Life Behind the Stacks
July 11, 2016 12:39 PM Subscribe
This definitely tickles that little bit of resentment that lives inside me and comes out whenever I find out about cool possibilities I never even knew existed and/or opportunities that disappeared before I was born.. Why didn't anybody ever tell me that this was an option (albeit an incredibly rare one..)?
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:59 PM on July 11, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Nerd of the North at 12:59 PM on July 11, 2016 [5 favorites]
Aaaaaagh want.
My friend knows someone who is the sexton at a church in Boston and lives in its bell tower (with his cat). There's something incredibly appealing about living in a beautiful, cozy, historic space in the middle of a busy city and having no goddamn commute whatsoever. To say nothing of all those books, and the people-watching. But yeah, it sounds like an awful job these days. *sigh*
posted by Melismata at 1:06 PM on July 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
My friend knows someone who is the sexton at a church in Boston and lives in its bell tower (with his cat). There's something incredibly appealing about living in a beautiful, cozy, historic space in the middle of a busy city and having no goddamn commute whatsoever. To say nothing of all those books, and the people-watching. But yeah, it sounds like an awful job these days. *sigh*
posted by Melismata at 1:06 PM on July 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
Is drool bad for my keyboard?
posted by theora55 at 1:13 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by theora55 at 1:13 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
I have never been more jealous. I finally figured out the career I want and it doesn't exist any more.
posted by JDHarper at 1:14 PM on July 11, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by JDHarper at 1:14 PM on July 11, 2016 [6 favorites]
This is neat, but it's frustrating to have "In the early to mid twentieth century, the majority of the city’s libraries had live-in superintendents" followed by exactly two libraries. And I got furious when the second one turned out to be the Main Branch of the New York Public Library and it was referred to throughout as the "Schwarzman Building," even in a context like this: "Notably, the 1913 article was not even about the fact that Fedeler was now living in a seven-room home inside the newly opened Schwarzman Building..." Jesus Christ, it wasn't called the Schwarzman Building until, what, 2008? Just because some rich asshole gave a bunch of money to fund the "renovation" that nearly destroyed one of the jewels of the city doesn't mean you have to kowtow and babble his name as if it were a holy talisman. Grr...
Uh, anyway, great post!
posted by languagehat at 1:17 PM on July 11, 2016 [13 favorites]
Uh, anyway, great post!
posted by languagehat at 1:17 PM on July 11, 2016 [13 favorites]
Life has always been a Wes Anderson film for those who knew where to look.
posted by maxsparber at 1:36 PM on July 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by maxsparber at 1:36 PM on July 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
Okay, first metafilter informs me that I missed my window to become an ecclesiastical embroiderer, then that I could have been a cat behaviorist and now that, had I been born in a different time, I could have lived in a library. What is it if it's not FOMO but did miss out? DiMO?
posted by Frowner at 1:40 PM on July 11, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 1:40 PM on July 11, 2016 [8 favorites]
Somewhere, between haliography and hallucinogenics, Ambrose Bierce is raiding the liquor cabinet.
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on July 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 2:28 PM on July 11, 2016 [3 favorites]
I was hoping it would include photos of currently existing hidey-holes
As someone who would love to live in a library, I would absolutely not want living quarters photographed, because there would be that one obsessive crank patron who would sue the city or other institution because he thought I was hoarding all the best books.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:33 PM on July 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
As someone who would love to live in a library, I would absolutely not want living quarters photographed, because there would be that one obsessive crank patron who would sue the city or other institution because he thought I was hoarding all the best books.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:33 PM on July 11, 2016 [2 favorites]
The New York Society Library site, including a few scant shots of the building's current state (which is p great).
posted by boo_radley at 2:41 PM on July 11, 2016
posted by boo_radley at 2:41 PM on July 11, 2016
"first metafilter informs me that I missed my window to become an ecclesiastical embroiderer"
You can still do this! Just on a volunteer basis mostly. Get out your embroidery silks and your fine linen and start, you know, embroidering something for a local church. (This is what I do when my need to embroider gets too far ahead of my ability to dump finished embroideries on friends and relatives.)
It's not as cool as living in a library but it's more achievable :D
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:11 PM on July 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
You can still do this! Just on a volunteer basis mostly. Get out your embroidery silks and your fine linen and start, you know, embroidering something for a local church. (This is what I do when my need to embroider gets too far ahead of my ability to dump finished embroideries on friends and relatives.)
It's not as cool as living in a library but it's more achievable :D
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 3:11 PM on July 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
We live in a fallen world, my friends.
However, does anyone else feel like this was the discarded draft of a sequel to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:16 PM on July 11, 2016 [13 favorites]
However, does anyone else feel like this was the discarded draft of a sequel to From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler?
posted by GenjiandProust at 3:16 PM on July 11, 2016 [13 favorites]
Back when we had a sane tax base and society was willing to pay more than the absolute skeletal bare minimum for public facilities.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:13 AM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:13 AM on July 12, 2016 [3 favorites]
Oddly, the lead photo shows the apartment in the Shakespeare & Company bookstore in Paris.
posted by Gerald Bostock at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Gerald Bostock at 8:08 AM on July 12, 2016 [1 favorite]
/me adds link to this in her story ideas file.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:48 AM on July 12, 2016
posted by jacquilynne at 8:48 AM on July 12, 2016
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Then again, it also sparked a happy memory of the short story that was posted here previously, In the House of the Seven Librarians.
posted by Mchelly at 12:57 PM on July 11, 2016 [5 favorites]