To honor Douglas Adams' birthday, I offer this personal anecdote: as a cataloger at a small public library (for most of the 1990's), I happened to catalog Adams' Mostly Harmless shortly after it had come out. It happened that shortly after that, Douglas Adams was doing a reading & signing at a local independent bookstore that was soon to open (promoting his Deeper Meaning of Liff at the time, I think). On a lark, I decided to take the book to the event and get it signed.
After the reading, and having finally gotten through the line to the signing table, I asked him to address it to that public library using our fairly cryptic acronym. He signed it as specified and then asked, anything for you personally? I responded, no that's it, thanks. He responded with a look, and said something like, well that's dedication. Me, [beam].
When the book was pulled from circulation years later, I got a call from the then current cataloger who said, "hey, I saw your post-it on the shelf list card, requesting that if/when the book was ever pulled, you wanted it, do you still want it?" I said, "Yes!" (of course). So, long and short of it: now in my possession, (and after a complete run in the public forum), that very same book, well worn, having had a complete life. Monetary value: minimal. Sentimental value: priceless.
