Saturday, May 2, 2009

The case of the shrinking cruise ship libraries

Back in 2001 I sailed on the Sea Princess. The ship carries 1950 passengers. The library had many sections of shelving units, filled with current titles. There were so many titles from my "must read" that I found it difficult to choose. I finally settled on The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.

Today I am on the Star Princess. The ship carries 2600 passengers. The library has been merged with the internet cafe. There are only 12 sections of book shelves. If memory serves me correctly, this is half or less than on the Sea. In scanning the shelves before the library opened for the first day of business I found no current titles, nothing from my list, and most disheartening, The Blind Assassin is the only Atwood title. Granted it is a great book, but obviously Princess no longer cares to maintain their library.

No comments: