#2 Part Deux: South Hill Branch - I Really Did Go Visit It, Right???

Being a very, very good librarian in training, I spent my birthday this year visiting not one, but two different libraries. The first was the South Hill Branch at Frasier and 45^th-ish. This branch has some quite colourful designs painted outside, but trying to grab a snapshot of them from the sidewalk was rather challenging. I simply could not seem to catch a moment when nobody was walking by, and I didn't want to catch someone in the picture without their permission to post it here. Finally a got a shot and only later noticed that the window reflection makes it look like a car advertisement.

This was a surprisingly busy branch in the middle of the day on Wednesday but seating was rather scarce. Every public computer was full and at least three inquiries about getting on computers were made while I was within earshot of the reference desk librarian. When I wandered over to the Young Adult section I disturbed three patrons seated on the floor sorting through several piles of books. There was a neon green bean bag chair in the corner there, but as it was occupied, no picture was taken. I finally managed to snag a wooden chair up against the front window for a bit, which gave me the chance to sort through my haul, since, as usual, I left with far more than I had intended to get. One item, Gil Jordan, Private Detective: Murder by High Tide, I got simply because of the design inside the cover – or more particularly because of the detail in the lower right corner of the inner cover.

Actually to be honest, I also chose it because I realized it was Franco-Belgian comic in, as I was to later learn, the ligne claire style. If you do not know what that means, think The Adventures of Tintin comics. I vaguely remembered a friend telling me once about a comic’s publisher that periodically reprints, in nice quality editions, translations of European comics otherwise impossible to find in English. I’m not certain if this is what my friend was talking about, but it certainly was a beautifully executed book - excepting that they "Americanized" the name from Gil Jourdan to Gil Jordan. Other than that, my only beef with the book was that it got caught in my book bag when trying to pull it out later and my yanking on it resulted in it flying upward and bashing me in the eyebrow.

The selection at South Hill Branch was not large. I noticed that, compared to Collingwood, it had a much smaller and less colourful children’s area though still quite a selection of children’s materials. What it had instead was a notable Tagalog collection. As it happened, I accidentally sent another hold to this branch a few days later and had to return to pick it up. It wasn't until then that I realized their holds area was smaller than at most any other branch I've visited, though the little corner was crammed full of items. Overall, though, I found this branch oddly unmemorable. It took me forever to write this post, because I simply had hardly any thought or memory of being at this branch compared to all the other ones that I have visited now.

I had made certain ahead of time that this branch had another adaptation of Jane Eyre on the shelves as a reason to visit it initially. It was the 1973 mini-series with Sorcha Cusack as Jane Eyre and Michael Jayston as Mr. Rochester. Sadly I personally found Cusack to be blank and boring as Jane Eyre and the mini-series adds an unfortunate voice over that often tells you quite exactly what is already occurring on screen or adds some odd comment on the moment that you really, really wish they would have endeavored to SHOW you (this being a visual medium and all) rather than pedantically telling you. The viewing experience for this mini-series was quite painful and to be honest, largely punctuated by me reading homework or wandering off to the kitchen mid “dramatic” scene to go find something to nibble on. Unless you are like me and have set yourself some inexplicable goal to watch every adaptation of Jane Eyre available via your local library system, I do not recommend wasting valuable life on this version.

--Anna

#1 Part Deux: Collingwood Branch, and I Make Everything About Ice Cream

The first VPL branch I visited for the purposes of this blog was Collingwood Branch at Kingsway & Rupert. Having a reason to travel to the far reaches of Vancouver to visit these library branches is a bit of a trick, but in this case I had offered to do a favor for a friend that required me to be only a few blocks from this library. Unlike some of the other VPL branches, this building stands out. Trust me if you ever decide to visit, you won’t miss it.

The stars in the window are part of the Summer Reading Club which has the theme this year of Up, Up and Away. Each star had the name of a child who had joined the Summer Reading Club on it. This celebration of the program seems to be unique to this library. I have noticed information on the program at other VPL branches now, but nothing like the stars in the window. In fact as I was there, I listened to a librarian set up a child with his first library card and help him join the Summer Reading Club program. On a side note, I saw three different staff members in action and interacted with two of them myself while I was there and all of them were extremely nice and helpful, which is not always the case.

I ended up with quite a haul from this library and can see that is going to be an ongoing issue in engaging in this project. I am quickly accumulating more books and dvds than I can possibly get through in any reasonable amount of time. I did find the 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre, and as I had recently borrowed but not yet watched the 1973 adaptation, I decided to go on a Jane Eyre spree. The whole story is rather creepy (coming from the Gothic literary tradition and all, that’s not exactly a groundbreaking statement), but many people prefer their Jane Eyre adaptations to smooth over as much of the creepiness and problematic nature of the story as possible or at least to romanticize it as much as possible. Me, I actually prefer versions that bring out all the weirdness and nastiness and general Gothic craziness of the story. I don’t particularly want to like or enjoy the romance of the main characters. That said …

The 2011 adaptation of Jane Eyre is a movie of two hours and thus ends up necessarily paring down the story to its bare bones. It does some interesting things with the timeline which I think mostly works quite well and probably is a great idea for how to arrange and manage the lengthy story in that kind of shortened time frame. The tone and lighting of the movie are well done, enhancing the dark drama of the story, and overall it is beautifully shot. However, while I do not want to be in any way swept off my feet by the romance, I at least want to believe that these two characters feel themselves to be in love and for some kind of believable reason or through some kind of clear set of actions and interactions. I’m afraid I did not feel it at all - which kind of makes the overall movie fall flat for me.

But back at the library branch … the funniest thing I saw there was six copies of Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac scattered about in the adult paperback collection, though only five are in the picture because I found the sixth one later. I did artificially collect them altogether in one place - and I left them that way too so maybe a staff member will notice. (And to me as a funny thing this even beat out my discovery of the book “A Shore Thing“ by Nicole “Snookie” Polizzi. Is there really an audience for that thing? I mean are people who watch Jersey Shore also generally novel readers? I’m sure some of the audience is, but I doubt those that are would also be inclined to mix together their two disparate levels of cultural consumption).

 These adult paperback collections are not given titles in the cataloguing system, and I would not be the least bit surprised if they were in no way tied to any particular branch but simply kept at whatever branch they were returned to (I think I’d better ask this question at a future branch and report back to you). They are a browsing collection designed for quickly finding a copy of any old commonly read/popular title and in the less sturdy but more comfortable for recreational reading paperback format as opposed to the traditional library hardback. But how one branch ends up with six copies of Cousin Bette of all things, I have no idea. Of course this necessitated that I check out a copy and read it. I naturally chose the one incorrectly labeled with “D” on the spine instead of “B.” I have not read it yet, but will report back to you once I do.

Finally, I rounded this adventure out with a stop on the way home to purchase one of the most important and vital inventions of the modern world:

You may find that, where Matthew made everything about comics, I make everything about ice cream. Even libraries.

--Anna