Ok, I am about to tell you something very lame, but if I've learned one thing about the intartubes it's that at least eight of you are going to be like, I also do that. And as the saying goes, Lame prefers not to be the only lame in the boat.
Sometimes I like to go to my library's online catalogue and just look at the books I have on hold. A book on hold is PACKED WITH POTENTIAL but devoid of the should-be-reading guilt of a book in hand. Am I wrong in this? And being fairly far down the queue only ups the anticipation.
So on this lazy Sunday when I'm not up to much else worth dithering about, here are the books I have on hold and how far I am down the queue. Some of them are on order, so...*waits literally forever for them to get here*
Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward - 10th of 12 holds.
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace - 1st of 6 holds. I feel like this should be more in demand...
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne Valente - 1st of 4 holds. TENTERHOOKS for this one.
Kate Vaiden by Reynolds Price - on its way to my holdshelf right now! Has anyone heard of this? Besides Kristine, who recommended it to me when I was in a mood to be recommended to?
We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates - 1st of 1 hold. This is an old one but I read the back flap at a friend's cabin and there are FAMILY! SEEEECRETS! I mostly hate JCO but am weirdly willing to keep trying.
The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer - 5th of 32 holds. This makes me feel like I'm winning a race.
Sweet Valley Confidential: Ten Years Later by 'Francine Pascal' - 8th of 23 holds. Also, fuck yes.
The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht - 32nd of 69 holds.
Something Borrowed - Emily Giffin - 9th of 20 holds. Also recommended when I was in the mood for a recommending.
Bossypants by Tina Fey - 74 of 142 holds and ONLY 4 COPIES ON ORDER WHAT ARE YOU UP TO GVPL? Smarten up.
The Last Little Blue Envelope by Maureen Johnson because I lately want to make out with her and have 13 Little Blue Envelopes eyeing me from the shelf already. Oh, and 9th of 12 holds.
Among Others by Jo Walton - 11th of 12 holds. I put this on hold AGES ago, so it feels like I joined a long line, only to have NO ONE fall in behind me.
So! That is my self-indulgent quirk. What's yours? What do you find yourself doing online while simultaneously saying to yourself, This is sort of pathetic? That ended up sounding sort of pr0ny, I don't mean that. Please do not include any pr0n-related activities, I will not be amused by those.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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I look at my holds all the time. I want to see where I am in the queue, and like a watched pot, I never seem to get any closer. But Wow! you have a long wait for Bossypants. I'm 7th in my queue and that seems like forever!
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone. I love looking at my holds list too. I'm glad I share that quirk with someone.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the Sweet Valley Confidential book. I've seen a few reviews of it that imply that it is all kinds of awful, but maybe it's an entertaining awful.
Catherynne Valente's Fairyland is actually available for free as a pdf/doc ... can't remember exactly where, but you'd find it on her website. Unless you want to read it as a paper book!
ReplyDeleteI literally just did this yesterday. The worst part is when you have been number 1 for forever and you know that it has disappeared into the depths of the shelves. Right now I'm number 1 for You Can't Get There from Here: A Year on the Fringes of a Shrinking World by Gayle Forman.
ReplyDeleteI'm also number one for An Exclusive Love by Johanna Adorján (!)
Number 2 for The Diviner's Tale by Bradford Morrow
Number 4 for Please look after mom by Kyong-suk Sin
Number 9 for The Adults by Alison Espach
Number 3, but it's on order for The Watery Part of the World by Michael Parker
But my library doesn't tell me how far ahead in the race I am! I am jealous of the info your library gives you.
BLIMEY you guys have some advanced library-stalking technologies. I can only see very basic information, mostly information that is guaranteed to annoy me, such as the fact that they have a copy in stock - in which case, why can't I have it?
ReplyDeleteThe only problem with reading by lottery - waiting for your number to come in- is that suddenly they will all come in together and since they are popular books, you only get them for 7 day loan, and they are nearly always chunksters and then you vow to stop! ordering books online and read the pile of books in your room.
ReplyDeleteOf course other people do this. I love the online library information. I look everyday.
I love holds, but it seems that i have a problem with ALL my holds SUDDENLY being ready RIGHT NOW. Then I have to read them fastlikelightning when I'd rather savor.
ReplyDeleteOh - read 13 little blue envelopes. LOVED IT. Looking for lib copy or kindle-ing it TODAY!
