WHERE IS NORA ROBERTS?

You know right where your favorite fiction sits on the shelf, right?  Look again!  What was up is down, down is up.  Authors you have never noticed before are front and center. We haven’t rearranged the alphabet, but we have rearranged the books.

The fiction was so crowded that in some sections our shelvers simply could not fit another book into the mass.  What to do?  Well, the 800’s  (Poetry, essays, literary criticism, etc.) were lounging around in first class accommodations with plenty of legroom,  so we evened them up a little, made the sparser sections a bit more crowded. That created space to shift the fiction along almost a whole aisle.  So, now, where is Billy Collins, as well as Nora Roberts?

We have tried to make all the books accessible to tall people and short ones, but everyone will have to get in shape and squat or stretch.  Those little step-stools with squeaky wheels make great seats for exploring the lower shelves, and, of course to stand on to reach the top shelves, (the wheels don’t roll if you stand on the stool).

We are getting fine, new labels at the ends of the stacks that really describe what is there now in 2009, no longer what we put in place in 1967;  thus you can find the Roberts aisle right away.  But why not browse?  This is your chance to make new fiction finds, and discover poetry or essays that you never noticed before.  Enjoy!

Raisins From the Granola

You enter the library and there are ALL THOSE BOOKS!  Where to begin?  What do you feel like reading? Don’t worry, suggestions are all around you:

First, the big oak a-frame right in front of you usually has a theme-based display (right now, gardening and backyard livestock).  On the back are random selections by our readers’ advisors and staff.  If none of those appeal to you, on the bottom shelf of the a-frame are several loose-leaf notebooks. There lies a wealth of titles:

• Award Winning Books, including the New York Times “100 Best Books of the Year” for several years back. On most of the lists, the library’s holdings are marked.
• A Readers Advisors’ favorites notebook.
• “Out of the Stacks” – Reviews of books from the Brattleboro Reformer by Calista Kristensen, whose recommendations kept our borrowers happy for many years.

A little further on, under the light paperback collection, is another set of notebooks. They contain all the “For Love of Books” columns from the Brattleboro Reformer since 1996, written by many different local people about many different books and expanded subjects.

Perhaps you want to choose your books before you even set foot in the library.  The catalog has a tab called “Brooks Books”, which includes various staff picks and theme bibliographies plus links to every award list, from the Agatha Award to World Fantasy.  You’ll find those links hiding way down at the bottom of the page in blue type.

And then there is NoveList.  NoveList is one of the treasures you will find behind our “Resources” button on the Library’s web page. NoveList only deals with fiction, but you can search it by author, title, theme, genre, series, awards.  If you have read the last book by a cherished author, go to “Read Alikes” in Novelist to find similar writers and/or titles.  Explore NoveList even if you know exactly what you want to read; it’s an adventure.

Ready to check out?  Well, there on the circulation desk is the N.Y. Times Bestseller list. Many of the titles have waiting lists, but this is the chance to put yourself in line for the hot books;  just ask, or put a hold on the title from home.  If you would like pointers on how to do that, a staff member will be happy to help you.

“So many books, so little time”, as they say, but here at the library you can pick the raisins out of the granola with help from every side.  Enjoy!