Floating Books

                                                                               

           No single area on a cruise ship has less claim to the spotlight than the ship's library.  Consider the competition.  The topside deck, the entertainment theater, the multiple bars, food stables for grazing and gorging, shore excursions, workout rooms, spa treatments, rock climbing and more.  About the only enclosure that the library might eclipse is the chapel.  And it would lose that ranking in a rough sea.

          The low status of the ship's collection of lonely floating books is exacerbated by reading material that passengers bring on board.  Not only print books but e-readers and magazines.  What need would they have for more?

          Well, there are those of us who are drawn to any collection of books we have not seen.  We seek to examine the kinds of titles assembled, the possible rationale for selection, and the quality of "literary engineering" that has constructed a bibliotheca to engage sedentary sailors. 

          I found my way to the ship's library on my first cruise a few years ago.  Now with additional exposure on more cruises, I have observed some characteristics and patterns that impart a persona to the ship's library.

                                                                              

          First of all, the books are locked in glass cases much of the time.  The library room is staffed part-time but the main doors are open when no attendant is present.  You browse the cases through their glass covers. You can physically take a book from a shelf only during certain hours.  But you can always see what's there.  There will be a disproportionate amount of popular fiction.  It gets interesting when you peer among these gimcracks hoping to catch sight of a gem.  And you will. They are there.

     On this trip I found Mark Strand's poetry collection, Man and Camel and Jose Saramago's novel, Seeing.  However, my eyes had to scan a lot of piffle from James Paterson and Nora Roberts to fix on the texts worth finding.  Oddly, also available was the Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.  I checked it out as well since I wanted to arm myself to settle a spousal dispute about lexical matters.  The Dictionary was a very oversized volume.  I was quite the sight as I lugged the folio-like tome through the gauntlet of "golden lads and girls" peacocking pecs and flaunting flesh at the pool.  But I paused in my trek to play a game of chess with the huge outdoor pieces.  I mean you've got to break down and party sometime.