Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian

Scott Douglas is a librarian, a writer, and a member of my generation. Out of jealousy, I figured I'd be overly critical of this book from the start. I did enjoy it, though, especially the use of footnotes throughout, and I loved the acknowledgments page. Douglas has an easy-to-read voice and did some interesting, humorous things with his memoir. I enjoyed the Dewey numbers marking each chapter (and thought it was ironic that the number assigned to the book on the cover was different than the one our cataloger assigned to it). Although I felt Douglas was a little negative about the profession sometimes, he was realistic, which is good. I also think, after reading both this and another memoir by Don Borchert, that libraries in California are very different from libraries in Ohio, at least the ones I have worked in. I'm lucky we have the funding and resources we do here in this state. Maybe I'll be a copycat and write a librarian memoir next.