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My Lovely Horse posted:Oh God thread, I have picked up the following  the cashier warned me about Malice and I think he outright spoiled a few parts I’m going in anyway
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Dec 12, 2018 03:45
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 15:32 |
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Wow, godspeed.  I seriously did enjoy the Koontz I read in jail, akin to how one enjoys greasy diner food or Taco Bell at 2am after you've been drinking your rear end off and you're starving. I can't really speak for the other two authors, though. The closest I ever came to Steel was when I was visiting my in-laws, when my husband and I suffered through a made-for-tv movie based on one of her books that my MIL wanted to watch. God, that was dire. On a library-related note: does anyone else live in a city that has "little free libraries"? If you're unfamiliar with the concept, they're (in my town at least) the boxes that used to sell newspapers, before the demise of print news. People throw in books they're done with. They're kept unlocked, so you don't have to put a quarter in or anything. Just grab a book, and if you have something to donate, give a book back. My city has tons of them, and I love them. Last year when my car was dead and I had to take the bus to work, there was one conveniently located by the bus stop. I ended up plowing through a bunch of classic books I'd never read on my commute every day, it was an awesome way to spend my 45 minutes on public transit. There's one in front of a church in my neighborhood, which, unsurprisingly, is usually laden with uber-Christian stuff like the Left Behind series. I like to leave subversive/horror/raunchy stuff I've finished in there, because I am 10 years old.
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Dec 12, 2018 04:44
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JacquelineDempsey posted:"little free libraries?” (Photo not mine, but similar to the ones in my neighborhood) 
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Dec 12, 2018 05:36
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Aunt Beth posted:Here in Rochester, NY there are plenty of them. Ours are usually in uniquely decorated birdhouse-meets-cabinet structures in people’s front yards. I can think of a church in my neighborhood that has one, but they’re Lutheran and so generally don’t try to stuff theirs with anything particularly preachy. Sometimes people put things other than books in them along with the books, like postcards and things. They're pretty popular here in Albuquerque too. There's one extremely fancy one down the street from my house; there are three shelves, each about two feet wide, and they stay packed. I went to school in Rochester and I liked it. I found their public library system pretty good, too.
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Dec 12, 2018 05:45
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I have a family friend named Danielle who I only recently learned was apparently so-named after Danielle Steele, her parent's favorite author
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Dec 12, 2018 05:53
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We have them all over the place in Columbus and there are volunteers who work to stock them with signed copies of recent books by local authors.
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Dec 12, 2018 06:00
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I've never seen one here in Florida.
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Dec 12, 2018 06:13
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There's one near my sister's house, in an affluent city in the bay area, but I'd forgotten about that and now I'm thinking it'd be cool to put one in my front yard or something.
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Dec 12, 2018 06:50
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I’ve seen them around Long Beach (California), which I visit infrequently I highly doubt that they are around my neck of the woods because there are a ton of HOAs and undoubtedly an individual will get in trouble for putting one up and there will be pitchforks if the association sponsors it
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Dec 12, 2018 07:16
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Aunt Beth posted:Here in Rochester, NY there are plenty of them. Ours are usually in uniquely decorated birdhouse-meets-cabinet structures in people’s front yards. I can think of a church in my neighborhood that has one, but they’re Lutheran and so generally don’t try to stuff theirs with anything particularly preachy. Sometimes people put things other than books in them along with the books, like postcards and things. What up, Rochester, born and raised Syracuse here! How do they keep the books safe from all the snow up there? As I said, ours are in all disused newspaper boxes, so they stay safe from our delightful Virginia mix of summertime tropical storms and the foot of snow we just got two days ago.
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Dec 12, 2018 07:50
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My town has got one. It's always full of absolute poo poo. Not, like, bad genre fiction, just... imagine there's announcement of a weeding project around the corner, and you can immediately think of a handful of books you're gonna throw out. Or actually think of the handful of books where every time you see them you hope the next weeding is coming soon. That's without fail the kind of book that's in there, exclusively. Well, I say exclusively, maybe the good stuff just gets picked out quickly. I'm only ever there to get rid of my own stuff, which it's fantastic for.
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Dec 12, 2018 08:58
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The apartment building I live in has a particular bookshelf thing that people put mostly books they don't want anymore but sometimes other stuff too. I guess occasionally maintenance comes and clears it of crap that's been there for a while. Figure that counts as a little free library. I swear it's 95% trashy romance novels.
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Dec 12, 2018 11:55
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JacquelineDempsey posted:On a library-related note: does anyone else live in a city that has "little free libraries"? Here in northwest NJ we have them at most Parks and occasionally in front of small businesses.
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Dec 12, 2018 12:58
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Herstory Begins Now posted:I have a family friend named Danielle who I only recently learned was apparently so-named after Danielle Steele, her parent's favorite author I had a college roommate named Catherine Coulter. Spelled the same and everything. She used to get so much grief for it.
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Dec 12, 2018 12:58
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el dorito posted:thread, I have picked up the following OH MY GOD I AM SO EXCITED Spoilers for Malice that explains why I am so obsessed with its badness: I may be making this up because it's been a long time since I last read it, but I'm almost positive that at one point, the protagonist of Malice is cornered by a murderous lesbian (she is in jail because she shot her dad because he had been raping her ever since she was thirteen because her mother was dying of cancer and she subsequently offered Grace up to her husband sexually because ??????????reason???????????) and the lesbian sprinkles crack on Grace's boob and licks it off. I am not making up anything in the parentheses; it's only the last bit that I'm wondering if I am remembering wrong. Anyways, that book is for goddamn crazy people, and also very similar in theme to the Ashley Judd movie Double Jeopardy.
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Dec 12, 2018 15:11
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ToxicSlurpee posted:
I mean, that's what most people read, if they read.
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Dec 12, 2018 16:18
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Speaking of trashy romance, my sister-in-law just self published one. While it's not my cup of tea, I was hoping to get our library system to carry a copy. How does one do this without being annoying? Can you buy a copy yourself and donate it to get them to carry it?
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Dec 12, 2018 16:55
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You can, but there's no guarantee they'll carry it, and unwanted/unannounced donations are indeed a bit infamous among librarians. You can always call up and ask them if they'd accept a copy, though. That alone will make you stand out as considerate among the general book-donating public.
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Dec 12, 2018 17:08
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The birdhouse ones are around Baltimore. I ought to build one. Now that I think about it, most of those that I see are at for people who stand at 5 feet and above. I'd need to make mine accessible for others too.
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Dec 12, 2018 19:22
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I live in a posho area and the Little Free Libraries around here have some stonking stuff. Good quality literary stuff, almost no romance trash. However for some reason, people seem to also like to unload things that are so out of date that they could only really be used for kindling. Tourist guide to Las Vegas (1997) - yeah, that'll be useful! Windows 95 for Dummies? I don't think anyone's that dumb.
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Dec 12, 2018 20:24
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I've seen exactly one of those little community libraries in my neck of the woods, which is along a distant stretch of road in the wilderness, with no sidewalk going by it. It's well-intentioned, but nobody's going to stop on the shoulder of a 50+ MPH back road with blind curves to browse for a book. I suspect in general they're not more common due to the eight month summers where it's ~100 degrees and at least 90% humidity. Cythereal posted:I've never seen one here in Florida. Yeah, like that.
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Dec 12, 2018 20:47
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Ceiling fan posted:The birdhouse ones are around Baltimore. I ought to build one. Now that I think about it, most of those that I see are at for people who stand at 5 feet and above. I'd need to make mine accessible for others too. Good on you for thinking of that! That's why our old newspaper boxes are cool and good, accessible to kids and folks in wheelchairs and such. My favorite one is located next to a theatre with a big overhanging roof. They even put out a vinyl bean bag so you can cop a squat and read, out of the rain/snow/sun, while you wait for the bus. My neighborhood is swell.  THE WEIRDOS ARE COMING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE Anyone care for weirdos on the other side of that public service desk? Writing about the nicknames we gave our co-workers, plus reading that GBS thread on r/relationships, reminded me of some. So, "Snackies". He worked in admin, in the finance department. My bff at the library, Shoe, was an admin assistant, so she worked closely with him. He was an amiable guy, dry sense of humor, very smart. Very straight-laced looking dude, not a crunchy hippy or anything. Shoe was single and had no family in the area, so being a nice fella who was friendly with her, he'd regularly invite her over for holiday dinners and such so she wouldn't be alone. He had a wife, a 7 year old son, and a brand new baby boy. After one holiday, we're back at work and a small group of us are on our lunch break, talking about how we spent our glorious paid days off. Shoe just starts nervously laughing. "What's so funny?" my former boss --- the one who gave everyone nicknames --- demands. "Didn't you go over to [admin guy]'s house?" Shoe tells us that the wife, after dinner, whips out her boob and starts breastfeeding the baby. Okay, we're all women here, all cool with that, what was the big deal? The big deal was that the 7 year old kid climbed on board and started sucking her other tit. "Oh, yeah, he never really stopped nursing," the mom explains. "He likes his snackies!" And the husband, Shoe's coworker is just sitting there beaming like this is the most normal thing in the world. Shoe said she just smiled and proceeded to drink a whole lot more wine. After our initial giggles and bewilderment, my boss, who was funny as hell, asked, "And did [admin guy] join in afterwards, for dessert? Did he get some snackies, too? Did YOU, Shoe?" Now we're howling, I think I started choking on a French fry. And so of course, from then on, this fellow was known as Snackies.
