Funny Library story

So I came into work today and got a doozy from the very first patron who walked up to the desk.

She handed me a piece of paper and said her son was looking for this book and could I help her find it for him. "The Game" by Neil Strauss.

I went to our catalog and did a search for the author as I thought there were probably too many titles out there with "The Game" in the title. I quickly got a list of the books by Neil Strauss in our system and saw the game.

One of the "habits" I've gotten into as a reference librarian is to always repeat the title when I find it to make sure I'm on the same page as the patron. When I see a full title that includes a colon I repeat the full title to make sure I'm getting the correct book for the patron.

So in this case, out of habit, I automatically started to say "The Game : Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists".

As the words slipped off my tongue, my brain started to catch up, and something seemed odd about this particular situation.

The woman in front of me blushed, gasped, and said, "Oh my God, is that what my 19 year old son wants to read?!"

I couldn't help but laugh and said, "well... if he was 13 you might have a problem on your hands! When I was 19 I might have wanted to check out this book myself. Luckily I'm very happily married so I don't think I need it at this point!"

She laughed as well and I asked her if she would like me to put a hold on it for her son as we didn't have a copy in our library. She said, "Certainly not! I'm not going to get this book for him." She left pretty quickly and seemed embarrassed about the whole thing. For me it was one the highlights of my week!