Ooh! You should visit my website! www.thelesbrarian.com
I'm not actually a lesbian, but "lesbrarian" was too cool to pass up. I'm more of a bisexual, though I'm not comfortable with that term. But enough about orientation. There's more on the topic in my blog, if you're dying to know.
I'm a public librarian. It is the second-coolest job in the whole world. (The coolest job in the whole world is writing critically-acclaimed bestselling novels. I am still working out the kinks on that plan.)
At risk of stating the obvious, I like the library business because of the books. I go through several hundred each year. That's just a drop in the bucket considering that America alone produces several hundred thousand new titles annually. Still though. Keeps me busy.
Librarianship is also awesome because of the librarians. We are creative, intelligent, broad-minded book-lovers. It's in the job description. And I work at the most awesome public library ever. This is not hyperbole.
I'm something of an introvert, in the way that Julian of Norwich sort of kept to herself. I do like having other people around for good conversation, but allow me to clarify this before any misconceptions take root: everyone claims to like good conversation, but I really, really mean it. Reading Russian novels makes me wistful. I think I was born in the wrong century and continent. (And probably sex.) I missed my chance to hang with Turgenev's Bazarov or Pasternak's Zhivago. These (fictional) chaps spent their time talking books and politics with a small group of the intelligentsia. That's what I want to do.
And it's not just because I'm a super-nerd, though, let's face it, I am and there's no shame in it. (I'm not a geek, not a dork, not a dweeb, but a nerd? If it hasn't been written up in a peer-reviewed journal and debated at conference, I probably don't want to talk about it-- and couldn't anyway.) I'm desperate for conversation because it's the only venue left for me. I feel powerless in my own country. My vote never counts and I don't earn enough money to sway public policy. I can petition the government till I'm blue in the face and never get anywhere. (Not that this has stopped me yet.)
But at least my tongue hasn't been cut out and I am still essentially free to voice my opinion and take succor from talking with like-minded folks. At the least it is cathartic; at the most, well-- that's how revolutions get started.
