Interrupting my Reading with More Reading

I have interrupted my stack of reading material.  This pile of books that I intend to read never gets any smaller; for every book I finish reading two more take its place.  But I’ve interrupted the order.  You see, a book I asked the librarians at my local public library to track down for me has finally come in.

I wanted some non-fiction material on Transgender issues – it’s a topic that has come up in my work as a pastor more than once in the past several months, and I wanted to educate myself some.  So I went to my favorite place – the library.  Unfortunately, the local library was rather unhelpful.  The total extent of material in this area of study was one self help book aimed at teens and young adults, So You Think You Might Be Gay.  Not exactly what I was looking for.

So I checked the catalogue on the computer.  (Have I mentioned that I am occasionally nostalgic for the card catalogue?  I’m a sad little man…) But again, no real luck.

When I asked the librarian at the help desk, she looked at me for several seconds and then said, a little breathlessly, “We don’t get much call for that kind of material.”  I took the opportunity to help her understand what I was looking for and, through the interlibrary loan system, found a couple of titles I thought might be helpful.  And, I think I may have even convinced her to purchase a few of the titles to include in our local library’s collection. 

So now I have The Transgender Studies Reader edited by Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle to read –Things Hidden since the Foundation of the World by René Girard, and Kant and the Platypus by Umberto Eco will have to wait a couple more days.