self-indulgent drivel

I find few things funnier than uptight librarians.

When I got to work this morning, I discovered a brouhaha in progress on the CALIX listserv. One of its subscribers sometimes writes beautiful prose pieces, snippets of his life that are library-related. This last piece was about taking a motorcycle ride after an argument with his wife, and ending up at a small library. I found it touching and gentle, and loved reading it, because quite frankly the rest of the list is dead boring.

The first response to his prose was: “Why do you assume the whole world wants to read your self indulgent drivel?”

I gave myself hiccoughs because I was laughing so hard.

The responses are still trickling into my mailbox. Some people agree with her assessment. Most of the folks weighing in are on the opposite side: we enjoy reading his posts because they are well-written and pertinent. So what if they’re not “all business”? Nothing should be. This librarian vs. writer battle makes me a bit twitchy, since I’m attempting to be both, and don’t see why they are mutually exclusive.

What’s sad is I know quite a few library workers who are this rude and humorless. I miss common courtesy. I also miss the correct hyphenation of compound adjectives. Oops, that was rude and humorless of me.

About Halsted M. Bernard

Halsted, a/k/a cygnoir, does stuff with words. Her favourite things to do with words are keeping this diary, writing stories, and organising information. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband, two cats, a few gadgets, several fountain pens, and many books.

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