Libraries

                                                            I

            Did you know that Newton, Massachusetts has a large population of fluent Russian speakers? Did you know that Lexington, Massachusetts has a large Chinese speaking community? Did you know Hopkinton, Massachusetts is one of the least diverse areas in the whole of the state?

            Actually, you probably didn’t, and in all likelihood you didn’t care. But these facts illustrate my point, which is that you don’t actually need to look at census figures and the like to work all of this out. You need only visit the local library, and take a quick nose around. Even if the library is almost deserted (though I can tell you that most libraries, even in the middle of summer, are quite busy) you can learn a tremendous deal just by looking at what they have for offer. If the DVD’s contain a high proportion of foreign and black and white films, you can tell they have a deal with the Criterion Collection and get such films at a steal. If there’s a large amount of science fiction and fantasy, you can tell that there’s a librarian of a nerdy bent. If they have a lot of Mervyn Peake or current “blood and guts” fantasy, you can tell that the librarian with a nerdy bent is also sadistic.  

Really, there’s no end what you can find out at the local library. And I speak from experience. I myself spent all of last summer (well most of it) driving round Eastern Massachusetts and going through the various libraries.

                                                II

            It was the summer of hunting, which really began in late spring as school was in its last throws. My constant companions were Sarah Vowell, by way of audiobooks, and the harsh commandments of the GPS system. The speed generally weighed in at five to ten miles over the speed limit, which to my mind, and that of every other motorist seems to be more recommendation than a hard and fast rule. Of course, in eastern Massachusetts there is the library system, so really the hunt was more fictitious (I love word play) than it at first seems. I could have just ordered the books I wanted and have them shipped to a closer library in a few days. But I was bored, as many of my friends seemed to fleeing our town just as I was set to stay, and I, like all of my generation, have a demand for instant gratification, and so I began the Great Hunt.

            The hunt stemmed from a desire to reread the books of George R. R. Martin in preparation for the fifth which came out in July of this year. I myself had only begun the series recently, junior year, but it had been well ahead of the HBO show and the widespread media attention,  so I remembered the series as more or less readily available. But I hadn’t counted on several hundred other fans all getting the same idea or a torrent of new readers eager to circumvent the show that had brought them to these books. And so, to my dismay, I saw a torrential de-Martin-afication of the whole library system, except for remote pockets were lending was either unheard of, or unused. And so, I began to hunt for them, in small poky libraries that saw few visitors outside their general purview.