Kuprin

One frustration of library work is not knowing what happened to the request placed for an interloan; to the student who came to the library often, studying for the MCAT, LSAT or any other exam. Some very few times, I see a patron again, and we talk: there is a high school student whom I helped with the Lincoln letters project two years ago, who returned this past school year to study, and is friendly; we talk, and I ask about his school progress.

Last Friday a woman came in, and asked about getting a story by Alexander Kuprin. That caught my attention immediately: only one person has ever asked for his writing, and it took me a few moments to realize it was her. Last year she'd asked for the story A clump of Lilacs; this year she asked for The holy lie.

The Library of Babel

A patron came in soon after 12.30, when the library opened, looking for an Oliver Sacks book he had on hold, Musicophilia [MUSIC] 781.15 S. He had just returned The man who mistook his wife for a hat and other clinical tales (he said his father-in-law has Parkinson's disease). I recommended Uncle Tungsten [BIOGRPHY] B Sacks. He also wanted me to find a Russian novel with the name Margarite in it; a Google search produced The Master and Margarita (Russian: Мастер и Маргарита) is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently ... In turn, he recommended The Library of Babel, By Jorge Luis Borges.

Documents and Disorder

Stalin's Servant -- and Victim

Gorky

A Peninsula patron asked for Maksim Gorky's Lower Depths. Never heard of it. A handful of libraries do own it. Always more to learn.

The lower depths / by Maxim Gorky ; translated by Jennie Covan ; edited & introduction by William-Alan Landes.