Slightly Simulated-(Utilitaire 12.3)

Last week, like most weeks I went to the library.  Normally I go on the weekends, but last week I went on Wednesday night because a book that the Scientist had requested had come in.

I'm a library user from the cradle.  I swear that I had read every book in the Children's section that had a dog or a horse in it (helpfully noted at our library with a sticker of said animal on the spine)  before I graduated to "grown up" books.  There wasn't as much of what we call YA then.  Watership Down,  From the Mixed up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler,   A Swiftly Turning Planet,  The Dark is Rising series,  The Hero and the Crown.   No Harry Potter.  No Hunger Games.

The Scientist is more of a book buyer (which isn't bad either, especially for special Science books)  but I'm trying to introduce him to the joys of library patronage.  He was a little amazed that you could request a book owned by another town 20 miles away on Sunday, and by Wednesday, they send you an email and it's waiting at your home library.

I biked home, and took a detour on the way to the library to pick up his request.  While I was there, I hit the "speed read" section which is a great thing that more and more libraries are doing.  It's a couple of stacks of high demand books- books that either just came out, or are being featured on all the NPR programs, or are NY Times bestsellers.  You can't reserve those copies, you can only keep them for a week, and you can't renew them so that someone else can have a chance to read the latest and greatest next week.   I grabbed the latest John le Carre' novel "Our Kind of Traitor."  I was on a big le Carre' kick around the time that the movie of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy came out, but a combination of a busy week and a slow start meant I didn't finish it by the deadline, so it was time to take it back.  Coincidentally a book I had requested a while ago (REAMDE by Neal Stephenson)  had just come in, so I had an extra reason to go in.  I'm a big Stephenson fan,  the Baroque trilogy are among my very favorite books, and although I heard so- so reviews, I'm sure it will be entertaining at the worst, and thought provoking at the best.

This is where the simulated part of the Utilitaire comes in- Because of the way the controls work, I need an event from last week, but  since I can't go back in my time machine to take pictures of last week's trim, I'm photographing the book I brought home THIS week- , you'll just have to trust me that I went by bike last week too!