 'A Walk in the Dark' and 'Rescue Party'
• Eric Frank Russell's 'Allamagoosa' and 'Basic Right'
• Theodore Sturgeon's 'Microcosmic God'
• Lawrence Manning's 'Goodbye, Ilha!'
• Isaac Asimov's 'Misbegotten Missionary'
• Lewis Padgett's 'Mimsy Were the Borogoves'

I could go on (and on!)...

[twowings]

What about 'Repent, Harlequin! said The Ticktockman' by Harlan Ellison?

'That Hellbound Train' by Robert Bloch?

'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes?

Please, DO go on! 

[ITSec]

What about 'Repent, Harlequin! said The Ticktockman' by Harlan Ellison?

'That Hellbound Train' by Robert Bloch?

'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes?

Please, DO go on! 

Well, I was sticking with lesser-known works even if the majority of the authors are known. 'Repent, Harlequin' might qualify, but 'Algernon' was about the only thing most people ever knew Keyes for!

But since I have your invitation, maybe I'll just spend a few minutes this evening and compile a list of some other overlooked works by both unknown and well-known authors of the classic period of SF (i.e., before 1985 or so). Not that there's anything wrong with more modern stuff like cyberpunk - for a number of years, Spider Robinson was a friend. But I always did prefer 'Tales from the White Hart' to Rendezvous with Rama'!

By the way, did I mention that a university days friend, one of my wife's best friends for years, has been in charge of the world's largest and most definitive science fiction collection since the 1980s? She runs the Judith Merrill collection at the Toronto Public Library, the famous 'Spaced-Out Library'.

[oldbike54]

 Great sci-fi is wonderful , but can anyone explain Heinlein to me ? Having waded thru Asimov's Foundation and Earth series , most of Jack Chalker's work , the first 4 books of the Gor series , 
Padgett's Mimsy were the Borogroves , and countless other sci-fi books , Heinlein just confuses me , and I sorta get Zen ...

 Dusty

[Aaron D.]

Heinlein got weird as time went on. In fact one book was actually finished by his wife when he took ill, and even she admitted it was an embarrassment.

Oh-"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" -Philip K. Dick Or Valis, if you liked Dhalgren.

[ITSec]

Great sci-fi is wonderful , but can anyone explain Heinlein to me ? Having waded thru Asimov's Foundation and Earth series , most of Jack Chalker's work , the first 4 books of the Gor series,  Padgett's Mimsy were the Borogroves , and countless other sci-fi books , Heinlein just confuses me , and I sorta get Zen ...

 Dusty

Heinlein started out with a combination of adult fiction based on largely unique concepts, and a series of juvenile fiction works with consistent themes of growing independence and understanding and accepting responsibility.

At the same time, starting in 1939 he began writing apparently unconnected works that were actually elements of what he called a 'Future History' concept. You used to see a chart with it printed in those of his books that fit into it, especially in the Signet editions. Later on, he started playing with the concept of the 'multiverse' as a way of tying together not only the books of the Future History series, but pretty much everything else he had ever written. This led to some very odd distortions in the last few books particularly, as he tried to make the concept work.

I'm one of the biggest Heinlein fans there is - and I will freely admit that starting with 'The Number of the Beast' in 1980 and 'Friday' (which was a Hugo-winning book) in 1982, the stuff got just plain strange and wasn't attractive to anyone other than fans who were following through with concepts they had committed to in earlier works. I think his work might have been more highly regarded if he had stopped with 'Time Enough for Love' (which had its own eccentricities, but at least it made sense in terms of how it handled the concepts that unfortunately dominated the later works).

[normzone]

Heinlein got weird as time went on. In fact one book was actually finished by his wife when he took ill, and even she admitted it was an embarrassment.

Weird? You want to talk about weird? I think you said it below:

[/quote]Oh-"Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said" -Philip K. Dick [/quote]

Dick was a head case, and much of what he wrote is unreadable to me, but I've read it all anyways, of course. There are some beautiful scary crazy things going on in his books though.

More often a screenwriter cuts the good part out of some rambling Dick novel and takes it to screen - Bladerunner, anyone?

[swmckinley54]

My all time favorite movie - Blade Runner. Most influential book series - Dune. Now I can see by way of reading this thread I can't a candle to you guys in the knowledge base of SF authors, but as a novice reader of SF I thought I would just throw that out there.