Thursday, June 13, 2013

On Hold

I sometimes wonder how I fed my reading habit all those years before the Harris County Library System allowed holds (book requests) to be placed online.  One thing for sure: it was a whole lot harder to get the books I wanted back then and I ended up missing out on most of them.

Nowadays, though, I work the system like a champ, seldom missing the books I want to read.  There are so many on my wish list that I can't possibly afford them or find the space to store them, so my public library system is a real gift, one I appreciate more than ever.

For instance, these are some the books I have on hold right now.  It is likely that one or more of them will end up in my permanent collection at some point anyway.  For instance, I just removed James Lee Burke's next Dave Robicheaux book from my hold list because I was lucky enough to receive an electronic ARC from the publisher.  I'm 400 pages into the 500+ page book already, and I am eagerly waiting to add it to my complete first edition run of the Robicheaux novels when it is published in mid-July.  

These are some of my current holds (hopefully, they won't all arrive in the same week):

A biography of Robert Ripley (Of Believe It Or Not fame)

Hosseini has become one of my "go-to" authors.

A novel about a woman whose brother shows up at her house with a huge weight problem

I love mysteries based on classic books, authors, and book collectors.
Memoir: After her mother dies, a young British Woman goes to South Africa to learn the rest of her family history.
The author...the cover...set in a carnival?  How can I resist this one?
I will warn you that, if your system is like mine, you will not be able to renew the books because lots of people will be stacked up behind you waiting for their own turns.  And, they do sometimes arrive in bunches, forcing hard choices on you.  But, even so, if you're not taking advantage of the service, you are doing things the hard way.

12 comments:

  1. Yes, I do this, too. And Harris County's library system is so big and diverse that it's fairly easy to get almost any book you want. However, I end up with too many books in my book basket, and I can't get around to reading them all. So I have to return some unread---and then reserve them again.

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  2. I love the hold system through my library, too. But some of them always seem to come at the worst times! I just got notification that Rutherford's Paris is ready for me, but there's no way I'll be able to squeeze that chunkster in right now!

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  3. I have She Left Me the Gun and the new Hosseini book on my wish lists, too. I love, love knowing good reading is in my future. And I can never say for sure which will be the next title, because it may change according to whim. A nice shelf of TBR books is essential for me.

    I'm pretty patient waiting for a newer release (although I am feeling not so patient about the newest Elizabeth George), because I always have plenty of books to read I am excited about.

    I have found that I am much more discriminating as I grow (ahem) older. There is just a sense that I will not have time to read all I wish to, so If I start a book and feel it is not well written or in other ways is s disappointment, I just stop and move on. I never did that 20 years ago.

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  4. I feel so. much. LOVE. for that Robert Ripley bio, just from seeing the cover. I'm also looking forward to reading Big Brother.

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  5. I love my library Sam. Wish it was closer, but at least I have it. I love using it to my advantage tho. My hold list never seems to go down. I add just as many as come in. Thank goodness for the library!

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  6. Sherry, that's exactly the problem I have with library books. I'm like a kid in a candy store who doesn't know when to quit eating...

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  7. Shannon, I hate when that happens. I'm sitting on a long Civil War novel right now that needs to be read in just a week or it has to go back to the library for one of the 18 people who have it on hold behind me.

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  8. Susan, I find that to be true for me also. Putting multiple books on library hold is kind of like spinning the wheel or reaching into a box for one of a dozen grab bags. You never know which one will come up first and that's part of the fun. (Oh, and yes, I give up on more books...much quicker, too...than I did when I was younger and thought I still had all the reading time in the world.

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  9. Let me know, Susan, what you think of the Ripley bio and that Big Brother novel. I hope to receive one or both of them within the next three or four weeks...looking forward to both.

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  10. Kayo, keep milking the system and you will never find yourself without something to read. That's the beauty of the whole thing. I sometimes wonder at the days, long ago, when I suddenly realized I had nothing new in the house to read. Seems impossible now.

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  11. Sometimes, you just have to pay the 20 cents a day fine and keep the book late.

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  12. It's still only a dime-a-day in the county, Factotum, but I just hate to make others wait me when it's my fault for overreaching. But I admit that I'm tempted sometimes. If it's a matter of a couple of days, I'll do it, but if I'm a week or two behind, I go ahead and bite the bullet.

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