In no less than the New York Times Sunday Book Review…a rave for Marilyn Johnson’s “This Book is Overdue : How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All”. Critic Pagan Kennedy writes:
Johnson ushers us into the American Kennel Club Library and introduces us to the inevitable graying librarian in a boiled-wool jacket with a Scotty pin. She also teleports over to a Las Vegas “gentlemen’s club” called the Library, where ladies wearing spectacles (and not much more) slide their way down stripper poles. She peppers the book with lots of random instructions, like how to remove odor from an old Graham Greene paperback. (Use a sheet of Bounce fabric softener.) This is one of those books, in the vein of Mary Roach’s “Stiff” (about human cadavers), that tackle a big topic by taking readers on a chapter-by-chapter tour of eccentric characters and unlikely locations. Given Johnson’s attractions to wild tangents, the journey often dissolves into a jumble. It is a testament to her skill as a writer that she remains fascinating, even in the throes of A.D.D.
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Amen
As the New York Times Sunday Book Review says -“Given Johnson’s attractions to wild tangents, the journey often dissolves into a jumble.”
I have to say Amen to that assessment. I paid $9.99 for my copy of the book. If I had paid anymore I would have really felt taken.
Avaialble on Overdrive
I got the book at no charge through my library’s Overdrive acct and downloaded it to the library’s Sony Reader.
God, there is a chapter about 2nd Life.
When will this profession stop obsessing over it’s own relevance and it’s own stereotypes? This book just annoyed me.