The other day I mentioned that I had been experiencing the reading blahs. As it turns out, I'm not alone. Before my post I had already heard from a couple of friends that they too were going through the reading blahs, and these are friends I consider to be heavy readers (i.e. read upwards of a book a day) which makes the whole reading blahs thing that much stranger. After my post on Thursday I heard from more people who were also experiencing the same thing. Could this be a nationwide epidemic? If so, I think I have the cure.

On Saturday I decided to hit the bookstores. After all, what better way to beat the blahs than to surround yourself with the thing you aren't all that excited about (think of it as a twist on immersion therapy). And I didn't hit just one or two stores. Oh no. I managed to take in four bookstores before my brain said no more. It was a regular book buying bonanza. I scored so many good books, and at one store I managed to find several things that aren't even suppose to be out yet. I debated about buying them (as I know how frustrated authors can get about bookstores that put books out early), but I gave into temptation I bought them anyway.

At lunch I finished the first of my freshly purchased books: Charmed & Dangerous by Candace Havens. I think I might be in love with this book (or at the very least serious like). Have you ever had one of those reading experiences where you read a book and really enjoyed it, but when you thought about the book later or were talking to others about it you realized that you really, really liked it. I had that kind of experience awhile back when I read Shanna Swendson's Enchanted, Inc., and now I'm having the same experience with this one. Does that ever happen to you?

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Recently I've been experiencing the reading blahs. I have tons of great books sitting on my shelves at home, but as I look at them I can't help but think to myself, there's nothing to read. Clearly someone needs to visit me in the LG and crack me alongside my head, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

So what's a Library Diva to do? Sit back and patiently wait for the book bug to bite her on the booty? That's no fun. So I decided to get proactive today, and snoop around the web to see what was coming out over the next few months in adult fiction. Some may say that I have absolutely no business making a Fall 2005 TBR list when I haven't even finished my Summer 2005 TBR list (thanks to lots of ARCs at ALA and books I neglected to add to the original list), but who am I to listen to logic? Below is the short list of books I am looking forward to reading (and pimping) to my patrons:

September
Candy Apple Dead by Sammi Carter
Really Unusual Bad Boys by MaryJanice Davidson
Charmed & Dangerous by Candace Havens
After Midnight by Teresa Medeiros
Touch Me by Lucy Monroe
Conversations with the Fat Girl by Liza Palmer
Heart of the Dragon by Gena Showalter
Dark Lover: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
Goodnight Nobody by Jennifer Weiner

October
Undead and Unreturnable by MaryJanice Davidson
Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
Solomon vs. Lord by Paul Levine
Wedding Survivor by Julia London
The Oldest Kind of Magic by Ann Macela
Private Demon: A Novel of the Darkyn by Lynn Viehl

November
The Royal Pain by MaryJanice Davidson
Night Game by Christine Feehan
Blow Me Down by Katie MacAlister

December
Unleash the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It by Lucy Monroe
The Jinx by Jennifer Sturman

If I spent more time browsing around, I'm sure I would come across more. But for now, this list is a good start. Plus this list only covers adult books. Anything I'm missing? Let me know! :-)

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On September 27 the eighth edition of The Amazing Race will kick off. This edition of the race will be the family edition, featuring ten teams comprised of four family members each. A profile of each team is now up on the website, and after reading through them I so know who I'm going to be rooting for. I can also guess who is going to annoy the bejesus out of me.

Anyway, the reason I am blogging about this is to invite you loyal blog readers to participate the Library Diva's first ever Amazing Race Pool/Smackdown. Some of you may have participated in last season's test pool (Yes, I'm a librarian and anal so there was a test pool. Sue me.), and the rules will be the same as before. Each week you will predict the team that will finish first and last in that week's leg of the race (first week does not count as that is our week for figuring who the cracker teams are). If you are interested in participating, send me an email by September 25 and I'll provide the particulars. It's going to be good. :-)

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In the news today I saw an article about something The Krafty Librarian talked about a few weeks ago that I neglected to mention here. The article, Convicted U.S. Felon's 'Cures' Tops Book Charts, discusses the popularity (and controversy) of Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You to Know About. I had thought about posting about this when I first ready Krafty's blog, but then decided against it as I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I still don't know how I feel, but since the story has come across my radar a second time I feel it warrants a post.