I do it all the time, too. I just like to see where I am on the list and when the alread-checked out copies are already due back. It's frustrating when I can see that one copy was due back two weeks ago and I've been waiting forever! Return it already, slacker!
ReplyDeleteWow! I was JUST looking at my holds list this morning. I added the first five books of the Scott Pilgrim series to my list this morning.This might sound a little obnoxious but I'm #1 for everything on my holds list:
ReplyDeleteWhen God was a rabbit by Sarah Winman
Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg
Horoscopes for the Dead by Billy Collins
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
If sons, then heirs by Lorene Gray
Most of these I probably won't get my hands on until the end of the month since my library has just bought them.
oh I do love your blog! i want to read YOUR book when it comes out! I look back at my online class descriptions from when I was teaching at university. I have other quirks, but I've already said too much-
ReplyDeleteOf course I do that all the time too! You're lucky. I am currently number 170 out of 227 in line for Bossypants by Tina Fey. What the heck?
ReplyDeleteLike everyone else, I do this too, although I don't get to see how far along I am in the hold queue, just whether or not it's heading to me or not. I always check my library when I see a new book I want to read and I'll put it on hold if it's available, so the site is almost always open ...
ReplyDeleteI also check my holds, although mainly to see if they've come in yet. The waiting is the hardest part, as Tom Petty would say.
ReplyDeleteAs for guilty online activities... sometimes when I'm bored I google Brian Jungen. My summer project is going to be stalk him. Haha, not really. But kinda.
I, uh, I've been going through my to-read list on goodreads and seeing if my new library (I relocated) has a copy and at which branch. So I'm working on making a list in my email draft box with all this information... it... it is kind of terrible, but it also lets me know if I need to slap something up on my wishlist for bookswap or if I should just give up on the book if I was only mildly interested to begin with.
ReplyDeleteNow I have to go check my holds...
ReplyDeleteI love checking my holds list, too.
ReplyDeleteAlso, even weirder, perhaps: Looking at the list of my current checkouts. Somehow it's different seeing them as a list of titles instead of as books scattered throughout my house.
I check my holds all the time, too.
ReplyDeleteI read Kate Vaiden when it first came out. That was myu intro to Reynolds Price. I liked his first novel, A Long and Happy Life better. Also his memoir.
ReplyDeleteI check my library hold list all the time. My library gives us the option to have "inactive" holds so those I don't follow quite as obsessively as my "active" holds. But I do watch them all and move them from inactive to active as I get closer to winning the race.
ReplyDeleteMy current active holds:
Doc by Mary Doria Russell (on order)
The false princess by Eilis O'Neal (on order)
Howard's End is on the landing: a year of reading from home (8 of 8)
The Wilder life : my adventures in the lost world of Little house on the prairie (10 of 18)
Ooh, I'm reading The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland right now! Only on page 5, but it's good :-)
ReplyDeleteUmmm...I'm addicted to putting books on hold at the library. And then I have a bunch come in at once and can't read all of them. But that doesn't seem to stop me from doing it all over again ;)
ReplyDeleteHeads You Lose is fantabulous. I'm going to have a giveaway for my copy soon. Maybe you will win it before your hold copy comes through. And I'll be curious what you think of the Mulvaneys. I was a bit hmmmm about it. And I'm salivating at the chance to read Bossypants but then thought it might be better on audio.
ReplyDeleteAlso, "fuck yes"...you crack me up Raych.
ReplyDeleteSmooch.
September
I too am a compulsive holds-checker. I tend to check at least twice a day when I'm impatiently waiting for something special (once when the library opens, and once when it closes). Because of my compulsive checking, I now know exactly when the requested books arrive at my local library branch (down to the hour), and sometimes when I'm expecting something, I just go to the library and sit there, surreptitiously watching the staff organize the requested shelves.
ReplyDeleteI also recently had an experience where I was inadvertently bumped down the hold list. I had checked my status as usual that morning, and I was first in line (after months of waiting), and two hours later, I was down to #3. I called the library up and told them. They put me back at #1.
I'm so glad other people do this. I too thought I was the only one.
Checking my holds now. I currently have 18 requests. The least promising are 'Townie' which is 89 out of 125, 'Swim Back to Me' which is 76 out of 122, and 'The Year We Left Home which is 15 out of 314. Some times if there are too many holds on an item I go for the audiobook version. That's what I did with Bossypants which I finished listening to about two weeks ago.
ReplyDelete