lalalala library

I had such love for my library the other night, I wanted to kiss everybody there. (do you know me? I'm not the kissy sort). First of all, I noticed that one of the summer selections for the library book club is none other than The Grapes of Wrath. (and in my head I'm adding in an enthusiastic, well-placed 'mother-effing' and some serious air fist-pumps: excited!). Surely I've blabbed about my trite but true love of Steinbeck's rambly california prose. Surely you know that I consider TGOW my favorite favorite novel of all (making a rare exception to the 'if it's popular, i don't like it' tendency I brazenly exhibit). Surely you can imagine how glad I am that, maybe, other people who might have read it in high school (the cliff notes?), can probably catch the some of the related references (the Joad's loaded down hoopty) could be digging into it afresh. I would like to know who, at the library, was responsible for choosing it (midst a lot of contemporary books), because I would love to say Thanks and give a little positive feedback. But I'm such a book nerd that my 'thanks' might be something more of a verbal full-on running start piggyback. They wouldn't know what hit them. Better I keep quiet. Maybe I'll even write down the book club date and attend!

So I was all floating happy about that and then I checked out not one but *TWO* children's books illustrated by Jen Corace: Hansel & Gretel and Little Hoot. You might not know who Corace is, but if you do, then you know why that would please me so. My library is small but I am constantly surprised by how much it offers (I am also, to be fair and honest, often frustrated at the lack of certain materials, what with me being a city mouse and accustomed to big city libraries and all, but today it's all good). I brought home, for my boy (for me), the new Cynthia Rylant/Jen Corace Hansel and Gretel. I'd read this one at bookstores, thought of buying it, really really wanted to buy it, held off. I will still buy this one, but full-price new books are not in the budget right now but I can always afford a trip to the library! (Well, usually. I'm in the habit of going so often these days, three times a week at least, that I have kept my fines down, but I have racked up some doozies in the past). I did a little happy happy dance and told the children's librarian how delighted I was that they had that book. She looked at me oddly. Maybe because I really did say Delighted and maybe because I was not accompanied by any children. Fruitcake. Yes. Cynthia Rylant is one of my favorite current children's writers (oh! did I ever tell you that my friend Laurie challenged me to come up with 85 recent children's books that I love, because I tend to be something of an old book snob? I could easily fill up half the list with Rylant books. I haven't actually made the list yet. My ardor for old books is a wee bit subdued as the insane cpsia -consumer product safety improvement act- bullcrap that had a lot of secondhand stores pulling and destroying pre-1985 printed kid books from the shelves hasn't yet affected my local stores and, I confess, I've been lazy and complacent about it). This book is worth doing a happy dance about. Beautiful writing, beautiful pictures, beautiful.

And then, as the girl and I headed to the check-out, our arms at max capacity, I was so surprised when the clerk had, waiting for me, the second flipping season of Dexter!! Yahoo! I had just been telling the husband, literally the very last thing I said to him before I walked to the library, that when I got back one of us should run to the movie store for the first disc of Dexter season 2, because I was jonesing bad. (okay, I did actually say all of that, except that last part. I might really air fist-pump -and air quotes, too, but that's another story- all the real life time, but I don't really say 'jonesing' and if it ever fell out of my mouth accidentally and you had to hear it, I'm sorry, because I bet it sounded ridiculous). I had put a hold on it the week prior and estimated that it would be weeks or longer before it came in. The hold was so newly returned and ready for me that I hadn't gotten the email notification yet and I wasn't even expecting it. I didn't jump up on the counter and I didn't do somersaults but that's what I was feeling: happy! I love being in the honeymoon stage of a new show and right now, I'm all about Dexter. I was willing to go to the movie rental place (not a problem, really, because we have, in our little town, the best little movie store I've ever been to anywhere) but the thing with renting television shows is that you just get a disc at a time. At the library? They lend the whole season! Yes! So while I really have a lot of other more pressing things I ought to be doing tonight, I'm going to tuck my kids in and dig into that whole world of blood splatter and Miami murders. Even the library clerk and I had a little chat about how great the show is, even though, we both admitted to each other, we're not typically the serial killer show watching types.

(psst. . . really, this post should have been written three days ago, but I wanted to take a picture of our library haul, or maybe our library shelf -actually, two shelves, dedicated, for library books in the living room, not counting the ones at bedsides, in bags, on the floor of the car- but i kept procrastinating and then not writing because i didn't have any pictures, not even one, to accompany the words, and i've let myself grow this very silly Why Bother? attitude when it comes to posting without a picture -i think they call that 'perfectionism'- and i have to try very hard to just do it anyway, picture or no. so hi. this is me. who even fails at perfectionism!)