Nerd Joy

The real reason I moved back to Vancouver for the summer is so I can live in WV and have access to the crackerjack library here. West Van is full of crumbly old people who read A LOT and have, often, lots of money which they then will to the library when they die. Or they, you know, split the cash between their cat and the library. Either way, the library has enough cash and circulation to make it freaking awesome.

When I was writing my thesis, the downtown library had one copy of this book I used a lot and it was in the reference section. The West Van library had three copies and you could take them all out.

It was at the West Van library that I got my copy of David Lee Roth's "Crazy From the Heat" for a single shining dollar. Hardcover. Stamped and dewy decimaled, but never put into circulation.

The person who buys the music at the West Van Library is a brilliant maniac. They seem to love Maria McKee and Joni Mitchell, but hot damn if the Hidden Cameras' first album isn't in the rack there, along with two Smog albums and some early White Stripes.

And the movie section. Brilliant. Today I picked up the Criterion "Yojimbo" and "Princess Mononoke" and "Badlands".

It was also in the West Van library that I got to see Dougie Coupland read (because it's his hometown library too) and where Jeremy and I found the most disturbing illustrated copy of "A Modest Proposal" that you could ever wish to have nightmares about.

Woohoo!