My Obsession with (Fictional) Librarians

Don’t you love days when you discover something about yourself?

Well, depending on the discovery, I do. My most recent one was that I unabashedly love (fictional) librarians.

It’s a widely known fact that I love to read, which leads to a love of books and everything pertaining to books. Walking into a library or a book retailer turns me into a giddy little girl. The endless possibility of so many stories makes me tingle with excitement and I can be seen dashing from one section to another, before I settle in one particular section that captures my fancy. Once I decide upon a genre (lately it’s been cultural affairs or humor) I stand there for hours reading titles, summaries, and sometimes whole chapters of books.

Since I have a deep love of books, it only seems natural that I also love librarians. And though I’ve always appreciated these supervisors of stories and enjoy speaking with them–if you’ve never had a legit  conversation with a librarian, you’re missing out. They know EVERYTHING–I’ve never really considered that I truly love librarians.

And how did I come upon this epiphany you may ask? Well, that’s where this self-discovery becomes kind of wonky.

Aside from my deep love for all things literary, I also love made-for-TV movies. I love their melodramatic plot lines, the overacting, and the lack of editing for content. So, on Christmas night I flipped on TNT to watch a particular favorite made-for-TV movie series–The Librarian.

If you’re unfamiliar, do yourself a favor and put all three movies in your Netflix cue immediately. This trilogy is about a librarian, played by Noah Wyle, who is not just a man who spends his days reciting the Dewey Decimal system and helping people find a copy of the newest James Patterson novel. He is actually more of an Indiana Jones type–he is knowledgeable and good looking and surprisingly agile. Thus, he goes on quests for artifacts that require him to travel the world.

So, while watching these (obviously awesome) movies for a second time, I had an epiphany–not only do I love this fictional librarian, I love many fictional librarians.

There’s Giles, the watcher/librarian on Buffy the Vampire Slayer whose Britishness never failed to make me happy. And Laura Bush (okay, not fictional) a librarian turned First Lady. And Marian from “The Music Man” who can both sing and alphabetize by title or author. And Mary in the alternative world in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” who, despite living in a sinister alternate world without George Bailey, is still lovely.

As you can see, this is an illustrious and varied group. And how can you not love them? Each is awesome, intelligent, and compassionate in their own way. They are people we should all strive to become. (That’s right, I said it.)

So while others spent their holiday breaks gaining weight and making resolutions to lose that weight, I contemplated my love for librarians while wearing pajamas with gnomes on them.

WIN.