Giny wrote:
<snip>
> I do not understand Shannon's report at all.
> To me it seems very rude and impolite , but maybe my English is not
> good enough.

It wasn't clear what you were referring to, but if it was in reference to my
third item, about the donated book that they discarded (recycled), then I
did intend for that part to express significant unhappiness, though not
particular rudeness. However, I certainly admit that I was basically venting
spleen at the loss of a few thousand yen. If they had told me the truth
about not keeping the book, I would have fished around for some other
friends to loan it to, or given it to another library with a more sincere
interest.

Yes, it is certainly possible that there was a misunderstanding when we were
discussing the book in Japanese. The sad reality is that these days I don't
really need or use the language much, and it's something of an effort to
continue studying it for no apparent reason... Still, I was quite aware that
they had no similar books in their small English book section, and I spoke
at some length with one of the senior librarians, who seemed to understand
my description of the book, and who seemed to be expressing a librarian's
philosophy not that different from my librarian friends and co-workers back
in the States.

Of course, I would have made the effort to write it in Japanese if
persuasion was the point, but it was primarily spleen venting at that stage.

By the way, in the period after donating it and until it was apparent that
they had tossed it, I did online searches of most of the other libraries I
use less often, and found that all of them are apparently lacking such books
in English. They do have good collections of Michael Moore's stuff in
Japanese, however. Not too sure what to make of it, but I definitely think
these American-based topics are having major impacts on Japan, even within
the libraries. One of the libraries I sometimes visit often has two security
guards these days, and I have come to believe they are watching for possible
terrorists. (No, they don't follow me around.  ;-)  )