Collection Development for My Random Life.

The mysterious life of Ben Kennedy | Indy Blog | Missoula Independent.

The above post (and related article linked within it)  moved me a bit and is a good inspiration of sorts for 2010. I truly wonder how much bigger a difference Ben Kennedy would have made if he had received his teaching credential instead of being discriminated against for his sexual preference. Makes you wonder about how you see the world and the beauty you hardly glimpse because of deceiving appearances.

by: www.l1brar1an.com

Essay – Steal These Books – NYTimes.com.

Nice essay in the most recent NY TIME Sunday Book Review (click above link) concerning the hows, whos, and whys of books being stolen from bookstores. Monetary profit doesn’t seem to be the cause. Perhaps it is a literary hunger? I know from experience stolen bread/cake does taste better. Does a stolen book provide a better read or just a story you can tell someone about stealing a book? Perhaps  either way it promulgates it own weird sense of literature interaction.

I don’t think I would steal a book though I must  admit I have never tried. I like books. I like buying books. I liked used books. I like borrowing books from the library. Though, new bookstores sometimes give me anxiety attacks.

Books go missing in libraries all the time too. I remember checking a book out from the Wichita Public Library that someone had razor-ed out some of the images. I was really taken aback. Why deface a book? Why not just keep the whole darn book and be done with it? In some respects, I would rather people steal books, even library books, instead of destroying them, but only on the condition that they are read.

I have heard about the big box stores throwing away books and <gasp> that happens in libraries too. I know some people dumpster-dive for these wayward items. Maybe there should be a “book pantry” for unwanted books in every community to fill this need to dispose of potentially good reading. I guess libraries aren’t filling this niche because they are more concerned with mundane things like shelving space and circulation statistics. I wonder does a book you own “read better” than a book borrowed from a library?

How much agency for your self-education does stealing a book give you?