Or, rather not seen.

The library in town (located next to the West Virginia Diner) is part of a “regional library system,” nine branches and a bookmobile spread over four counties and one “city.” I don’t go there much because it’s not much of a library. I didn’t realize until today just how much of a library it wasn’t.

I went there this afternoon with my wife who had reserved “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. We had seen the author on Tavis Smiley (yes, we watch PBS- it requires a special antenna) and she decided to read his books, starting with the first.

While she was at the check out desk, I thought I’d peruse the science books- only there weren’t any. The 500’s section was almost completely empty, just a couple of bird books in the 590 section. No science books at all. No science books.

I decided not to check the children’s section. If I found a copy of “Billy Bob and His Pet Dinosaur Visit the Tar Pit,” my reaction would probably get me banned from the library- like the science books.

Update: I sent the director of the library system an email asking why no science books and still haven’t received a reply- maybe it went into her spam folder because it had the word “science” in it.

Update 2: It turns out that there was a third bird book in the 500 section. It was removed when someone pointed out that it claimed that birds evolved from dinosaurs about 70 million years ago.

Update 3: Actually there are a few “science” books in the system. A search of the catalog for books with the word “physics” in the title reveals “Physics of Superheroes” and “Physics of the Bible.”

Update 4: I went by the local branch today to return a book for someone and there are two new books in the adult 500’s section- “Baby Animals” and “Kangaroos.” On my way out, someone asked why I looked so sad…