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Dec 12, 2018 21:24
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Well also, Florida E: meant to follow the prepreceding post Watermelon Daiquiri fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Dec 12, 2018 |
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Dec 12, 2018 21:24
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Nah, I think it works for both.
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Dec 12, 2018 22:39
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Just think, that young lad will eventually grow up to pay taxes and vote. Most of my coworkers were the regular kind of low-key library weird. The standouts were all abusive narcissists, because there's always at least one in any library hierarchy.
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Dec 13, 2018 15:56
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grassy gnoll posted:The standouts were all abusive narcissists, because there's always at least one in any library hierarchy. And they tend to end up in senior management positions.
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Dec 13, 2018 16:01
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BarbarianElephant posted:I live in a posho area and the Little Free Libraries around here have some stonking stuff. Good quality literary stuff, almost no romance trash. People have this weird thing about throwing away books. "I can't throw away this Economics textbook from 1996! Don't you know the Nazis burned books?" So they clutter up Little Free Libraries, or donate them someplace, or give them to Half Price Books, who then throw them away on their behalf.
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Dec 13, 2018 16:47
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ColdPie posted:People have this weird thing about throwing away books. "I can't throw away this Economics textbook from 1996! Don't you know the Nazis burned books?" So they clutter up Little Free Libraries, or donate them someplace, or give them to Half Price Books, who then throw them away on their behalf. Become the little free library hero: arrange all the Netscape 2.0 For Dummies etc. books in one corner, then come back after dark, grab them all, and throw them away.
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Dec 13, 2018 17:24
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I just grab the obsolete reference books and throw them out. I figure I'm doing the original donor a favor by being tough enough to do what they can't. I'm certainly not waiting until dark! The worst case of "obsolete" I saw was a guide to the city's schools... from 30 years back. Anyone using that as a reference would really get confused. Into the trash it went! BarbarianElephant fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Dec 13, 2018 |
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Dec 13, 2018 17:39
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please put the old books into the paper recycling, thanks
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Dec 13, 2018 18:07
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Leperflesh posted:please put the old books into the paper recycling, thanks lol, just lol, if your city has separate paper recycling or in fact does anything except put all the recycling into the dump because the contract with the chinese recycling company didn't get renewed
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Dec 13, 2018 18:11
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Pham Nuwen posted:Become the little free library hero: arrange all the Netscape 2.0 For Dummies etc. books in one corner, then come back after dark, grab them all, and throw them away. yes, little free libraries are generally bookshelves for people who can't throw stuff away. so let us help them! btw, did your avatar come from Bailey illustration? (nws)
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Dec 13, 2018 20:00
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DONT TOUCH THE PC posted:yes, little free libraries are generally bookshelves for people who can't throw stuff away. so let us help them! Yep, although when I bought the avatar I didn't know that, just saw somebody post it on the forums and liked it. A couple weeks later somebody posted a link to a big collection and it was awesome, although I still like mine the best.
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Dec 13, 2018 20:13
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I dated a lady who became a library associate in a fairly major city. She had a master's but since she didn't have one in library science she was still paid like an associate and eventually left to head a maker lab in Vermont. She mostly worked on the computer desk and eventually moved to the main branch and the maker lab (3d printing and laser cutting). Anyway, since the main branch was a huge destination for homeless folks I got many stories about how folks used to poo poo on the stairwells and how a trans person used to run a synthetic marijuana ring, but since the library had their own cops the city cops were unable or unwilling to do anything since the library cops existed and were terrible at their jobs. Basically I got a ton of stories about her old building flooding (mostly the children's level that had a bunch of nannies taking kids there) due to poor construction that the city will not acknowledge (the same architecture firm that designed it was hired to update the main branch which was designed by a famous architect they didn't take into consideration that people would use that library). I'm trying to get her to share a few stories here through me but who knows if she will.
