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May We Escape This Fate: Awful Library Books

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Paul Whybrow

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As an ex-librarian, I understand the pressing need to free up shelf space. A lot of new books are published every year, as we writers understand from the competition we face.

A book's return date label is good evidence of how popular it's been, and with only so much room in the reserve stock basement, many titles end up in the library book sale or donated to charity.

They are deaccessioned, which sounds painful!

Some of the ripest titles appear on Awful Library Books, a site devoted to the weird, tasteless and downright bad books that shouldn't have been bought or even written in the first place.

I found this example of fantasy fiction, where a librarian enters into a sexual relationship with a bear! I like to include animals in my stories as wild creatures and pets, as they're good indicators of a character's personality, but this is taking things a bit too far....

What would Paddington, Rupert and Pooh Bear make of it all!

Unexplained and Just Plain Crazy | Awful Library Books

bear-newcover-220.jpg
 
What would Paddington, Rupert and Pooh Bear make of it all!

'Unbearable'?

Well, somebody had to say it...

As an aside, I give a few copies of my books to the local library and go back from time to time and look at the loan return date labels. I found it encouraging - it's a good test of the book blurb (and I'm up against some big names).
 
As an ex-librarian, I understand the pressing need to free up shelf space. A lot of new books are published every year, as we writers understand from the competition we face.

A book's return date label is good evidence of how popular it's been, and with only so much room in the reserve stock basement, many titles end up in the library book sale or donated to charity.

They are deaccessioned, which sounds painful!

Some of the ripest titles appear on Awful Library Books, a site devoted to the weird, tasteless and downright bad books that shouldn't have been bought or even written in the first place.

I found this example of fantasy fiction, where a librarian enters into a sexual relationship with a bear! I like to include animals in my stories as wild creatures and pets, as they're good indicators of a character's personality, but this is taking things a bit too far....

What would Paddington, Rupert and Pooh Bear make of it all!

Unexplained and Just Plain Crazy | Awful Library Books

bear-newcover-220.jpg

After discovering that there is an entire series about a woman who has wild sex with sasquatch ( what´s the plural for that?), and then realizing that it´s a actually a best seller, NOTHING surprises me.
 
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