or, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Fear and Loathing at a Public Library Reference Desk



Hidden Pleasures

   January 15th, 2009

food porn books in a corner of the librarySo one morning this week, before we opened to patrons, I was walking around the floor tidying up.

In the furthest back corner of the stacks, the one that is most secluded and is the only place in the library we find condoms et. al., I came upon the scene pictured here.

I'm used to this corner being the place where kids go to hide, so I kind of laughed when I came across this stack of dessert books. Not the reside of illicit sex, or Playboys, or drugs, or a pile of barcodes removed from books and DVDs. I could just visualize someone tucked away, hiding their guiltiest pleasure from the world: graphic books featuring cakes, pies, ice cream and cookies.

But it makes me sad they couldn't bring themselves to check them out. Maybe the temptation to prepare these recipes would be just too much if they took these books home. Good thing the library will always be around when this patron needs another fix.




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2 Responses to “Hidden Pleasures”

  1. Sara Says:

    So you linked to a picture “we find condoms” which forces me to login to my yahoo account then tells me its private and I don’t have permission to view it. I don’t really need to see the photo, I just thought I’d let you know what happens when you click on it.
    Thanks, Sara

  2. Brian Herzog Says:

    @Sara: I’m sorry about that – that’s what I get for being my own editor. All the links (turns out there was more than one problem) have been corrected. Thanks for letting me know.