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Free for All
Free for All: Oddballs, Geeks, and Gangstas in the Public Library | Don Borchert
12 posts | 14 read | 35 to read
The author recounts his experiences working as an assistant librarian in a public library in suburban Los Angeles, as he encounters patrons who range from bored latchkey kids left there for the afternoon, to rowdy teenagers, to Internet-obsessed adults, t
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Moonprismpower
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Pickpick

Day four of #7days7books that influenced me. I read Free for All in 2008 when I first began working in a public library. I loved it. It is funny and very true to life.

27 likes1 stack add
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TheCupcakeLibrarian
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One of each at the Library. #libraryhumor

LauraBrook Welcome to Litsy!!! 7y
TheCupcakeLibrarian @LauraBrook thank you so much 7y
MrBook 😂😂👏🏻👏🏻 7y
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TheCupcakeLibrarian @MrBook 🤣🤣😂🤣😂🤣 7y
kspenmoll Love this!! 🤣🤣 and welcome! Happy to have you join! (edited) 7y
TheCupcakeLibrarian @kspenmoll lolll thank you. I thought it was hysterical. 7y
29 likes2 stack adds6 comments
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kaykay521
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Pickpick

A humorous collection of stories centered around the comings and goings of life in a busy LA California branch public library. Fun read for library workers and patrons.

51 likes4 stack adds
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kaykay521
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As someone who works in a public library I'm excited to start this one soon!

55 likes2 stack adds
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kaykay521
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I maxed out my library holds list guys. I'm currently reading the top 3 ( yes I read more than one at a time hahahaha) 😆😍📚

aa_guer2021 Impressive stack! What's The Psychology Book? 7y
kaykay521 @ruskigurl16 it's kind of like a psychology encyclopedia. It touches on all the major psychological schools of thought and their important people. DK publishers puts out these great encyclopedia like books on lots of subjects. I've read the ones on Shakespeare, Literature, Science and Movies 😊 7y
aa_guer2021 My major. Might need to look into it! 7y
68 likes3 comments
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doomfelter

"A book, at its most mundane, can be a loaded gun."

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vivastory
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I don't understand people who will pay $10 to sit in a movie theater for two hours but hesitate to pay a 25-cent fine for a book that is overdue one day. I do not understand people who will lustily throw $40,000 at the shiny red automobile of their choice, but well up with tears & become outraged when they are asked to pay $5 for a damaged videotape. Either they are fucked up & their priorities are fucked up or I am fucked up👇

vivastory & my priorities are fucked up. Because I am me, I think it is them. 7y
BookishFeminist I mean, I don't disagree. 7y
julesG It's us against the world. ;) 7y
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bibliobliss Without even reading about this book, I want to read it from the cover alone! 7y
Gina Oooohhh this looks good. The human mind is a funny, fickle thing that for some in my opinion runs backwards most of the time. To understand it is to embrace someone else's crazy and I am all full up on my own crazy. ;) 7y
Sarah83 Some people even don't know what is a good choice. 😉 7y
58 likes8 stack adds7 comments
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vivastory
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Laalaleighh Can I jump in about people who complain to me that a paperback book is $15 ? (Back when I worked at a bookstore over the holidays). I actually got in trouble for telling one particularly annoying customer that the book they were complaining about was the culmination of years of an author's life, time, research, and mental and creative energy - that writers don't get compensated well enough as it is and that they shouldn't complain about 👇🏼 7y
Laalaleighh Having to pay for other people's creative work. 7y
thegirlwiththelibrarybag I work in a library. I've had very similar conversations about fines. Weirdly, it's the smaller fines that you get the most resistance on - less than a cup of coffee small 🙄 7y
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ChasingOm I've had people at my local library look startled when I say "I'd like to pay my fine please!" They say no one ever says that, lol. 7y
Reecaspieces Mine are never that over due but when they are I always pay extra..I know shocker. If it is $2. I give a $5 and tell them to keep it. Somewhere the library needs it 7y
ValerieAndBooks Ha! I'm surprised at the part about paying for a library card though. I've never been in a library system where having a library card wasn't free. 7y
AshleyHoss820 If it helps, the only time my library charges you for a card is for a replacement card. ? I kept Malcolm X's Autobiography a couple of days extra to finish it, used my library's online portal to find out how much I owed and paid it. I even use the inter-library loan b/c it's cheaper than buying a book and my library gets "business". Some people are just not wired right. They think libraries operate on magic money or something...? 7y
vivastory @AshleyHoss820 People are strange. I was genuinely surprised that a ballot initiative last November passed raising property tax by 1% for extra library funding. 7y
vivastory @ValerieAndBooks Same here, I'd gladly pay though 7y
vivastory @Reecaspieces I do the same. Or sometimes I'll be unable to find a CD that's due & I'll pay for it & when I find it I'll return it without requesting to be reimbursed 7y
vivastory @Laalaleighh Unfortunately so many people feel entitled to accessing art for free. It's the best investment you can make 7y
AshleyHoss820 Our library desperately needs a new location. Where they're at, they can't expand in any direction. People lost their minds when we talked about using funds to build a new library...😳😕🙄😫 7y
vivastory @AshleyHoss820 Yet new sport stadiums are being built all the time.. 7y
AshleyHoss820 @vivastory Exactly! 🤔 7y
Laalaleighh @vivastory entitled to accessing art for free, obsess over famous artists, yet defund the arts, look down on people trying to become artists, and then get mad when artists remind them they are real people who exist to do more than entertain and act like being an artist is some easy thing to accomplish. All the ranting I could do. 7y
40 likes15 comments
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LeslieO
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#workplacesetting The public library #feistyfeb

RadicalReader @LeslieO what's your favorite book you got from the library? 7y
LeslieO Oh @RadicalReader that's a hard one. There have been so many! But I have a strong memory of checking out the Little House on the Prairie books. I couldn't wait to return the one I finished to get the next! 7y
21 likes2 comments
review
Biblio_Bon
Pickpick

This is now one of my favorite books! By far the best "library tell all" I've read so far. You will laugh, you will cry, you will cry laughing, run now to your nearest library and check this baby out! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

16 likes2 stack adds
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Biblio_Bon
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Using my "me time" to finish up this hilarious read.

23 likes2 stack adds
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Biblio_Bon
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Italian roast, candles, cigar smoke (via neighbor, quite delightful), desert night breeze and a good book. A+ night!

24 likes2 stack adds