The Lowly Bookworm

Hey, I’m Noah (he/him), 27, and this is my book blog! I’m a librarian and I read pretty much anything, but mostly queer books! ☺️

[slowianskosci]

Krystyna Turska (1933-2002), illustrator of myths and fairy tales.

[tess-mercer]

she’s just so beautiful (my libby app)

[tess-mercer]

we need to romanticize the libby app. sexualize it, even

[storybookprincess]

working in a library, i encounter a lot of people who are in the process of filling out important forms, sending important faxes, and copying important documents. and the more important these things are, the more stressful, meaning i end up assisting a lot of really stressed people with a lot of really stressful paperwork, and have thus developed the ultimate line to immediately validate and empathize with their situation

“they don’t make it easy, do they?”

i nearly always use this line at some point in the conversation & it works without fail, because there is ALWAYS a they and they are ALWAYS not making it easy. you don’t have to specify who “they” are. you don’t even need to have an approximate idea of their role in this process.

job application? disability paperwork? insurance documents? financial aid paperwork? in any situation, the person visibly relaxes & enthusiastically agrees, because someone understands their plight: they are out there & they are NOT making it easy

[littleforestbat]

unnecessarily targeted spotify, thanks

[tiktaalic]

Looks at a tree with lichen and moss on it. I need to be in annihilation by Jeff vandermeer

[annleckie]

Revealing System Collapse, a New Murderbot Novel From Martha Wells

The million-copy, New York Times bestselling Murderbot series is back in another full-length novel adventure! We’re thrilled to share the co

COVER REVEAL FOR NEXT MURDERBOT BOOK THIS IS NOT A DRILL

[logarithmicpanda]

Full length novel?????

[horrorlesbians]

normalize hand tattoos for people with boring, normal careers 2023

[obestriddbifftomat]

Very hot of her

[freedominthedarkmp3]

I miss when library books used to have little paper pockets inside with a list of all the people who borrowed it and when... I hate that this is now exclusive knowledge of librarians. I do care that a miss Mariana borrowed this book in 1985 and then Dario in 1997. They're my brothers and sisters

[elasticitymudflap]

but really, there's a million reasons why it's an issue for users and staff of the public library to have immediate access to a record of who has borrowed a specific item and when.

and that's not even about keeping the information "privileged" to the library staff, these days they don't even keep a digital record of an item's history of borrowers; once you return a book, there isn't a list of everyone thats ever taken that book out that your name gets added to (though they probably take a tally of how many times it is checked out for circulation statistics).

i think the card system is a remnant of a culture that could only exist in the world before the internet as it exists today, where this identifying kind of information wasn't always readily at your fingertips, even for those at the "information professional" level.

don't get me wrong here, i do understand the nostalgia factor to it as being part of a different time, but i think it's always important to understand why this kind of system has its flaws and has been (at least in north america) taken out of practice

[umjammertammy]

bear in mind that US public libraries spent most of the past twenty years fighting off lawsuits that they were prohibited from disclosing to the public because when 9/11 happened the federal government wanted a list of every person who read certain books and the librarians had a really bad feeling about where that kind of policy would end up going, for some reason.

not keeping the records in the first place is a way for the libraries to protect themselves when they stand up for your privacy.

[hsavinien]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_FBI_has_not_been_here.jpg

This was a thing in multiple libraries. We really want to protect your freedom to access information.

[rosebramblewolf]

they were prohibited from telling us when the fbi had been through to check who was reading what. so they told us when they hadn't been. anyway librarians are heroes for privacy and freedom of information

[arctic-hands]

[Image Description: a paper sign on a bulletin board that says in big letters "The FBI has not been here", then in smaller letters it says "(watch very closely for removal of this sign)" End I.D.]

[backlogbooks]

y’all know all the book banning and conservative backlash against libraries? Well I have a friend whose library is facing a ballot measure that would slash their funding by 50% because of backlash against a pride display in June. This measure was filed at the last minute which has severely impacted the library’s supporters ability to fundraise and organize against the measure in time for the election in November

The good news is Nora Roberts (!!!) made a sizable donation to help the cause, but they still need more support!!

Effort to save Jonesboro library gets big boost from famous author

Bestselling author Nora Roberts has made a $25,000 donation to help fight against an effort to defund the Craighead County/Jonesboro Public

Please donate here if you can! Help save a local library!

Save Our Libraries

(and, hey, as a nice bonus, you can say you and Nora Roberts are fighting for the same cause)

[backlogbooks]

gonna @ a few people because i’m not sure what to tag this so people see/reblog it

@thereadingchallengechallenge @myownlittlebookcorner @readingaway @just0nemorepage @ninja-muse

[thelowlybookworm]

Picture from a few months ago…

[jillothewisp]

no re-reads before nona we ???? like ???¿¿??¿???

[nonasbirthday]

Memes for when you are reading Harrow the Ninth for the first time and have no idea what is going on:

i love being part of a fandom with so many smart people who can predict plot twists and make connections in the text, BUT

i need a little representation for those of us who had a blank screen with a loading bar running in our brains for the entirety of Harrow the Ninth!!!

[image IDs in alt text]

bonus for Nona:

[spectrometrie]

things i made very stoned and don’t remember doing

[shadowpeoplearejerks]

The Great Gatsby

[medievalthymes]

i’ve gotten like 5 different coworkers to sign up for a library card

[medievalthymes]

as soon as i hear someone talking about audiobooks and their prices i IMMEDIATELY go into my rant on how audible is a scam when the library has an extensive collection of audiobooks FOR FREE & the next day they come in telling me they cancelled their subscription and got a library card… doing gods work

[medievalthymes]

destroying bezos one audible subscription cancellation at a time

[parkchanwoohoo]

Guy came up to me and yelled so loudly that it made me jump. All caps isn't enough I need wordart to describe how loud he was. This was not "I can't tell I'm being loud" this was "In another life I was the town crier" loud. Hear ye hear ye loud. He was friendly, but holy crap

[parkchanwoohoo]

[moonlightjumping]

This is your reminder that a lot of public libraries actually have little summer reading programs for kids AND adults!

[knottahooker]

We even have PRIZES for when you finish filling up your sheet with stickers! 

[books]

Support your local library. There may even be a sticker for you at the end 🌟

[lynati]

Nothing stopping you from making a sheet and buying your own stickers, either. If it makes you happy, why not?

[trashmancer]

I’ve always loved retro sci-fi and horror pulp covers and wanted to try my hand at replicating one. So I did a digital painting of The Murderbot Diaries in something like that style. I used a bunch of different pulp covers for reference and inspiration.