University of Virginia Library

Search For Books,
Tougher Than Grail

By Corbin Eissler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

One of the first things the
serious student encounters in his
career at the University, or any
school for that matter, is the use
professors make of outside specialists.

The student strolls into class,
and even before the name of the
course is announced, the professor,
in sepulcher tones, announces the
books that are going to be read in
the course.

Books deserve special consideration
in the education of a student,
if for no other reason than the fact
of their sheer weight. With the
advent of cheap paper-back books,
each course requires at least fifteen
books or so, each weighing at least
two pounds. Multiply this and
divide it into two bags, one in each
hand, and the result is a hardship
unknown even to those fabled
Chinese coolies.

This aspect of the bi-annual
book quest is particularly well-known
to first-year students at the
University, and any other unfortunate
who does not have the use of a
car. For some reason, it is impossible
to set up a course schedule
whose books are all carried at one
store. This necessitates several well
worn paths, being not so much
pressed as stream-rolled between
Newcomb Hall, the Corner, and
wherever the poor pilgrim slinks
home to die.

This long quest is compounded
by the fact that all of the books can
very rarely be purchased at the
same time. Invariably there are
straggler courses that drag on into
October or so before they are
finally added. The result of this is
that those careful lists of books
that are compiled for book searching
day are, with each course
change, converted to just so much
paper.

Give Up

At this point those who are
orderly minded, or perhaps just
weak, tend to give up hope. This is
disastrous, as time goes on, and
can lead to a severe case of missing
the first three books of the course.
But most students make it this far,
and clutching a fairly valid list of
books they set forth bravely, and
hopefully not on foot, to find their
tomes.

But for the strong who have
made it this far, there is still one
serious pitfall. This is, of course, if
the pilgrim has remembered to
bring along sufficient funds to
unlock the doors of knowledge, or
at least the doors of the local
bookstore. If this has been neglected,
go back to start and collect
one hundred dollars.

Phantom Snatcher

But once the searcher is well
fortified with cash, the only remaining
problem is the phantom
book snatcher. This is perhaps the
most difficult trial of the quest,
because where up to this point the
buyer has only faced physical
hardship, this final test bears
aspects of the supernatural. Ten
books are ordered for a course of
ten people, placed on a shelf in easy
reach. All, the searcher assumes,
that needs to be done is to reach
out and touch them. But always the
phantom snatcher has struck, and
the books are sold out.

The clerk, faced with a hysterical
student, always has sudden
business in the back of the store;
and leaving in stony silence wafts a
promise behind like a sign of spring,
"perhaps we can order it."

No Deception

Seekers, be not deceived. This
promise would carry truth for a
book to be consulted late in the
semester, but where lives the
student who has dwelt in a course
where a book could be ordered and
read in the time the class deals with
it.

Some lucky men avoid this
problem, and scurry home with a
happy smile and books for a year.
But for those who stand there,
thunderstruck in the wake of the
snatcher, the only possible advice is
to don your cloak and raid the
graduate courses.