I could be trolling the Lands’ End website, looking for the perfect grey, pink and green cardigans to add to the rainbow of Lands’ End fine gauge classic cardigans in my closet. Or I could be ordering a tiny bottle of Demeter’s Paperback because few things are sexier than smelling like books. Instead I’m on a mad hunt to replace wonderful, charming, enchanting and most delightful cozy reads that are disappearing from the local libraries. And the saddest thing? I know I’m not the only person reading these vanishing books because half the time I’m waiting for the books to be returned by another patron before I can get my little undead raccoon hands on them!

Perhaps I should have know something was up when I was in Canton and decided to check out Jacqueline Susann’s very first book Every Night, Josephine! Sometimes you just need to read about a glamorous poodle girl and her equally funny and glamorous owner (who was a few years away from Valley of the Dolls mega literary stardom). But when I went to the dog section, no Every Night, Josephine! for me. I shrugged my shoulders (it’s a small library and I can’t imagine Every Night, Josephine! was a huge checkout hit) and got a collection of James Herriot stories instead.

And then the E.M. Delafield Virago Classics disappeared from the stacks. And yesterday, well the Deaccession Squad, they got Faith Addis and Wendy Holden…

A little back story. On my commute to Company X, I listen to audiobooks and podcasts when I’m not listening to NPR. Which is fine and dandy except my dear Mr Honda doesn’t have a CD player or fancy USB port like my brother’s Honda. Mr Honda has a cassette player. And yes, technology and library resources have changed and everyone, I mean everyone has CD players and cassette audiobooks take up so much space and who checks out cassette books anymore  and all those wonderful cassette audiobooks are gone.

But the library in the same town as Company X, a picture perfect Connecticut town you fully expect to see Lorelai Gilmore pop out of a shop clutching a to-go cup of coffee the size of the Titanic as she chats a mile a minute, this town, heck let’s call it Stars Hollow, had tons of space and money and cassette audiobooks. And not just any cassette audiobooks but Clipper Audio cassette audiobooks. I had never heard of Faith Addis until I stumbled across Year of the Cornflake, Green Behind the Ears and Down to Earth. Sure I had read and loved Wendy Holden’s Gossip Hound (I love me some Wendy Holden!) but I had no idea how many of Belinda Black’s adventures had been removed from the US release until I  found the Fame Fatale (UK title of Gossip Hound) cassette audiobook and laughed myself silly on my commute for a most glorious week.

But the Deaccession Squads are busy at work combing the stacks. If I had any idea that some of my favorite books/cassette audiobooks had been on the chopping block I would have been first in line at the library book sales to snap them up. Any wonder I’m on Mr Couch, tracking my Awesome Book UK order for E.M. Delafield Provincial Lady omnibus and searching for Faith Addis? Who will be next? Monica Dickens? Miss Read? Winifred Watson? Joyce Dennys? D.E. Stevenson? Helene Hanff? Barbara Pym? Elizabeth von Armin? Maybe I should just book a ticket to the UK and raid the used bookshops…