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illegible_scribble
Posted 2015-04-24 4:43 AM (#10290 - in reply to #10281)
Subject: Re: The Definitive 1950s Reading Challenge		Quote Reply



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jwharris28 - 2015-04-24 1:22 AM

It disturbs me that libraries don't carry these books. What kind of classics must they be if libraries don't carry them? When I go to used bookstores, or order used books from ABEBooks, quite often I end up buying library discards. That bugs me. I want libraries to be repositories of knowledge, not warehouses for free books that are in the most demand.

Many of the books on these lists are remembered by hardcore SF fans, but not by our culture in general.

In one of Connie Willis' books, Bellwether, her protagonist discovers from the local librarian that when a book is not checked out within x amount of time, it is deaccessioned. The main character is horrified by this, and proceeds to pull numerous of her "must-have" books every time she goes to the library, and checks them out -- not to read them again, but to ensure that they are retained in the library's collection.

I have to confess that for the last few years, I have been doing the same thing: when I check out books I want to read, I also check out books I've read which I perceive to be "must-have" books, just so the library's records show that someone is checking them out, and they are retained. 


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