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About This Book
ISBN13: 9781905264124 |
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Not long ago, the public library was a place for the bookish, the eggheaded, and the studious — often seeking refuge from a loud, irrational, crude, outside world. Today, libraries have become free-for-all entertainment complexes filled with rowdy teens, deviants, drugs, and even sex toys. Lockdowns and chaperones are often necessary.
What happened?
Don Borchert was a short-order cook, door-to-door salesman, telemarketer, and Christmas-tree-chopper before landing a job in a California library. He never could have predicted his encounters with the colorful kooks, touching adolescents, threatening bullies, and tricksters who fill the pages of this hilarious memoir.
In Free for All, Borchert offers readers a ringside seat for the unlikely spectacle of mayhem and absurdity that is business as usual at the public library. You'll see cops bust drug dealers who've set up shop in the men's restroom, witness a burka-wearing employee suffer a curse-ridden nervous breakdown, and meet a lonely, neglected kid who grew up in the library and still sends postcards to his surrogate parents — the librarians. In fact, from the first page of this comic debut to the last, you'll learn everything about the world of the modern-day library that you never expected.
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Average customer rating based on 3 comments:
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bookends, April 13, 2008 (view all comments by bookends)
A rare insight from the other side of the library desk. I pity the poor librarians who have to put up with the antics of fat over sugared children who don't read but want to play R rated video games on public internet access at the library, adults who wish to view pornography on public computers, homeless people who treat the library as a public shelter, and those people who mutilate, steal and deface PUBLIC library materials. This book is a real insight into the decline of reading in America and how librarians are treated today. Instead of dispensing information, they now are babysitters, internet policemen, and social workers.
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Bookwomyn, January 27, 2008 (view all comments by Bookwomyn)
I agree with the librarian reviewer ... good but not great. I have a friend who is a librarian so also had some insights into the daily world of librarians so maybe I too am not the best reviewer for this book. However, it amused in the beginning and then flailed and failed to hold my interest. I never got around to doing a review, I guess because the book is not compelling and I tend to only review books that I do love - or at least finish. I hope though that it makes others aware of how put-upon our librarians are - with homeless and mentally ill seeking sanctuary in our libraries and parents dumping their children for 'free child care.' I think we ask way too much of our librarians and they graciously serve our communities in more ways than is intended. I'm a daily user of library services and applaud them heartily and those who work there.
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titianlibrarian, January 21, 2008 (view all comments by titianlibrarian)
It's been slow at the library these past two days. Everyone's out doing last-minute shopping, the kids are at home recovering from the last week of school, and nobody's got any nagging reference questions on their mind right now. So I finished this at work today. Good but not great. Well-written but not too insightful. If you're outside the library profession you might be tickled by some of his musings, but for those in the industry it's pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.
Wow. I just reread myself--I don't mean to be so tough on the poor guy. It's a quick read that was compelling enough to finish, with lots of cute anecdotes. Enjoy!
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Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9781905264124
- Subtitle:
- Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Virgin Books
- Subject:
- Topic - Adult
- Subject:
- Public libraries
- Subject:
- California
- Subject:
- Specific Groups - General
- Subject:
- Library & Information Science
- Subject:
- Form - Anecdotes
- Publication Date:
- November 2007
- Binding:
- Hardcover
- Language:
- English
- Pages:
- 223
- Dimensions:
- 8.54x6.04x.90 in. .81 lbs.
