wherein Liz considers her Yuletide assignment

[edenfalling]

Yuletide assignments went out this morning, and I matched on... a source that is going to take a little work to get my hands on. Because it's out of print, there are no copies in the entire Tompkins County library system, and the only copy I personally know of is in my old hometown library down in New Jersey, which is not exactly helpful.

Therefore, to the internet and used book market sites! *rubs hands, cackles evilly*

I definitely need to acquire the book, because I haven't read it in going on fifteen years and you could drive a whole convoy of trucks through the holes in my memory of the plot and characters. (Though I do remember one particular passage word-perfect, which I know because I recited it to my mom over the telephone this evening, just to prove I could. It's funny the things that stick with you.) But my giftee's request is totally up my alley both in general terms and with respect to what I remember liking about the book, so hey. Yuletide here we come!

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In completely unrelated news, I gave blood yesterday, I am filling in as a substitute teacher at church this Sunday, and I am totally going to vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday. I feel all socially productive and stuff. :-)

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And now back to my final mini-ficlet request. (Which, hey, I'm willing to keep playing if anyone else wants to give me a prompt!)

Comments

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Check with your local library - even though they don't own it, they may be able to get it from another library that does from somewhere else in the country. You'll probably have to pay for postage, but it might speed up getting the book in your hands. :)

[edenfalling]

I may ask them on Saturday. Regular interlibrary loan won't work -- the county shares a single catalogue system, and the book simply isn't in any of the branches -- but I have no idea what kind of unofficial links they may have to neighboring counties.

I'd kind of like to own the book just because, though, so I will probably end up buying it anyway.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

There are two kinds of "interlibrary loan" in the library world, in-system and out-of-system (not the official terms, but probably the simplest way to describe it.)

The out-of-system ILL, Worldcat, is run through an organization called OCLC, and has the ability to search the catalogs of and arrange loans through libraries all over the world. That's the one that you need to ask about. You can actually search it yourself to see if they have it, but you need a librarian to make the request - Worldcat loans are strictly sent library-to-library. https://www.worldcat.org/ is the catalog if you want to look.

[edenfalling]

Whoops, sorry, I didn't realize LJ had marked your comment as suspicious potential spam. Anyway, the OCLC link via my library's website was... confusing, to say the least, and seemed to imply that they'd only order stuff that wasn't easily purchased for under $10. Odd! But I kind of wanted to own the book anyway, so I have purchased a copy via Barnes & Noble's third-party marketplace thingywhatsit, which did indeed cost less than $10, even taking shipping and tax into account. It should arrive within two weeks.

[rurounitriv.livejournal.com]

Sounds like they just don't want to bother with it, for whatever reason. (It can be rather annoying to do it, I admit...) Glad you managed to find it!