When Krafty mentioned this on her blog we got into a discussion about the placement of this book in a library's collection. After initially reading her post I immediately went to my library's catalog to see if we own (I always do this whenever I read something about a book - good or bad). I wasn't surprised to see that my library did in fact own it (as did the majority of libraries in my system). When I mentioned this to Krafty she immediately responded with a "You're going to pull it from your shelves, right?" It was with a bit of discomfort that I had to tell her no, I didn't have any plans on pulling it. I'm sure Krafty was appalled and outraged that it would be sticking around, but she is far too nice to yell at me.

Does it feel dirty to leave a book in my library's collection knowing that it pretty much nothing but misinformation? A bit. Do I feel like a bad librarian because I am deliberately leaving a book on the shelf that for all intents and purposes could be viewed as dangerous to the health and well being of my patrons? Yes. So why am I leaving it there?

As a librarian, I don't have a choice. Although I might view the contents of the book to be complete garbage (not to mention dangerous), I have a long line of patrons who want to read it. Don't believe me? Since the beginning of this year our copy of the book has been checked out 16 times, and currently has 54 holds on it system wide. And while I might choose to not purchase or remove a certain book from my personal collection, that does not give me the right to remove it from the public's collection (i.e. my library's collection). I would never censor the fiction my patrons elect to read, so why would I ever presume to censor their non-fiction reading? I wouldn't.

But Kelly, some of you who have had me in class might be saying, what about a librarian's responsibility in providing accurate information (particularly when it relates to medical information) to their patrons? See, that's the tricky part of this issue which currently has me in a quandary. As a librarian I know the rules about collection development, when to weed and update certain items. As such I would never purchase a material that provides outdated/incorrect information. So where does that leave me when faced with purchasing a book like Natural Cures? Screwed. One part of my brain argues that the information contained in the book is misinformation that is potentially dangerous and thus goes against the collection development policy of my library, while the other part of my brain argues that our patrons want the book and its my job to get it for them.

And yes, I realize I just talked myself into a circle there. I guess what it all boils down to for me in the end is that my patrons are grownups, and at some point they have to assume some responsibility for the information they consume and use. I can do my best to steer them to authoritative sources, but in the end they are the ones with the sole power to decide what piece of information to use or discard. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm nothing but a misinformation enabler by having a book like Natural Cures on my library's shelves. What do you think?

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Since I have friends who are or have been adjunct faculty, I would like to point their attention to an article that appeared recently in the Chicago Sun Times: Part-Time College Instructors Just Don't Make the Grade.

While it left me feeling like poop on a stick, I am trying to figure out a way to work Academic Serf into my next resume. Because that's a job title I am so keeping.

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After reading my post the other day my friend Michelle sent me a link to a more balanced article about YA Fiction (Teen Fiction Explores Wide Range of Issues). The article still has a couple of cringe worthy quotations, but overall does a good job pointing out that "racy" YA Literature isn't anything new. While I thought it was interesting that one person interviewed for the article noted that parents "often hold books to a higher standard than television or movies," (I'm so having a discussion about that with my genre group) I was more interested (okay perturbed) by a comment made by Pam Spencer Holley (who I believe is the current president of YALSA -- correct me if I'm wrong):

"Unless you read stuff that's perhaps not the most literary, you'll never understand what good works are," says Holley. "But when you get them hooked on reading, then you can lead them so many other places, as far as books go."

Good, right? They interviewed a librarian and got a nice response that focused on the power of getting kids hooked into reading. I was ready to say nice job Pam until I read what came next:

Besides, she says, what's the worst thing that can happen? "Nobody complains about the adult women who read Harlequin romances."

Wow. Is this the road we really want to go down? Promoting one genre while bashing another? While I would expect a crack like this from the person who wrote the article, I am pretty shocked to see these words coming out of the mouth of a librarian. I don't think (or at least I certainly hope) that she didn't mean to imply that reading Harlequin romances is the worst thing that can happen, but it kind of comes off that way. Saying things like this is just inexcusable for librarians, regardless of whether they work with adults or children. Belittling the reading tastes of anyone (no matter the age or genre) has no place in the library world. It's hard enough to get people interested in reading without librarians (people are suppose to encourage reading) stigmatizing their reading tastes.

