One of the reasons I love my job.

Because I get to DANCE! with little kids! and giant dogs! Seriously, my fellow librarians knew how happy this would make me that they didn’t even ask–I just got an email one afternoon that said “Amber, we are going to film you dancing to Beyonce tomorrow. Dress appropriately.”

(filmed for the River Bandits’ Library Night which then got rained out booooo)

Amber

Dang you, New Releases Shelf!

Yesterday I went into the Iowa City Public Library to pick up one DVD–and I left with one DVD, three magazines, and six books (I won’t even tell you how many library items were already at home). Luckily, my boyfriend offered to come pick me up, because I have made that long 30 minute trek across the river to my apartment with books up to my chin many times and it ain’t easy. How am I so easily led astray? It is that dang New Releases shelf. I had told myself: “just run in quick, grab the DVD and get out of there. Don’t even browse the stacks AT ALL.” But here is what really happened in my mind that day:

Books I checked out on my last visit to the IC Public Library.

1. So I will just pop into the library after class to see if “The Thin Man” had been returned. A couple days earlier, my friends Jill and Sarah were discussing whether or not the main characters on Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist were named after the duo in the thin man movies. I had no idea what they were talking about, so I looked up an old trailer on youtube and discovered that it is based on a Dashiell Hammett novel. I had read Red Harvest for a Detective Fiction course and passed it on to Steve who became a big fan–thus I thought BINGO!

2. I grab the movie and as I walk to the check-out area, I see a little display of magazines. Oooh, that American Craft looks good. I’ll just pick that up, too.

3. Maybe I’ll just run upstairs quick and look at the magazines. I really feel like reading a Mental Floss issue. Why oh why did I ever let my subscription run out? I had thought I would just remember to read it at the library, but that never happens–until today! today I am going to get it!

4. While I’m up here, I’ll grab the newest issue of Bust. I really enjoyed the previous issue’s interview with Miranda July. It had inspired me to check out her movie “Me and You and Everyone We Know” over the summer–and I was totally enthralled by it.

5. I might as well run past the new release shelf–I mean I am going to be a Librarian! I have to keep up with what is current, right?! Green Up Your Cleanup? yeah, I need that. I just used a whole bunch of crazy cleaning products on my bathroom last week and I felt super guilty about it afterwards…and I worried that my flesh on my hands would melt away overnight from all the chemicals and I would wake up Miss Bone-and-Sinew-Fingers.

6. Well I already grabbed one book, I might as well get more. oooh panini express. need that.

7. And yes, I have been meaning to do some Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art. I have just waiting for the right book to show me how.

8. This graphic novel looks just the right size and thickness to be the type of graphic novel I like. (Three Shadows)

9. Hey, a graphic novel of The Merchant of Venice! Wasn’t my professor talking about this book at the American Library Association conference? I should definitely get it. Then I can remember the plot of the play and maybe understand the reference to it in Breaking Dawn.

10. Oh! In the Pink! This book was mentioned in the latest issue of Oprah’s Home magazine–the one that had her library on the cover so I had to buy it–and I must check out this book because the cover is flawlessly black, white and pink!

and that is how I check out books on some days…

amberj.

In case you were trying to find Sleeping Beauty…

Check the Horror section!

I’m serious–there i was in the Iowa City Public Library looking at the Musicals’ section of the DVDs trying to decide if I really needed to check out both Jungle Book and Thoroughly Modern Millie (I put Jungle Book back… for now) when I turned around to look for Jill and my eyes landed on Sleeping Beauty. Ahhhh, I totally want to watch that! so I grabbed it (It is actually playing right now while I watch this) and then I wondered “hey, why wasn’t this with Jungle Book? Wha, wha, what section is this anyway?” OMG IT WAS THE SF/HORROR SECTION! And right next to Sleeping Beauty was gasp! The Santa Clause 2!!!! What kind of crazy twisted world is this????

So I went to the Fiction Desk because I was sure these had to be mismarked… But NO! The fiction librarian said she was just as confuzzled as I was, but it has something to do with how fantasy fits in with science fiction and science fiction with horror. I now really look forward to the cataloguing class I will be taking this fall because it is sure to be R-I-O-T. seriously, I’m not being sarcastic, this gives me the giggles.

Oh, and isn’t the “Once Upon a Dream” Sequence where Prince Philip surprises Princess Aurora/Rose in the forest just to die for. I really thought that was how I was going to meet the love of my life–not going to lie, I used to walk off into forests/thickets/trees quite frequently when I was younger so that an opportunity could arise.

amberj.