The Happy Bookers

One of my library school teachers showed a copy in class. I was already a fan of Mr. Armour's books, so I was eager to walk to a bookstore and buy it. Alas, though it was only a year after it was published, I had to order it. Just reread the book to find a quotation that was all too true for me after I graduated. The humor still had me chuckling, as did Mr. Grant's illustrations. (My favorite is the one about special care being given books, mainly for the expression on the fox.) I confess that I don't fulfill the author's basic difference between a librarian and a non-librarian, but that's because medical libraries in the USA use National Library of Medicine classification, not Dewey. In 1976-1977 it was a big deal that our library show more school had a personal computer, so I remember the various audio-visual media mentioned in the last chapter. The predictions are funnier now than they were then. show less

Quick, cute read. (Caveat: I'm a librarian.) Heavy on the puns. Mostly British humor/vocabulary, but nothing too obscure. Many of the jokes about modern librarianship ring remarkably true despite being nearly 40 years old. The illustrations were unimpressive, however.

A short and humorous look at libraries. I didn't learn much but I did have fun. The only fault I could see in this amusing book is that the last few pages (on future libraries) have been overtaken by events. (The copyright date is 1976.)