We, librarians, are not paid to read the books but to process them. The first step is to record them in the database and to do this accurately, I read the back cover, the publisher’s page, the table of contents and I skim through the book to check the reading level and know what the book is really about. Then I can type a summary and relevant keywords in the record of the book.
This is how I find pearls, like this one in the book “A Land of two halves”, by Joe Bennett. London: Scribner, 2004. (shelved in Knowledge Area, 306.4 with other Kiwiana books).
“Wisps of mist swirl above the lake, and the lower slopes of the mountains are wearing fluffy underskirts of cloud. Above them, in the early sun, the snow looks impossibly smooth and dense, like the icing on a wedding cake. It’s going to be a good day.” (Wanaka Wordsworth, page 130).
