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Age of readers and difficulty finding books

To the young women who seem so surprised that the majority of the Robin fans on-line are so much older than the YA books seem to be written for...not only is a good story timeless, but as a grown-up, many times I have found comfort and solace in retreating to the world of YA books, where you can still find happiness, adventure and entertainment without the use of violent or ugly imagery (excepting "Deerskin") and four letter words. I get tired of books and movies that label themselves "adult" when what they mean is suggestive or downright pornographic. Maybe we should start a new line of bookstores, not children's, not "adult"... how about "civilized"? Any thoughts? As far as having a hard time finding Robin's books, that's been a problem for me, since I'm on a fairly tight budget and can only buy books if they will definitely be "keepers" that I will want to reread again and again. At the risk of sounding heretical, this means I usually need to read a book before I buy it, even Robin's. (I won copies of "Beauty", "Hero", "Blue Sword" and "Outlaws", but don't want to own "Deerskin", after I read it recently.)Have any of you tried to get your local library to request titles on "interlibrary loan"? This has rarely failed me, even for out-of-print books. I give our library the titles I want to read (with author and ISBN, if I can) and they search for it and borrow it from another library and then loan it to me. Sometimes I end up paying the cost of postage if it's from far enough away, but it's a great way to do research on something your local library doesn't have stuff on. I've borrowed books on soccer for my sons, craft stuff for my daughter, many novels for me and many, many titles on grief and bereavement after the 1993 death of my 21 yr. old daughter. Try it... you may be pleasantly surprised! I've even looked up subjects or favorite authors in "Books in Print" at the library and requested titles I found out about that way. For an avid reader with little money, it's the best fix there is!

From: Betty
bettywinslow@usa.net
Wednesday, May 21, 1997 at 11:05:06 (EDT)