THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507190035
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KERRY DOUGHERTY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
WAITING FOR the library to telephone, letting you know your copy of John Grisham's ``The Rainmaker'' is in?
Don't hold your breath.
At the rate things are going, sleighbells will be ringing before your phone.
``I hope everybody brings the book back on time, or some people will be on the list till 1997,'' chortled Susan Burton, manager of the Portsmouth Central Library. ``We have 128 people waiting for 25 copies of the book.''
It's almost as bad in Virginia Beach, where 843 people are waiting for 173 copies of Grisham's best seller.
You'd do better to drive into Norfolk and get on their list. Only 79 people are waiting for one of the 46 copies of Grisham's book there.
Things aren't much better for the hundreds of Hampton Roads library patrons waiting for Mary Higgins Clark's latest thriller, ``Let Me Call You Sweetheart'' (688 waiting for 129 copies at the Beach), or Robert Ludlum devotees waiting for ``The Apocalypse Watch,'' (219 waiting for 38 copies).
It's summer reading time. Local libraries are clogged with kids working their way through summer reading lists while their parents are trying to snap up best-sellers to read on the beach.
``It's not that we do more business in the summer; it's that it switches from a lot of people coming in for research to recreational reading,'' said Toni Lohman, collection management librarian for the Virginia Beach system.
Every library solves its best-seller crunch differently.
The Chesapeake Public Libraries have decided that a waiting list for best-sellers is counterproductive, because days can elapse trying to contact people on the list. All Chesapeake best-sellers are placed on a special shelf (empty most of the time). Avid readers lurk nearby, waiting for a hot novel to reappear.
``Best-sellers last about 10 minutes,'' said Chuck Anderson, manager of Chesapeake's Central Branch. ``Grisham is totally hot. We have 106 copies of `The Rainmaker' and they're all out.''
Anderson said some people drop in the library three or four times a day, in hopes of happening on that coveted copy of ``The Rainmaker'' or even Grisham's last best-seller, ``The Chamber.''
Hot as Grisham is, Pocahontas is even hotter.
``I came in this morning and saw a Pocahontas book,'' Anderson said. ``I almost fainted. Then they told me it was damaged and being repaired.
``We have 130 copies of the book adaptation of the Disney movie and they're all checked out,'' he said, verifying it on his computer. ``Even books that were written in 1947 about her are out.''
Pocahontas is big at the Beach, too. Lohman said they have 50 books with Pocahontas in the title. All are checked out.
She said it happens every time there is a popular movie or television show.
``You won't find many librarians who are critical of television or movies,'' she confessed. ``Movies and TV seem to send people to the library to find out more.''
Perhaps that explains the sudden popularity of defense attorney Gerry Spence's latest book, ``How to Argue and Win Every Time.''
Virginia Beach has six copies of his book. And 35 people waiting to read it.
There are even people waiting for books not yet published. Virginia Beach has 331 people signed up for Patricia Cornwell's new book, ``Firm Potter's Field'' - as soon as it arrives.
Same for Danielle Steele's next guaranteed best-seller: 322 have made advance reservations for ``Lightning.''
Better to check out a classic. Virginia Beach has eight copies of ``War and Peace'' on the shelves.
And by the time you're done with Tolstoy's tome, ``The Rainmaker'' will be out in paperback. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Local libraries have long waiting lists for best-sellers by Grisham,
Ludlum, Clark and others.
by CNB