11th
The problem with being a voracious reader and library lover in New York..
is that everyone else is one, too.
In the New Yorker this week (the summer fiction issue!) there’s a great article about the legend of a Polish author, Bruno Schulz. Schulz isn’t widely read here, so it’s no surprise that there’s only one copy of his collected fiction in the New York Public Library. What is surprising is 25 people before me have already requested this single copy.
I currently have seven books on my hold list. I gradually moved to seventeen (out of eighty-five) on Mary Gaitskill’s new book, which I requested in March. I am number 125 out of 365 people waiting for Colm Tolbin’s new book. Joining mailing lists for literary prizes is a must. If you don’t request the latest Booker Prize winner within minutes of the announcement, good luck getting the book in your hands for six months!
I don’t mind terribly, though. Dos Passos’ USA Trilogy came pretty quickly, as did a collection of Emerson’s essays. A Keynes’ biography came so fast, I didn’t have a chance to pick it up before it was gone again.
What I do mind right now is that the NYPL does not own a single copy of The Garrick Year by Margaret Drabble, which was also mentioned in the current New Yorker. I must get my paws on this book, even it means buying it on Amazon together with a Schulz collection, like suggested in their frequently bought together feature. Voracious readers: they’re everywhere.
