My choice of books leans heavily to arts and crafts and biographies of famous artists. I was thrilled to find a book on Matisse.
The online journal of entertainer and artist Fayme Zelena Harper. Copyright 2014-2015
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Friday, August 20, 2010
Libraries Make Me Happy
Today I drove the 10 extra miles round trip to go to the big library. Usually I go to one of the branches, where they rarely have everything I need. Then I have to order books from the inter-library system, wait another week, and then go back to pick them up. I dropped off 14 books and came home with 24! If this keeps up I'll need to take a shopping cart to the library. Part of the problem is I'm getting books for 2 people. My boyfriend is a voracious reader but refuses to set foot in a library. So to sooth the savage beast, I bring home books for him too. He also reads about twice as fast as I do. And he's out of work, so he has a lot of hours to read. I feel I'm saving us money by going to the library. If he bought all those books, we'd be homeless.
My choice of books leans heavily to arts and crafts and biographies of famous artists. I was thrilled to find a book on Matisse.
My choice of books leans heavily to arts and crafts and biographies of famous artists. I was thrilled to find a book on Matisse.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Library Snafu
A few days ago I went to the library looking for the last 2 books in the Twilight series. Being popular books, they were already checked out so I put them on hold. A few days later I get an automated call from the library that both books are in. Usually it costs .50 per hold but if you go in right away and do the self check-out they don't charge you. Less work for them I guess.
So there the two books were with a white paper with my name on it rubberbanded around them like a sleeve. I took off the wrapper to make sure it was the right titles, then I grabbed some other books, and headed to the self check-out monitor.
I did the other books first, which went through just fine. So I put up the first hold book and the screen says, "Too many objects on the console, please remove and re-scan." So I did. This time the screen came up telling me to have the librarian check it out.
I tried the other book. Same deal.
So I waited until the librarian was free. She was young as librarians go. She takes my card and the books and tries to check them out. Then she tells me they are not on hold for me, and I have no holds on my account, and she personally put one of those books over on the hold shelf for someone else and did I have another person in my family with a different card that the hold was on.
Then when I said no, both by words and by facial expressions she implied I was lying about the whole thing. I could see this was getting nowhere. And that if I wanted the books, I had to go put a new hold on them and wait my turn.
Now I can understand library snafus and problems with computers. What I can't tolerate is when someone screws up and then their staff tries to make me out to be the villain. So I ask to see her supervisor. On the way I take the paper out of the trash that had my name on it to prove the books were indeed on hold with my name.
The supervisor is a young man and he in at another section of the library. So he goes over to the back counter, picks up the books she took away from me and goes to check them out for me. She jumps in and tells him I can't have them.
Non-plussed, he tells me he is going to take them to the back room and research the history of the holds and try to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile I'm standing at the counter where Ms. Snooty is helping others and glaring at me in spare moments.
Eventually the supervisor does give me the books. What he thinks happened is that the first time I scanned them, it checked them out to me, and when the error message told me to scan again, the machine checked the books back in, and the automated system erased my hold and notified the next person in line that their book was in. He said it was some kind of a glitch they'd have to look into.
Why on earth the first librarian would jump to the conclusion that I was trying to 'steal' the books placed on hold for another person is beyond me. Think of the logic of it? How would I know the books were even in if someone hadn't told me? Or if one book was for me, why would I look for the second book, remove the hold sleeve, and put it in the sleeve with my other book? She did go check the shelf and found both the name that she thought she's reserved it for under another person's label, and also one of the Twilight books under someone else's name. What a mess.
What really miffs me is she never apologized.
So there the two books were with a white paper with my name on it rubberbanded around them like a sleeve. I took off the wrapper to make sure it was the right titles, then I grabbed some other books, and headed to the self check-out monitor.
I did the other books first, which went through just fine. So I put up the first hold book and the screen says, "Too many objects on the console, please remove and re-scan." So I did. This time the screen came up telling me to have the librarian check it out.
I tried the other book. Same deal.
So I waited until the librarian was free. She was young as librarians go. She takes my card and the books and tries to check them out. Then she tells me they are not on hold for me, and I have no holds on my account, and she personally put one of those books over on the hold shelf for someone else and did I have another person in my family with a different card that the hold was on.
Then when I said no, both by words and by facial expressions she implied I was lying about the whole thing. I could see this was getting nowhere. And that if I wanted the books, I had to go put a new hold on them and wait my turn.
Now I can understand library snafus and problems with computers. What I can't tolerate is when someone screws up and then their staff tries to make me out to be the villain. So I ask to see her supervisor. On the way I take the paper out of the trash that had my name on it to prove the books were indeed on hold with my name.
