Thursday 9 April 2009

Paddington Bear disappeared

off my shelves yesterday. The 8yr old decided he could now read these by himself and wanted to know why I did not have 'all' of them. I am not sure how many there are but I know there are far more than I own.
The shelves have gaps in places. Trying to provide a library service of out-of-print books to voracious readers is growing increasingly difficult. They want 'good' books. According to them I have 'good' books and it is 'better than the library'. That is nice to know but it also worries me.
Vanessa at Fidra Books is producing the sort of thing they want to read but not many others are. The local library shelves are in Meyer mode at the moment. The Meyer books do not flow. The characterisation is flat. The story lines are weak. All of that pales into insignificance when the subject matter is considered....vampires and vulnerable, socially isolated teenagers are not healthy. Perhaps that is why they are so popular?

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