Random thoughts

An instrument of torture

And my final quote from Sophie Divry’s The Library of Unrequited Love, this time on the Dewey decimal classification:

What a perverse invention, an instrument of torture. … Stupid, anarchic, mega-moronic. The Dewey system is a secret code invented by the Axis of Evil that binds books and librarians together in order to scare the reader off. It’s terrifying, the Dewey system. Totally inhibiting. Everything goes into it, like a mincer. Your holidays, your house, your tastes, your furniture, just everything. There’s even a classification for sexuality – and plenty of different shelfmarks for all the complications. … I’m telling you, if no-one stops them, the people on the ground floor will end up putting a shelfmark on all of us ….

Random thoughts

Homeric battle

The library is the arena where every day the Homeric battle begins between books and readers. In this struggle, the librarians are the referees. … Either they’re cowards and take the side of the mountain of books, or they bravely help the worried reader.

Sophie Divry, The Library of Unrequited Love