The Pleasures of Reading, Viewing, and Listening in 2023, pt. 19: Isabel Schecter

 

Libraries and Books in 2023

by Isabel Schechter

 

 

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

For those of you who took family car trips when you were younger, or those of you riding in a carpool to WisCon, the wait to get to your destination on those trips was interminable. Time moved at a glacial pace. Fast forward to today when the book you have on hold at the library still hasn’t come in, and the wait is also interminable. Time is once again moving at a glacial pace.

Rather than waiting for the book, you could just buy it (from an independent bookstore, of course) and get it today, but that may not be a financial option for you. If it’s a popular book, friends who may own the book might be reading their copy and can’t lend it to you until they are done, and your friends who don’t own it may be the very people who have a hold on a library copy and are in line ahead of you.

On the other end of the time spectrum, your book club is meeting in just two weeks and you still haven’t even gotten the book, and who knows if you will be able to finish reading it before the book club happens? Apparently, time can move at a glacial pace and so fast that it feels like you can’t keep up with it. How is this possible?

Well, as a science fiction fan, I am used to time running in multiple directions at multiple speeds simultaneously, so I do the best I can to manage my impatience with whichever way time is flowing by having library accounts in multiple library systems.

I have an account with my San Diego city library system as well as the San Diego county library system (having both is permitted). In addition, although I am not a resident of Los Angeles, I am a California resident, and the Los Angeles city library system grants accounts to all California residents, so I also have an account with the Los Angeles city library system.

 My city library system has a shamefully small budget for books and materials (City Councilmembers, I’m looking at you), which means there is a limited selection of books, and a small number of copies of the books that are available. My county library system has approximately three times the city system’s books and materials budget (governing done right), which means my chances of getting a book in a reasonable amount of time are much higher with the county than the city.

Sadly though, even with two systems, there are still not enough copies of all the books I want. But I won’t let underfunded library systems stand between me and my book club, so when I was recently in Los Angeles, I brought my driver’s license and a utility bill, and viola, I now have a Los Angeles city library account! This doesn’t mean that I am going to drive two hours to go to LA every time I need a book, but I can put eBooks on hold and have an even greater chance of getting the books I need.

So the next time you need a book and can’t get it from your local library, or your other local library, or your other not-local library, contact your elected officials and invite them to join your book club that’s happening in two weeks. And be sure to pick a book that has 347 holds on it.

Here are some suggestions of books I’ve gotten from the library:

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

 

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson

 

The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 

 

 Happy reading.

 Isabel’s essays on race and representation in SF/F have been published in Invisible 2: Essays on Race and Representation in SF/F, Uncanny: A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and several volumes of the WisCon Chronicles; and she is Co-Editor of The WisCon Chronicles Volume 12: Boundaries and Bridges. She is Puerto-Rican, feminist, child-free, Jewish, vegetarian, and a Midwesterner living in Southern California, and embraces the opportunity to represent the fact that no one of those identities excludes any of the others.