Holiday Weekend Library Run

I finished reading the first book of Brandon Mull's Beyonders series in the wee hours of this morning. I decided I didn't want to read any of the other books I have checked out of various libraries until after I had read the remaining books in this trilogy. I also decided that I would return A World Without Heroes to the Maplewood Library, along with another book I had decided not to read. I was optimistic that I would find the second book of the trilogy there. It would also be a convenient stop en route to Wal-Mart, where a few necessary purchases had occurred to me. So, off to Maplewood I went.

Well, I found a couple of books I wanted to check out, and I browsed a book sale (but didn't end up buying anything), but Mull's Seeds of Rebellion wasn't there. The library's copy had been checked out. So I drove to the next town over and looked at the Richmond Heights library, where I did buy two books at their book sale, and checked out several more. But though both Maplewood and and Richmond Heights had copies of the third book in the Beyonders trilogy, neither had Book 2.

After a brief stop at Wal-Mart, where I ended up not making any purchases, I decided to stop at the Machacek Branch of the City Library on my way home. This is that gloomy little subterranean branch that looks like a concrete bomb shelter. I couldn't find Seeds of Rebellion there either, so I asked at the desk whether any copies could be found at another branch. They directed me to the Kingshighway Branch, which I had never visited before, and phoned ahead to have the book held for me. I managed not to buy or borrow anything at Machacek.

A few minutes later I found myself at the Kingshighway Branch of the City Library. It turns out to be a surprisingly attractive and interesting structure, with opening lines of favorite books painted on the walls below a recessed ceiling in the central reading area. Before picking up the copy of Seeds of Rebellion they were holding for me at the front desk, I browsed the stacks and found a few more books to borrow. I also noticed Books 2 and 3 of a trilogy that looked interesting, and asked whether they had Book 1. This book, naturally, had been checked out; but their online catalog said it was available at the Buder Branch, which is about as far south of my home as Machacek is to the west.

In fact, Buder is the first library I had thought of visiting today in my search for the Brandon Mull book, only my plans to drop off two books in Maplewood had diverted me elsewhere. It's the library I am most likely to visit on foot, and indeed I did so only a few days ago. I might have saved myself a lot of trouble had I stopped there first. But then, would I have found all the treasures that presented themselves to me along the way?

So, I had the staff at the Kingshighway branch request by phone that the book be held at the front desk of the Buder branch. Looking back over my morning's work as I approached Buder, I realized that it was the fifth library I had visited today. Just to cap off my roundabout route to borrowing one book, and coming home with two armloads full of books, I had a little trouble getting hold of this last book. First the front desk sent me up to the third floor, where that particular book is held, since they didn't see any evidence that it had been dropped of from upstairs. Then the staff on the third floor sent me back down to where the book had indeed been delivered, and even phoned the first floor to verify that it was there. Then the staff on the first floor told me they didn't have it, and I was about to start looking for hidden cameras and a team of giggling pranksters when one of the other ground-floor staffers handed the book down the desk. Evidently it was a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, library style.

So, all's well that ends well. Here is my library haul for the weekend.

RETURNED to the Maplewood Library:
A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull (which I finished reading at 1:15 a.m.)
Overbite by Meg Cabot (which I decided I wouldn't read for the time being)

TEMPTED TO BUY at the Maplewood Library's book sale:
The Yellow Room Conspiracy by Peter Dickinson (I'm just not craving mystery novels much these days)

BORROWED at Maplewood:
13 Secrets by Michelle Harrison
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan

BOUGHT at the Richmond Heights Library's book sale:
Squashed by Joan Bauer
What's So Funny? by Donald E. Westlake

BORROWED at Richmond heights:
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce
In a Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz
Found by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Dormia by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski
The Shadow of Malabron by Thomas Wharton

BORROWED at the Kingshighway Branch of the city library:
Scumble by Ingrid Law
Seeds of Rebellion and Chasing the Prophecy by Brandon Mull (Books 2 and 3 of the Beyonders)

BORROWED at the Buder Branch:
Wildwood by Colin Meloy

Besides these, I currently have several books out, in hard copy and audiobook format, from Buder, Maplewood, and the County Library. So, I had better not waste any more of this weekend's precious reading time gabbing about them. I've got to get reading!