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Dec 14, 2018 05:11
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Oh, Animale, your post about a famous architect reminded me of another crazy story. We commissioned a locally "famous" artist to install a big rear end steel sculpture outside our rural branch. When us grunts saw the concept sketches after the board meeting discussing it, and agreed that it looked like total garbage* and a waste of money, I naturally did what the JD do and started googling her to death to see her so-called credentials and other works. Why were we all denied raises that year for budget cuts, but we could blow thousands of dollars on an ugly piece of metal out in the sticks? Thanks to my tenacious internet searching at the time, I fell down a livejournal rabbit hole of finding out that her daughter/son/(I still don't know) was faking being a transperson who was deeply involved in the Harry Potter fanfic/con scene and scamming people for money. Plus I found some old news articles that the artist herself had been brought up on charges of animal abuse for repeatedly buying horses and neglecting them. I'm a little too tired to dig back into that tonight and cite my sources, but that's certainly a weirdo story with potential. I'll do a little digging and a write-up if I'm up to it tomorrow. *I'm 44 and been a serious art student both personally and professionally since I could hold a crayon; I'm not one of these folks who looks at a Pollack or a Picasso or Serra and do the whole "my 6 year old could make something better than this!" schtick. She is really is terrible. Edit: holy poo poo, my first gold thread! Thanks, y'all! Chuffed as hell.
JacquelineDempsey fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Dec 14, 2018 |
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Dec 14, 2018 07:21
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Animale posted:Basically I got a ton of stories about her old building flooding (mostly the children's level that had a bunch of nannies taking kids there) due to poor construction that the city will not acknowledge (the same architecture firm that designed it was hired to update the main branch which was designed by a famous architect they didn't take into consideration that people would use that library). It happened so often we got into a routine. That first time we scrambled to get everything to safety, after that we had buckets and rolls of plastic tarp everywhere. Coming in and seeing another row of shelves covered in plastic became a regular thing. One time I came in and someone had constructed a truly marvellous contraption from a whiteboard, a tarp and the ever present buckets to redirect the water flow. It got to the point where if you saw a leak you'd just grab a bucket from the stack in the corner, place it and move on with your day. Turns out the city's major shopping centre was planned or built by the same guys, it also has a glass roof, and it too leaks like mad. You'd think the city would have caught on to it after the first time. grassy gnoll posted:The standouts were all abusive narcissists, because there's always at least one in any library hierarchy.
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Dec 14, 2018 08:11
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JacquelineDempsey posted:Oh, Animale, your post about a famous architect reminded me of another crazy story. We commissioned a locally "famous" artist to install a big rear end steel sculpture outside our rural branch. When us grunts saw the concept sketches after the board meeting discussing it, and agreed that it looked like total garbage* and a waste of money, I naturally did what the JD do and started googling her to death to see her so-called credentials and other works. Why were we all denied raises that year for budget cuts, but we could blow thousands of dollars on an ugly piece of metal out in the sticks? So did y'all pass on having the sculpture made after you saw the concept art? Or was it too late at that point? I also hope you get a chance to tell us more about the "artist."
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Dec 14, 2018 16:13
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Accusing someone of being fake trans due to internet detective-ing sounds sketchy imo
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Dec 14, 2018 20:39
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ImPureAwesome posted:Accusing someone of being fake trans due to internet detective-ing sounds sketchy imo To be very clear, because this is a sensitive issue for me, I'M not the one accusing them of being fake trans, or doing the crazy internet detective-ing on them. I looked up their mom (the artist), and the first hit on Google was livejournal vomiting up all this stuff on her son/daughter and how they were a con artist. The actual internet detectives felt the need to doxx this person's mom's name anywhere they posted (which is a pretty dick move) so even though all I was looking for was this artist's CV, I kept seeing stuff about her child with every link I clicked. Curiosity kills not only cats but library workers, so I read it all with the same fascination that goons get over the FF house, or planefuckers, or e/n train wrecks and such. I've actually seen a few mentions of this person on SA, that's how "internet famous" they are. This was probably not a good subject to bring up here, I regret it and will drop it if it offends people. Let's get back to library chat. But first I need to go to bed.
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Dec 15, 2018 08:37
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I fully intend to finish reading the books I mentioned earlier, hopefully before the end of the year (maybe except one of the Koontz books). But I’m gonna add another one to the pile and see how I fare since she’s a mystery author: 
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Dec 15, 2018 14:57
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