[drw]

I went to the local library today to check out a copy of the Iliad, and maybe something to read over the weekend (local bookstore has nothing good, and Amazon won't get an order here tomorrow!) and found something interesting.. tell me if this sounds "normal".


I decided to pick up The Gunslinger, so I hop on the online catelog and do a search.. sure enough it comes up, but to my suprise it is listed in the Young Adult section. "Ok, well it's fantasy, I can go with that." Right? Well I get over there, pull it off the shelf and notice.. every single Stephen King book is in the YA section. I'm a bit suprised, so I look a little deeper. Jordan, Hobb, Feist, Eddings, Martin - they are all there! Interesting, but it's fantasy so I'm not toooo shocked.. I look deeper, and some of the spines really grab my attention. In the YA section:

A Tale of Two Cities
The Scarlet Letter
The Grapes of Wrath
The Cantebury Tales
Gone With the Wind

and the rest.. Conrad, Shakespeare, Twain, Homer etc, all in YA.

Is this normal, or is my local library just waaaay out of it? I'm just a little boggled here.

DRW

[Bear]

Thankfully, my library is awesome. They can order nearly everything, and it comes pretty fast. They also have an extensive fantasy section (as well as sci-fi, which they keep seperate so everything's easier to browse). And the mystery section is bigger than any of the bookstores in my area, too, which makes me very happy. So yeah, i guess you're library sucks pal. But at least it's free . . . it is free, isn't it?

[trentdick2882]

It sounds like you live somewhere that is highly sophisticated. In Hicksville, USA the Young Adult section would have the "See Spot Run" stuff. :D

[Shehzad]

Homer, YA?? It seems I haven't grown up quite yet...

[user123]

That doesn't sound strange to me, in my High School library we had all of those and many more just like them. In fact A TALE OF TWO CITIES, THE GRAPES OF WRATH and THE CANTEBURY TALES were required reading for freshmen english.

[ezchaos]

I would think that the classics would be put in their own section of the library. drw, it sounds like somebody at your library figured that nowadays, mostly only high school kids read those books. They probably figured they'd save themselves some trouble by lumping them into the YA secition. God forbid that somebody might have to use their brain to look up a book!

Here where I live, things are pretty rural and small, so the libraries tend not to be that good. I have cards to 2 or three local city/town libraries. I've learned to concentrate on the towns that have money because they have a better selection of books.
I learned a year or two to always check out the YA section, although I've never seen King, Martin, etc there!

[Lani]

Your library is strange indeed... I know that in the library I usually go to you won't find a lot worth reading in YA section. It's mostly full with cheesy teenage romance novels and I think even some of the books that should have been in YA, are just in general fiction.
If I saw a bunch of classic novels put in YA section I would suspect that it's a way of trying to get youth to read some classics by mistake. What I mean, they'll come, assume it's a typical easy-read teenage stuff, and then actually read through something classic. Doesn't seem likely, but I can't see another reason for this.

[Cadfael]

My local library is very good with this... they have a fantasy and SF section, away from the other books. They also have a good selection.

[fortytwo]

LIBRARIES?

Luxury!!!

Where I live we don't have libraries.
.....And I live in a cardboard box.

:)
42

[cgw]

I wish I had a cardboard box.


I find books in the YA section all the time. It depends on the librarian at the particular library. Sometimes I want to say something, but working at a library is such a stessfull occupation that I would hate to add to it.