these prayers are the constant road across the wilderness

Today was a good day, until I came home.

Walking home, I found a dead cat.

Not long dead, coat still clean and soft, whatever injuries had led him or her to die alone under a bush at the edge of the road hidden under its body. It was clearly well loved and cared for: I found a red collar around its neck, with the address and phone number of its owner written on it.

Taking the collar off the cat to read the phone number was kind of horrible. All that soft fur, someone's loved pet, and no warmth or breath left. I've been around dead animals before, but never a cat, and never one that someone was going to miss.

So I called the owner. Sorry, I said. Your cat appears to be dead. Sorry it's dead. Sorry I'm not going to stick around with the body to make sure you find it. Sorry.

If I was a better person, I would have stayed with the body, or delivered it home. But I'm not. I wanted to get home and make sure my cat was okay.

Poor cat. Poor owner.

these prayers are the constant road across the wilderness

Today was a good day, until I came home.

Walking home, I found a dead cat.

Not long dead, coat still clean and soft, whatever injuries had led him or her to die alone under a bush at the edge of the road hidden under its body. It was clearly well loved and cared for: I found a red collar around its neck, with the address and phone number of its owner written on it.

Taking the collar off the cat to read the phone number was kind of horrible. All that soft fur, someone's loved pet, and no warmth or breath left. I've been around dead animals before, but never a cat, and never one that someone was going to miss.

So I called the owner. Sorry, I said. Your cat appears to be dead. Sorry it's dead. Sorry I'm not going to stick around with the body to make sure you find it. Sorry.

If I was a better person, I would have stayed with the body, or delivered it home. But I'm not. I wanted to get home and make sure my cat was okay.

Poor cat. Poor owner.

Performing triage

Performing triage on my bookshelves. Out go thrillers I will never (ever) read again; in goes room for the college book collection that is expanding more rapidly than I ever could have imagined.

I'm donating all the Never Agains to my old secondary school. But I'm beginning to feel a bit dubious. Should I really send them some Karin Slaughter and Janet Evanovich (don't ask)? What about Jeanne C. Stein's The Becoming? Does a Catholic girls' school library and vampire!sex really mix?

Reading broadens the mind. Much like travel, but less expensive. So on the whole I incline to yes. My only regret is that the only YAs I still own are immensely re-readable, so I won't be parting with any actually 'age-appropriate' reading.

(You know how appallingly under-stocked that library was when I was there? The encyclopedias were many decades old, I don't remember ever seeing any non-fic younger than twenty years old, and the fiction was... Well. Limited is the word that comes to mind. And it only opened every other lunchtime. These things combined to make it of excessively limited utility. I feel goddamn obligated to attempt to rectify that, to the utmost of my limited power.)

So. Here's a question. (Answers solicited.) Or even a meme, if you like.

1. What one [1] novel do you think ought to be part of every school library (ages 12-18)? Pick three, if you can't narrow it down any farther.

2. What one [1] novel were you most startled to find in your school library?

3. What one [1] novel (if any) do you think should never form part of a curriculum/school library?

( Read more... )

Performing triage

Performing triage on my bookshelves. Out go thrillers I will never (ever) read again; in goes room for the college book collection that is expanding more rapidly than I ever could have imagined.

I'm donating all the Never Agains to my old secondary school. But I'm beginning to feel a bit dubious. Should I really send them some Karin Slaughter and Janet Evanovich (don't ask)? What about Jeanne C. Stein's The Becoming? Does a Catholic girls' school library and vampire!sex really mix?

Reading broadens the mind. Much like travel, but less expensive. So on the whole I incline to yes. My only regret is that the only YAs I still own are immensely re-readable, so I won't be parting with any actually 'age-appropriate' reading.

(You know how appallingly under-stocked that library was when I was there? The encyclopedias were many decades old, I don't remember ever seeing any non-fic younger than twenty years old, and the fiction was... Well. Limited is the word that comes to mind. And it only opened every other lunchtime. These things combined to make it of excessively limited utility. I feel goddamn obligated to attempt to rectify that, to the utmost of my limited power.)

So. Here's a question. (Answers solicited.) Or even a meme, if you like.

1. What one [1] novel do you think ought to be part of every school library (ages 12-18)? Pick three, if you can't narrow it down any farther.

2. What one [1] novel were you most startled to find in your school library?

3. What one [1] novel (if any) do you think should never form part of a curriculum/school library?

( Read more... )