No more whining

My friend Elaine sent me an email this morning in response to my last blog post about the decline in reading. Her effort to comment directly to the post had been eaten in cyberspace. (Does anybody know why this happens?)

In her email, she basically accused me of whining and looking for excuses to avoid writing. Guilty as charged! This week, I have spent one afternoon at the Getty with a granddaughter and another at the movies. I have even done some of the kind of house cleaning and organizing that is the classic writing avoidance activity.

So what's going on here? I'm trying to get started on the second chapter of the Book, in which I go back and look more critically and analytically at the tradition of library service to children. It means challenging some of the most cherished values and practices of our profession -- or at least putting them under the microscope for a closer look. Elaine and I did a little of this in our book on "Teens and Libraries," and it wasn't always well-received, for obvious reasons. I don't think I am being faint-hearted about confronting either Anne Carroll Moore or the old girls of ALSC, but I do recognize the need to do it as well as I can. I am daunted by the skill that is needed for this task.

Elaine tells me to doodle it or play it on the piano or whatever it takes -- just write the damn book. Yes, maam. I'll try.