My readings for this week were "The Imp of the Perverse", by Edgar Allen Poe; "A Good Man is Hard to Find", by Flannery O'Connor; and "Roosts" by Zack Brockhouse. I am not sure why, but we all chose rather unhappy stories. ("Roosts" maybe isn't unhappy, but it's certainly not bright and cheery). I think that is interesting. Maybe it is kind of like the stories we tell about our own life--we never tell about how great things are, we tell about all the mishaps of life. I imagine there would be very little to say about a story where everything was happy. What were your stories like? Any happy endings?
I did notice that one of the suggestions on Vicki's handout mentioned choosing books with unclear endings, and while the endings were pretty clear, all of these stories did have some aspect that was unclear, and it will be interesting to see how the discussions go on Monday.
In other news, I have been helping out at a branch of the Detroit Public Library this week, and it has been an interesting experience. First, it has been interesting to see the difference between their library system and the Ann Arbor system, as well as to compare it to the libraries I was familiar with in Idaho and Utah. Second, it was interesting because Detroit is cutting library staff by twenty percent, and the layoffs began this week, so I received a front row seat to the cold, hard reality of the impact of the economic crisis on librarianship (although there were rumors that this wasn't the result of just the economy). So that was fun.
Really though, it was a good experience, and even though there was the sadness of layoffs, the work was interesting and I enjoyed it, and the librarians I worked with really did fit the mold Kristin has talked about. They knew the regulars, and tried to cut people a break whenever they could. It reminded me that librarians really have to know how to give good customer service, which while one of the biggest challenges, is also one of the most rewarding things in any job. Not a bad spring break at all!
Hmmm, I wonder if we will discuss our book club choices in a larger group, because most of the stories I read (for the Diamonds) had more vague endings. Hope that the other questions will still be thought provoking! Funny how things are sometimes divided up :)
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