Unlike my cohorts in the prisons, the customers I serve in the large psychiatric hospital of Western State Hospital are not passionate bibliophiles. Mind you, they love movies, magazines and music. Those fly back and forth on the library shelves. But a book-lover? This, alas, is somewhat rare.

And so, when I am contacted by a true aficianado of the written word, they instantly become a beloved patron. I have two such patrons now. She is a fan of the memoir, he of the 1970s vintage novels. Never have I been so glad I’m a baby boomer. That was the era I got my first job in a library. My task was to shelve books all day. I came to recognize the popular ones very quickly–as they were the authors I shelved again and again.

And there’s another reason to celebrate my “boomeresque.” I have developed encyclopedic knowledge that comes only from years of practice in those library stacks. Ye olde card catalog is an imperfect creation. One must know the idiosyncracies of the dewey decimal system. Happy is he or she who enjoys several “a ha!” moments in the pursuit of read-alikes and genre classics.

Gosh, I sure hope my favorite patrons contact me today. Have I found some new reads for them!

Tags: patrons

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