Sydney libraries opening by the book

Thankfully Sydney, along with the rest of Oz, is finally getting back to business. But it's taking way too long. This freezing of the entire economy over totally unfounded fears of a "Coronapocalypse" was totally insane. ScoMo and Co really oughta just open absolutely everything at once and say a yuge sorry to the entire nation for causing so much pain and anguish. 

In any case I was very relieved at the beginning of this week because many libraries are finally opening again. 

Got these snaps of the State Library of NSW on Macquarie Street few weeks ago. Notice how the hashtag echoes the "Together at Home" messaging from the World Stealth Organization. 

This is all coordinated. It's global. 

 

Now, even though they are open again, there are strict limitations on the number of people allowed at any one time, so you have to book online before going in. Also, TPTB are worried because tomes get touched by people, who might have the dreaded 'rona. So they are quarantining the actual books now!

So sad, they must've so enjoyed having their pages lovingly caressed by readers who found their stories so compelling. Now they'll be sitting on shelves bereft of human company and attention; unloved and unread.

I'll bet a lot of them are angry already. Surely there are some volumes in the politics section already planning their collective revolt against this cruel act of bibliophobia.

Still, nothing will happen without human help. They really need at least one contrarian librarian to make their (book) case.

But who (aside from the Dewey Decimal System) will represent their interests? Fact that there are no bookish bolshies doing this speaks volumes -- or rather, doesn't.

Which is exactly why it's so heartbreaking. Literately.

 

But knowing what we do about COVID-19 in humans, can't we apply this knowledge? Just quarantine those books over 80 yrs old. Hell, they were written in a long gone era when society was completely different. Prolly despise most of their readers anyway ...

Another option: Offer every one of them a mask. I'm sure the spineless ones will accept.

That said, there is one literary genre whose books should be placed in quarantine regardless of age, political leanings, and language: long-form prose fiction. 

It is the novel coronavirus, after all.

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