Sunday, April 13, 2008

I just Heart My Library!



I do. I really love my library. At the beginning of the year, they switched library systems and upgraded everything. Now, it just so easy to use. I can even do it from home. I can log on, check my holds, renew my books, and even request books. (But nothing actually beats walking through the doors and seeing all the books on the shelves. Yes, I know. I'm a geek. Sue me.)

So last week, I was trying out the new system, and thought I would try to place holds on books outside our library. I have used the Inter-Library Loan system for quite awhile now. But before the upgrade, I had to physically hand a list of books I wanted to the reference librarian and he would search for the books and request them. Now I can do all that myself.

On Monday, I got a call that a book was in for me. And Tuesday, I got a call that a couple of books came in for me. By Thursday, 7 books had arrived for me!! Yeah, I don't really do anything in moderation. It seems to be a problem for me!!

So....I have this stack of books to try to get through in the next month:

  • Memory and Dream by Charles de Lint
  • Trader by Charles de Lint
  • Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
  • Generation X by Douglas Coupland
  • 20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill
  • Quicksilver by Neil Stephenson

Plus the books I checked out from my own library:

  • Tithe by Holly Black
  • Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
  • The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta
  • Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold
  • The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein

And finally....the book I special ordered from Barnes & Noble: The Wood Wife by Terri Windling.

Sheesh. I need to have my head examined. But now I have a whole world of books at my fingertips!! Gotta love it!

25 comments:

Chrisbookarama said...

LOL! They've unleashed a monster!

Stephanie said...

Chris - No kidding!! At least they know me by name there!

Literary Feline said...

It certainly does make things so much easier now that you can do them on your home computer. Nothing beats browsing the shelves, but it sure is nice to have the alternative when you want it!

Stephanie said...

Wendy - You are right about browsing the shelves. I could that for hours. But this is so nice when I have certain books already in mind. I can locate them and put holds on them. So cool!

Nikki in Niagara said...

Yay! ILL is the best. I don't know what I would do without my library's online system!

The Bookworm said...

enjoy your reading, I have 'Enchantment' on my TBR list too :)
http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Ana S. said...

Gotta love libraries! That's a great list of books. I hope you enjoy Generation X - it's not my favourite Douglas Coupland, but it'll always be special for me because it introduced me to him.

Marg said...

I love my library too! The only thing I can't do is ILL, but other than that I do everything online, short of actually picking up the book. I don't often have time to browse though.

Ladytink_534 said...

My library operates that way too. I love it! I go in and pick up 10 or so books a week lol. I don't know how to request ILL's though without the librarian's help but they don't seem to mind.

Anonymous said...

That's a great stack you have there. Good luck with Quicksilver, I have it to read next month I think but it's such a massive book I am a bit nervous to be honest... The more Charles de Lint, the better I say though.

Melody said...

More books to read!!! It's definitely a good thing having an online system and that you're able to do everthing at your fingertips at home, and that also means we can expect to read more reviews from you, Stephanie!!! ;)

chrisa511 said...

Wow, lol...that's quite a stack of books, but that may indeed be the coolest stack of books that I've heard of in a long time! All that deLint and some Card in there! And I just finished Speak as you know and you'll love it. Oh, and I've been really curious about 20th Century Ghosts! I'm excited for you, lol.

DesLily said...

LOL well, I hope you have nothing planned for next month ! Just remember: reading while cooking is a no no ! One tends to let things burn! hahaha...

Carl V. Anderson said...

Wow, what a great stack of books!!!

Tithe was an okay book. Once I got into it I enjoyed it though some of the sexual stuff was a bit disturbing to me reading it as if it was a for teens book. I just couldn't read the second one in the series. Two or three chapters in and it was just too much. I hope you have a better experience with it than I did.

Puppet Masters is a Heinlein I want to read sometime. I'm looking for an old used version that has a certain cover on it that I saw in an art book (Spectrum 14) and really liked.

I will certainly be reading Memory and Dream at some point.

I'm glad you are having fun with your library. I've loved ours ever since they went to the online catalog. I love being able to look things up and put them on hold. Doesn't stop me from enjoying the atmosphere when I go in to browse, but nothing beats not having to go to 10 different branches to find the books you want.

J Scott Savage said...

I was on a conference panel with Card earlier this year where he said Enchantment was his favorite of all the books he's written. It's definitely in my top three. You can tell he put of lot of himself into it. Not as a character, but just emotionally. Great read.

Jill said...

I heart that you heart your library!

I wish my library allowed patrons to place their own ILLs - the way we do it, it's such a tedious and time-consuming process that I always find myself apologizing to people who wait quite patiently for me to fill out the online forms, etc. Maybe some day...

Tammy said...

I heart my library, too. They've got an awesome online system, I can reserve books, movies, CDs, they even have self-playing audio books now, the only thing I can't do online is pay my overdue fines (which I always have!). I also love that I can see where I am in line for a reserve request, helps me to plan my attack so I don't end up with 20 books all at once, lol! I can also submit my ILL request online, and they're really fast. Three cheers for the public library!!

jlshall said...

What a wonderful stack of books! Wish our local library was that efficient - but I still love it. My advice is go right for the Heinlein - Puppet Masters is classic sci-fi and a great read.

Andi said...

LOL, when it rains books it pours books! I see several in that stack I'd like to get my hands on.

Iliana said...

Yay for the library! I love visiting mine. I went yesterday too but didn't get as many books as you did :)
Enjoy them all!

John Mutford said...

Wow, you've got a mess of Canadians there. Actually I think the name for a group of Canadians is cheddar. You've got a cheddar of Canadians there!

Can't wait to hear your thoughts on Barney's Version!!!

Angela/SciFiChick said...

I'm heading to my library today for a book sale... like I need more books to read.
I don't care. They're cheap and I can usually find some fun ones.

Teddy Rose said...

I heart my library too. I can do everything from my home computer as well. I can even put in a request for them to purchase a book and they often do it!

I still like to buy books on occassion, but my library really helps keeps the expense of my habit down.

lisabea said...

Stephanie~I really enjoyed Paladin of Souls. But Orson Scott Card has been a huge disappointment for me lately.

That's a lot of books, girl. I read ebooks and have not kept track. I should do that....

Becca said...

Heh. Sounds like we have the same problem. I always put a ton of books on hold and then I'm totally stressed when they all come in at the same time. I end up having to renew them several times in order to finish them all. I currently have 17 books checked out from my local library. My name is Rebecca and I'm a library loanaholic.