BACKGROUND

My name is Russell Rush, and as some of you may know--and one or two of you may care--I am a bookmobile operator. The Words-On-Wheels (W.O.W.) bookmobile presently travels to fifty-six older adult communities (housing developments, assisted living facilities, etc.) throughout Pennsylvania's Montgomery County. This bookmobile was, in August 2008, the last branch of the library to be automated. "Shit on the computer!" was the reaction of one otherwise decorous octogenarian, and a number of patrons shared her sentiment, even if they didn't give such vivid expression to it. With time, I think we have all made our peace with the infernal thing.

Most of my patrons are women. The majority of the circulation is Large Print genre novels; we also do a brisk business in audio books. And, too, we do have our devotees of literary fiction, narrative non-fiction, and legal philosophy and social justice issues. One women gets books the size of tombstones on ancient Chinese art.

I like to think that we all have a jolly time together, and if I have to drop the carbon monoxide detector on my head while changing the battery to get a cheap laugh, well, bombs away!