Thursday, December 06, 2007

As long as it's on sale

Great for Ramadan, too! (Photo from Seth's Blog.)

In fact, there's only one black family in America.

How do you outrage library patrons? Well, you let them find King & King on your shelves, in which a lonely Prince finds and, ultimately, marries his Prince Charming. Because, of course, parents will just scoop up any old thing and start reading to their kids (well, at least they're reading to their kids) without checking it themselves first.

Or Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides and Beach Music. Because high school students shouldn't be exposed to books that feature violence, suicide and sex. (Parents, do you never check the reading lists your kids bring home? It's a wonder the teen suicide rate isn't double what it is, after they've read On the Beach and 1984. It's a rare assigned book that the protagonist actually lives through.)

And if it's not the books causing trouble, it's the computers, those vile silicon temptresses.

As long as we're in the library, we could check @ the Library, Librarian.net, Librarian Avengers, and The Society for Librarians Who Say Mo--... well, if language is an issue for you, you might think twice about that one.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

'It's a wonder the teen suicide rate isn't double what it is, after they've read 'On the Beach' and '1984.' It's a rare assigned book that the protagonist actually _lives through_.'

My guys did 'Alas, Babylon.' (Protagonist makes it through. Most of the rest of North American doesn't.) :)

RNB

Anonymous said...

'Most of the rest of North AMERICA doesn't.'

(Sorry to shout. PIMF.)

RNB

Anonymous said...

Catcher in the Rye is still one of my all-time favorites.

Anonymous said...

I think the main cause of teen suicide is idiot oldsters saying "These are the best years of your life!" to teens. This is the first sign of incurable senility.

Is there anyone whose life didn't get better the second the ink dried on his high school diploma?

CK

(RNB: I read "Exodus" and "QBVII" for extra credit when I was a senior. I don't know why it's still possible to shock me any more.)