What price hike?

I have a reputation for not watching anything, ever.  I hate going to the movie theater.   I’ve never had a Netflix subscription.  And I was one of the first people I know to cancel my cable TV.

But I have a secret: I watch stuff from the library all the time.

Right now I’m in the middle of a Terminator marathon.  I’d already seen The Terminator and Terminator 2, but last night I watched Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines for the first time.  I’m going to stick it out and watch Terminator: Salvation, for completeness’ sake.  After that my queue includes refreshing my memory of Ghostbusters, catching up on the Harry Potter movies, and revisiting the current Batman arc before the next one debuts.

I also feel like I watch a lot of TV, even without cable.  Slowly but surely, I’ve been working my way through Mad Men.  But now I’m waiting for the most current season, so I have to decide what to order next.  Before Mad Men I was on a Big Love kick, but I ran out.  There’s finally a new season, so I might go back to it.  And before Big Love, I was about halfway through The Sopranos, but I lost interest.  I had just watched The Wire, which was a tough act to follow… and okay, perhaps I was getting a little violence fatigued.

And here’s my biggest confession – I’ve even been to the theater recently, to see X-Men: First Class (which isn’t available from the library yet, but you can read the comics while you wait).  But it was only for the air conditioning, I swear!

-Denise

Fictional Reference Books for Most Library Collections

Ever wish you could add fictional reference books to your library’s reference collection? If I could, this is what I would add:

The Encyclopedia Galactica — What self-respecting librarian wouldn’t want access to Isaac Asimov’s immense encyclopedia containing all the knowledge of futuristic civilizations?

Handbook for the Recently Deceased — Libraries shouldn’t discriminate against the deceased, so every reference collection should carry a copy of this guide from Beetlejuice.

The Book of the Brothers — In George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series, this massive tome collects the history of every knight who’s ever served in the much vaunted Kingsguard, the bodyguards of the king of Westeros. This one comes complete with a bleached white leather cover and gold hinges — think your library’s budget could handle it?

Tobin’s Spirit Guide — A ghost identification tool used by the Ghostbusters that could be useful to local ghosthunting organizations.

The Slayer’s Handbook — This is the guide to vampire slaying in one of the finest television shows ever produced, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Maybe it would come with a complimentary subscription to Demons, Demons, Demons, a database featured in Buffy’s spinoff show, Angel.

What fictional reference books would you add to a library collection?

–Wes