The Lost, The Wimpy, and the Fed Up.

There are times when I feel like I'm just a vending machine for popular books. I've considered tearing my hair out when the 15th patron of the day asks for one of the books du jour. I know of course that we have 5 copies or more of the book but that they're all checked out. But the patron expects me to actually look to see if the title's availabe. I mean come on people! I practically live here and you're like to 15th person to ask for that title just today. Be original ask for something obscure already!

Yet.

Still.

I have to go through the motions of checking to see if we have the title in stock. Day after day, week after week, month after month...well you get the picture. What really irritates me is that when I ask if the patron would like to put the title on hold 9 times out of 10 it's no! Even when I explain to them that they will get the book in a more timely manner they'd rather wait and ask me yet again, usually the next day. Arghh...



I don't know what I'll do if the next 5th grader asks:



"Do you have Diary of a Wimpy Kid?"



Usually the interview continues like this:



Me: " Which Diary of a Wimpy Kid are you interested in? We have the first in the series as well as Roderick Rules, Dog Days and The Last Straw "



5th Grader: " I want the red one"



As a result I am not having kids.



If it's not Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Kinney it's the popular non-fiction series by Dave Pelzer that has captured the adoration and attention of preteens and teens everywhere which features child abuse. Hopefully they are not using it as a primer for parenthood. The two most popular in the series, The Lost Boy and A Child Called It, our library has stopped buying copies entirely. Not only does the book have poor binding, people keep checking out the book and never returning it. We've purchased 38 copies of A Child Called It, of which 15 have been checked out and never returned. As of this second we have four copies checked out and the rest... well they've been withdrawn due to a combination of crappy binding and wear and tear. Let's not get started on The Lost Boy.

There's always the newest, coolest, hottest title out there and people want to read it

now,
now,
now!


Couple of years ago it was Rowling's Harry Potter series, Pilkey's Captian Underpants series, and Brown's The DaVinci Code. Let us not forget anything written by V.C. Andrews. V.C. Andrews books for some reason seemed to have the forbidden underlying theme of....incest. Ewww....Which for some reason made her popular amoung young adult girls which really disturbs me.

Now it's all about Torri Spellings sTori telling or Mommywood and Chelsea Handlers My Horizontal Life.


Let us not forget the Twilight Fanatics and Vampire Wannabees. I've actually created a paperback special collection and nicknamed it Vampire Alley to house the myraid of vampire series from the Vampire Academy to the Cast's House of Night series just to save my sanity.

Now all I have to do is point.

Score one for me.