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averyconfusedhomosapiensbooks's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
2.0
My goal for this year was to read more nonfiction. This goal came about after reading Mary Roach's Stiff, and realizing, "hey, maybe it is possible to make nonfiction feel like fiction." However, I think maybe I will stick closer to my beloved cadavers because Johnson's writing just didn't do it for me. There were tangents that never started—I am not quite sure how, because that sounds impossible—and strange segues that I didn't realize I was reading until we'd segued again.
I will say that this book did it's job of getting information out there, and I certainly learned things. There were a few quotes that definitely had me smirking:
"Two things are inevitable, death and Texas."
But even this quote IS QUOTED. Johnson failed to reach the same "learning along with you" feeling of Roach. And she tried. She did. It just sometimes left me more confused than I already was.
And the few chapters that mentioned gender queer and trans individuals... Wow. For someone who's writing a book about how to get information, you would think that you'd know that it's possible to be slightly more tactful. (It's possible that I'm misreading parts that made me feel a little icky, but that still harkens back to the actual WRITING.)
All in all, okayish starting place if you want to learn about librarians and archivists and all the fun stuff. But there's certainly works that will do it better. Read This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson for recommendations!
And the few chapters that mentioned gender queer and trans individuals... Wow. For someone who's writing a book about how to get information, you would think that you'd know that it's possible to be slightly more tactful. (It's possible that I'm misreading parts that made me feel a little icky, but that still harkens back to the actual WRITING.)
All in all, okayish starting place if you want to learn about librarians and archivists and all the fun stuff. But there's certainly works that will do it better. Read This Book is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All by Marilyn Johnson for recommendations!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
eowyng's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Transphobia
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