The book is here!

Originally uploaded by librarianmer.

My day started off pretty badly. I woke up and my neck was so stiff and painful that I couldn’t turn my head or lift my left arm. I ended up calling Adam around 1 pm to pick me up from work because I was in so much pain. When we got home, we found a big box at the front door, which I assumed was for Adam since he’s always getting computer gadgets and gizmos from strange places.

It wasn’t a gadget or a gizmo.

It wasn’t for Adam.

It was my book!

You know, even holding it in my hands now, it doesn’t quite feel real. I guess the book itself feels real, but I can’t believe I wrote it. And it’s going to feel even more weird (and scary) when people read it and tell me what they think of it.

What amazes me most about the book is the index. My goodness that index is comprehensive and I have nothing but admiration for the person who had to go through my book and pick out every single person, thing and idea mentioned in 300 pages. They did a great job! I think it’s looking at the index, and seeing everything I mentioned so neatly listed with a page number, that is making this feel much more real. When I have some time, I might make a list of the librarians and libraries mentioned in the book since the index makes it so easy to do that. I know that if someone wrote a book and I was in it, I’d love to know about it.

I’ll be doing a book signing at the Tuesday evening reception at Computers and Libraries (starting at 5:00 pm), which should be even more surreal. I’m still working on the pithy saying to write on the books. Perhaps something like “jump on the cluetrain” or “keep reaching for that rainbow.” 😉 I think I might be able to do better than that, but I’m not great at brevity or pithiness. Maybe I should have had a Pithy Saying for My Signing Contest instead of an Alternative Book Cover Contest. 😉

I just want to say a big thanks to everyone who helped me make this book happen, especially my incredibly smart and supportive editor, Rachel Singer Gordon. But really, all of you deserve thanks. You challenged me, inspired me and made me a far better writer and thinker than I was before I started blogging. If I wasn’t a librarian and a blogger, there wouldn’t be a book.