Hudson, Jay William. Morning in Gascony. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co, 1935.

Hudson was a lecturer for the Massachusetts Peace Society in the 1910s and a philosophy professor at the University of Missouri.

This book was probably lost to time as the New York Times called the plot “outworn”. Other of Hudson’s books include Abbe Pierre and Nowhere Else in the World.

A Wall Street Journal article about the awesomeness borrowing books from the library for free:

Owning a book is a serious relationship. Once I’ve bought it, as a cheapskate, I feel obligated to read it — even if it turns out to be a dud. By contrast, many books I get from the library go unread. I get a few pages into them and realize I can’t stand the way the author writes. Or the topic simply doesn’t hold me. Back to the library it goes.

Houghton, Timothy. The First Season. New York: W. Morrow, 1967.

According to the book flap Houghton is a Princeton grad who was a competitive skier until injuries “forced him to give up serious competition.” First Season was his first novel and as far as I can tell, his last.

The book is described as a coming-of -age tale of a young man who tries to find his way in the fast-pace world of international ski competitions.

Corry, John. My Times: Adventures in the News Trade. New York: Putnam, 1993.

At the time of publication, Corry had worked at the New York Times for 31 years and Harper’s magazine for three years. He is now a senior editor at American Spectator.

The book is in good condition as it hasn’t been checked out since at least 1999 (that’s as far back as our circulation system has records for).

So why has this book been forgotten? You would think that a former NYT reporter who writes nice things about Jesse Helms would attract more attention.

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Why do libraries weed books? The chief reason is space. The public library I work for is so crowded that we should be weeding one book for every book we add to the collection. Another reason is that studies show that library circulation increases when a library’s collection is weeded regularly. Increased circulation makes library board members very happy.

Why are you blogging what you’re weeding?

Because I’m a dork.

How do you decide what to weed?

I weed books that haven’t been checked out in several years or smell bad.