In this age of digital library catalogues, I had almost lost the art of wandering among library bookshelves! Ever since that flurry of book-buying during my year at Graduate School (and discovery of Amazon Prime), I've even almost forgotten that I really do enjoy wandering among bookstore bookshelves - definitely a lot more than I enjoy mouse clicks.
Digital library catalogues and Amazon Prime are a great help, especially when all I'm doing is trying to get my hands on a predetermined list of books - before each of my graduate school course modules, and reading my way through the monthly indie next kid's lists. In fact, I was a great fan of digital library catalogues when all it takes is a mouse click to reserve a library book and even get it transported to my local branch library, all at no cost. But that will be the subject of a post for another day.
I knew that I was in danger, in the at-risk zone, when I almost didn't know how to proceed one Sunday afternoon, upon finding myself in the library, not having planned on the visit, and therefore not having been armed with a carefully drafted list of library catalogue numbers.
I ended up wandering among bookshelves, but feeling somewhat helpless! I suspected that I was supposed to be enjoying myself!
And so I decided I needed some help with this whole wandering among bookshelves business. Intuition gets us through many tasks, but I'm coming to learn that a back-up plan can be very useful too.
And so, this is what I did. Introducing Wandering Technique #1 :
Pick a random bookcase. Only allow yourself to explore books on those bookshelves. - and nowhere else.
That's what I did last Sunday! And these are the books I picked out, all gems in their own right!
It was then and there that I serendipitously rediscovered Barbara Lehman's books and made that decision to give them another chance.
To my delight, there was also The Last Resort by Roberto Innocenti hiding in those shelves. Having just hunted down and read The House quite recently because of his Hans Christian Andersen award fame, it was a treasured find.
The Moomins and the Great Flood by Tove Jansson also found its way into my hands. I'm always game to read childhood classics, especially those which I never did get the chance to read as a child. Like many of us, I was familiar with Moomin character toys, but never did get to read the Finnish fairy tale, especially since I don't think I've ever read any Finnish stories, come to think of it!
That was fun! I've got a few more ideas for Wandering Techniques up my sleeves. Till then!
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