I was not impressed with this book. The short essays were pretty much a blend of an old time librarian sort of longing for the old days and sort of wishing he could go to library school again so he can be hip now. I detected a small sense of self-pity. Much of the content in the essays are things I have seen expressed in various parts of the librarian blogosphere at one time or another. As for the RefGrunt's diary entries, some were amusing, and some were very mundane. Actually, that part was good until about halfway through the book when you honestly get tired of seeing entries listing "copier advice." While the diary entries do convey the fact that often library reference work can be mundane and boring at times, it also conveys, pure and simple, that a lot of idiots do visit public libraries (they do visit the academic libraries too, trust me on that). And I do say idiots because after a while, no amount of charitable view of life redeems some people. Anyhow, if you basically scan the book, you get the gist of it. If you must, borrow it, but do not buy it.
