Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea. Blog, Internet resources, online reading groups, articles and interviews, Illuminatus! info.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

If you love Wilson, check him out

Here is a way to support Robert Anton Wilson's writings, even if you have no money and little time: Check his books out of the public libraries you patronize.

All libraries have a limited amount of space, and even the most poorly-funded ones add new materials this year. This means that every library has a weeding process to get rid of books on the shelf. It might have a policy, for instance, to get rid of every book that hasn't been checked out in the last 18 months. When you check out a book by RAW, you are increasing the chance it will remain on the shelf to be discovered by other readers.

2 comments:

michael said...

RAW is one author whose books seem to go "missing" at your local public library at much higher rate than most other authors.

I have worked with many librarians, and I often asked the question: Are there certain types of books that are missing or lost or stolen more than others?

The cumulative answer: Yep: books on sex, the occult, UFOs, drugs, books about pop stars like Madonna or Elvis, and conspiracy theories.

So yea: if your online public library catalog shows that the Robert Anton Wilson book you wanna read is "in library" or "on shelf," don't count your chickens: wait till you are actually holding the book.

Also: notice how different libraries catalog RAW's books in different places. Some obviously don't know what to do with Cosmic Trigger Vol 1, so they put it in Dewey # 133, which is thought of as "occult." Well yea, but what about 149? Under biographies, Wilson? Etc.

Eric Wagner said...

I keep waiting for the Library of Dreams to get in my copy of _The World Turned Upside Down_. I've had it on reserve for weeks.