And because I had a discussion about this yesterday when we discovered an almost pristine copy of Jennifer Crusie's Manhunting from when it was originally released as a Harlequin Temptation in 1993 (it even has a yellow seal on it that says new author!), let's not forget the number of other kick ass authors who got their start writing Harlequin romances:

Sandra Brown
Jude Deveraux
Janet Evanovich
Tess Gerritsen
Tami Hoag
Alison Kent
Jayne Ann Krentz
Johanna Lindsey
Judith McNaught
Nora Roberts

And that's just to name a few. Because it would be remiss of me not to mention it, Wendy Crutcher (Super Librarian) had a great post a couple of days ago on Romancing the Blog that talked about the disrespect category romance gets. If you haven't already read it, you should definitely check it out.

A final thought for all the librarians out there (just let me have my Jerry Springer moment, it will be over soon): show respect for your patrons. Don't talk smack about genre fiction. No good will come of it. All you will manage to do is alienate potential readers and piss me off. And who really wants that?

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Shortly after getting home last night I got a call from my mom. She told me that NBC news was going to do a report on those "dirty" books I read, and she thought I might want to watch it. Color me surprised when it turned out to be a report on YA Fiction (I was expecting a report on Romance Fiction what with Carol's use of the word dirty -- who knew she could joke?). Take a look at the report (New Trend in Teen Fiction: Racy Reads) and then come back here. I'll wait.

Are you back? Okay, say it with me: oh the pain.

It hasn't even been two months since the last time I got upset about the media and their coverage of the YA market, so I guess I'm about due. The report began with the time honored good news/bad news intro by Brian Williams. Good news parents: studies show your children might actually be reading this summer. Bad news though: you wouldn't believe the crap you're letting into your house. Here are some of my favorite quotations from the report:

“It’s either fantasy or smut — and that’s sad,”

“I don’t think they would sell as well if they didn’t have sex in them,”

Experts say books like these are gratuitous — even dangerous — and parents need to know that.

“They buy it, thinking they’re doing something nice for their kid, when, in fact, they have no clue what it is they’re exposing their kid to.”

Can someone explain to me why they never interview a librarian for one of these stories? Is it that the story wouldn't work as well if had a touch of sanity or common sense or possibly the truth? Normally I would try to dismiss stuff like this as alarmist garbage that doesn't have much of an impact on the YA market, but now I have to wonder if reports like this are slowly seeping their way into book buyers (an consequently booksellers) subconscious. Just yesterday I heard that Borders is cutting back on the YA they will carry in their stores. I wondered at the time why when by all appearances YA is a booming market. Could it be that the Danger, Will Robinson! Danger! YA Fiction is smut! people have a stronger voice than I originally anticipated?

If that's the case then I'm really worried, both as a librarian and reader. Granted, I can still by my dirty YA books at other outlets, but what if other booksellers follow suit? How long after that would we see publishers cutting back on the number of YA books the published? More worrisome for me, how long will it be before these people turn their focus from controlling what their kids read to controlling what I read? Because if these kids are anything like me at that age, when they find that next to nothing is being published for them they will do what I did: start reading adult books.

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Color me confused. While I'm physically back in the suburbs, my head is still somewhere in Florida. Last week I took some time off to visit my friend Audra in Tampa and to attend Anger Management. For those who are curious, no big panties were thrown. The concert was moved to a different location, and our new seats would've required a slingshot to get the panties to the stage. If Kirsten had been there I'm sure she would have gone all MacGyver and figured out a way to get the job done. Sadly, I lacked the proper motivation to figure out an alternative panty route.

While no panties were thrown, Audra and I managed to ride the scariest freaking roller coaster ever: SheiKra. Why is it scary? Three words for you: 90 degree drop. Seriously. They chug you up a big hill, hang you over the edge, and stop the ride. Then you just sort of hang there looking at the 200 foot drop for about 10 seconds (which feels like 10 minutes) before the let you zoom face first towards the ground. Because we're both idiots we didn't scream, but instead laughed the entire way down. If you ever find yourself in the Tampa Bay area, you'll definitely want to check it out.

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