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Is that the Library Speaking?
Anecdotes from one man's brief career in the library service.
- GenresNonfiction
172 pages
First published January 1, 1978
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 11, 2021
From the binge bag program at our local library during pandemic. I asked for "Librarians Choose" option and this was one of the books.
Quite funny and still truthful from what I've observed as a library patron.
Good to know what you love to do - and what you don't.
Loved the escaped hamster that destroyed the model of the Flying Scotsman, the Grape-Nuts Man and trying out new "technology" for signing out materials. Also the wide cast of wonderful and politely nefarious characters that Hornsby brings to light.
A light read, but a truthful one!
Quite funny and still truthful from what I've observed as a library patron.
Good to know what you love to do - and what you don't.
Loved the escaped hamster that destroyed the model of the Flying Scotsman, the Grape-Nuts Man and trying out new "technology" for signing out materials. Also the wide cast of wonderful and politely nefarious characters that Hornsby brings to light.
A light read, but a truthful one!
January 15, 2022
Ever wondered what it's like to work in a Library in London in the 1970s? This book answers that question.
October 17, 2012
I have worked in public libraries for almost 5 years both in England and Canada and can truly say that libraries and their customers are no different on either continent. Hornsby manages to convey the peculiar world of the library and to also show that the popular view of a career in libraries is quite different to the quiet, calm and easy job so many people believe it to be. From urinating drunk polish men, dotty leg chasing ex catholic teachers, being shot at with an air rifle through a window to the drunk and high guy with a false leg who fell down the exit steps leaving his leg behind. I too have seen a great deal of the weird and wacky but the casual racism as well as his obvious feeling of superiority to those of the working class made the book distasteful and showed the worst of the library. The book does have its funny moments but can be read as a window into the past of the libraries and to hopefully show how far we've come.
October 29, 2012
I read this book in the 1970s and like it so much that I just had to invest in my own copy. Unfortunately the book is now fairly dated but it is still good for a bit of a laugh. I now work in a public library, even over the years the customers do not change. Ken Hornsby describes library life very much as it is.
March 1, 2015
Some funny snippets here and there but rather dated and, as Hornsby himself states, working at a library wasn't the job for him. The image of him racing after a patron who filched the day's newest newspapers is wonderful though.
April 28, 2016
The adventures of an English librarian. Humorous.
April 11, 2008
A fun quick read - libraries and their patrons are the same the world over!
October 29, 2009
What a stupid book. Unusually bad used book sale find. At least it was a quick read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews