Just take the book, kid.

Generally, I don't like to discuss patrons on this blog, but recently I was just pushed over the edge. The two patrons that I helped were not rude or inappropriate and they didn't make me upset, but the experience was a rather sad one. Allow me to tell you the story.

A woman and her teenage son approached the desk. The boy said, "Yeah, I need 'Cat's Cradle.'" I nodded approvingly and just before I turned to grab a copy for him, he added, "I need the audio book." Oh. Okay. I checked the catalog to see if we had an audio copy of Cat's Cradle. We didn't. In fact, there's no CD audio book in the cooperative where we could order it from, only tapes. The boy was determined not to read and said, "Cassettes are fine." I said okay. As I entered the mother's information to order the material from who-knows-where, they asked how long it would take. I said it's generally a week, give or take few days. The boy quietly mumbled to his mom that it wasn't worth it, because he needed it by the end of the week.

I said, "You know, we have a lot of copies of the book." He scoffed at the idea. His mother looked at her little baby with pity. "Do you want the book?" she asked carefully. "Yeah, I guess," he pouted. I walked over to the shelf, got a copy of Cat's Cradle and handed it to the disgruntled young man. I watched him tell his sad tale to his friend later. You would've thought I just kicked his dog or something. He was really bummed because he might actually have to read a book. As a librarian, it really made me sad.

Hopefully he reads it. Kurt Vonnegut is awesome.