At the Chapel Hill Public Library the other day, I couldn't help but notice how the selection of books seems to have gotten smaller.* For example, there was a whole shelf section dedicated to books by James Patterson in the mystery section. Floor to ceiling, maybe five foot in width. Mostly hardcovers.
I know that libraries like everything else in our world have to cater to customers so are ultimately numbers driven. So they look at what people are reading and apparently they want to read James Patterson and the hardcovers indicate that the readers are old and prefer a larger font size, which is something I understand entirely. Perhaps I should read one of his books to see what the hubbub is about.
But there's only so much shelf space and I hate to see so many authors whose names I don't even know crowded out before I get to know them. There's a lot of quite reasonable ambient concern about how the smartphone is killing the book, among other things, but as victims go the book's the one that concerns me the most. Substacks and YouTube are great. Fora in which stories can be told abound and flourish as I type. But books rightly have a unique place in the firmament of media as profferers and conservators of complicated narratives and arguments. The more diverse, the better. One hates to see them crowded out by too much of the same.
*Re-reading this, I must admit that it's possible I am wrong and my impression was based on my small sample on that day. One thing that's true for sure is that I spend less time in the library than I did when the kids were younger, which is a little sad. It's a fine place to read and also observe and run into people.
1 comment:
May I give a shout-out to America's librarians?
We had every reason to think libraries would go extinct, but they adapted to our new world (better than journalists did!) and maintain a public service and a public space as vital as ever.
Also, before Amazon, check Libby! And before Kindles consider a Kobo!
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