I was efficiently making the rounds at my neighborhood public library—off-duty, incognito and librarian glasses long gone (lost, sadly)—when a total stranger asked me for a book recommendation.
I must have looked like I knew what I was doing, a pile of books under one arm and inspecting the “new books” section with the other, because a woman walked up to me and said, “I’m trying to get back into reading. Do you have any recommendations? Nothing too heavy.”
Always smooth under pressure (ha!), I immediately drew a blank. All I could think of were the depressing historical fiction books I read where the main character dies at the end (which is all I ever read, according to Matt), or books about the paranormal. And I was not about to recommend some cheesy vampire book to this lady.
The blank mind became stress, and I think my face turned red. The future of this woman’s reading depended on me! If I failed, she would never return to the public library!
I stumbled though a few authors before landing on Jennifer Cruise. She’s safe, not too fluffy chick lit with engaging dialog and unusual characters. Good for someone who isn’t in the swing of things. I spelled out Crusie’s name, then rushed to check out my pile of books and pay my massive fine.
I have since reviewed my LibraryThing catalog, and feel a little better about drawing a blank. I have not read anything “light” in the last year; even the Young Adult and brain-candy books did not have cheerful plot lines. (Aside from Trixie Belden, which I didn’t finish because the perkiness was too much to bear, but I like having her on my bookshelf.)
I think I should start using the tag “sad ending” and see what kind of statistics I come up with. And, when I see that what I read is 95% depressing, I’ll shoot for some cheerful books so I can hold conversations with normal people.
[...] A librarian walks into a library… [...]