The supervisor is a young man and he in at another section of the library. So he goes over to the back counter, picks up the books she took away from me and goes to check them out for me. She jumps in and tells him I can't have them.
Non-plussed, he tells me he is going to take them to the back room and research the history of the holds and try to figure out what is going on. Meanwhile I'm standing at the counter where Ms. Snooty is helping others and glaring at me in spare moments.
Eventually the supervisor does give me the books. What he thinks happened is that the first time I scanned them, it checked them out to me, and when the error message told me to scan again, the machine checked the books back in, and the automated system erased my hold and notified the next person in line that their book was in. He said it was some kind of a glitch they'd have to look into.
Why on earth the first librarian would jump to the conclusion that I was trying to 'steal' the books placed on hold for another person is beyond me. Think of the logic of it? How would I know the books were even in if someone hadn't told me? Or if one book was for me, why would I look for the second book, remove the hold sleeve, and put it in the sleeve with my other book? She did go check the shelf and found both the name that she thought she's reserved it for under another person's label, and also one of the Twilight books under someone else's name. What a mess.
What really miffs me is she never apologized.
Monday, January 5, 2009
My Sunday
I'm suddenly getting more followers to some of my blogs, which makes blogging even more fun. I tend to post more to certain blogs if I know someone is following them. Then I don't feel like I'm a voice crying out in the wilderness.
I have a goal of reading 100 books this year, so today I started with book one, Ender's Game, a Sci Fi novel my daughter recommended. And I like it so far. I got up to chapter 8 today and will try to read a bit more when I lay down. I fall asleep pretty quickly when I do that but at least it's an effort.
I was using an ATM machine to deposit a check and I accidentally hit the number one button on the keypad instead of the deposit button on the screen and $40 came out of the ATM machine and out of my checking account. Good thing I had $50 in there, but what a weird glitch.
It's almost 1 AM and my brain is turning to mush so I'm going to scoot off to read. Tomorrow is the day '9 to 5 ers' go to work after the holidays. I'm grateful that I work in my home office. No fighting the traffic to get to a cubicle. No timeclocks. But sadly, on many a day, no income. But I hang in there.
I have a goal of reading 100 books this year, so today I started with book one, Ender's Game, a Sci Fi novel my daughter recommended. And I like it so far. I got up to chapter 8 today and will try to read a bit more when I lay down. I fall asleep pretty quickly when I do that but at least it's an effort.
I was using an ATM machine to deposit a check and I accidentally hit the number one button on the keypad instead of the deposit button on the screen and $40 came out of the ATM machine and out of my checking account. Good thing I had $50 in there, but what a weird glitch.
It's almost 1 AM and my brain is turning to mush so I'm going to scoot off to read. Tomorrow is the day '9 to 5 ers' go to work after the holidays. I'm grateful that I work in my home office. No fighting the traffic to get to a cubicle. No timeclocks. But sadly, on many a day, no income. But I hang in there.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Charles De Lint books
One of my goals is to read all the Charles De Lint books. It took me forever and a day to finish Moonheart, which had so many characters and plot lines I'm sure I missed the nuances.
Now I'm reading I'll Be Watching You which is about abusive men. It's depressing as hell. And it lacks the magical elements of his other books. He wrote it under an alias Samuel M Key. I'm about halfway done. It's going a lot faster than Moonheart so if I hang in there I'll finish it fairly quickly. So for New Year's I should reinact my goal to read 100 books in a year. Anyone else want to join me? Even though it's kinda cheating because it's still 2008 for a few more days, I'm going to make this number one.
So:
1. I'll Be Watching You
What are you reading?
Now I'm reading I'll Be Watching You which is about abusive men. It's depressing as hell. And it lacks the magical elements of his other books. He wrote it under an alias Samuel M Key. I'm about halfway done. It's going a lot faster than Moonheart so if I hang in there I'll finish it fairly quickly. So for New Year's I should reinact my goal to read 100 books in a year. Anyone else want to join me? Even though it's kinda cheating because it's still 2008 for a few more days, I'm going to make this number one.
So:
1. I'll Be Watching You
What are you reading?
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Fashion Island
Today was a wonderful day. My daughter came to visit and we squeezed in a photo jaunt at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. Here are some of the over 104 photos I took.
Then while she was in a meeting, I went to the Newport Beach Public Library and found a gem of a used bookstore inside. I bought about 10 books, and the total was a mere $11. Woo hoo.
Then I had lunch at Baja Fresh. Then we went to Art Supply Warehouse on the way home. What a fabulous day.
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