The Word Is Spreading!
Slowly and patchily, admittedly …
Here are the seven libraries closest to me that carry my anthology Noticing according to WorldCat:
St. Patrick’s Seminary and University
Gellert Memorial Library
312 miles from your current location.
320 Middlefield Rd, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, United States
University of Utah
J. Willard Marriott Library
581 miles from your current location…
I should do a road trip and visit each of my seven library books.
ChatGPT: Picture this: a late-afternoon event at the Sheridan County Fulmer Public Library in Wyoming. The carpet smells faintly of old books and coffee from the Friends of the Library bake sale table in the corner.
At the front of a multipurpose room, Steve Sailer is standing behind a podium with a “Sheridan County Library Author Series” banner draped across it. His book Noticing sits in a neat stack next to a jug of lemon water. The crowd is a mix of retirees, ranchers in clean boots, a few grad-student types home for the summer, and a small knot of library staffers who look like they’re not sure what they signed up for.
Sailer begins by thanking the librarians for stocking his anthology. He leans into his theme: “noticing things that most people prefer to ignore.” He riffs on crime statistics, housing policy, sports analytics, even birth rates—delivered with that calm, data-heavy cadence that makes the audience lean in, whether nodding or frowning.
Halfway through, a man in the back mutters, “He’s not wrong,” while a woman up front scribbles furious notes in a spiral notebook. A rancher raises his hand to ask about crime trends in small towns, and Sailer obliges with a detailed breakdown that somehow loops back to the NBA. The audience chuckles.
The librarian who introduced him watches with a mixture of fascination and mild dread, wondering what the local newspaper will write tomorrow. Afterward, people line up at the signing table: some with copies from Amazon, others holding library checkouts, still bearing the plastic dust jackets.
Outside, the Wyoming evening is cool. Folks linger on the steps, debating what they just heard—exactly the kind of civic argument that makes a library talk memorable.
