Bibliomysteries; Anxious for Nothing

This collection of short mystery stories that take place in bookstores or libraries (or other related bookish places) was really fun! I checked it out because of the Mickey Spillane story, but I enjoyed all of the others. My favorite was the one by John Connolly called "The Caxton Lending Library and Book Depository". It's about a shy, introvert who loves to read and thanks to the death of his mother is able to quit his boring office job and move into her little cottage to enjoy a life of leisurely reading. One day while out on a stroll, he notices a woman throw herself in front of an oncoming train. Horrified, he notifies the police. They come out and search for any sign of the presumably dead woman on the tracks, but come up with nothing. Poor Mr. Berger is afraid he's losing his mind, so he keeps coming back to the spot, hoping to see the woman again, and he does! He is able to stop her from throwing herself on the train tracks again, but she takes off before he can get any information out of her. He does follow her to a building with a sign that says it is the Caxton Lending Library and Book Depository. Calls to other big libraries get him nowhere, no one has ever heard of it, there's no phone number, no way to contact them. Mr. Berger stakes the place out until he sees a man go in and approaches him. He's the librarian, and not only is he in charge of the rare first editions and manuscripts within the library itself, he also is in charge of the fictional characters who live there.
That's right: fictional characters who are very popular and well known come to life after their creators die, and find their way to the Caxton Library, where they live. The woman Mr. Berger saw try to kill herself was of course Anna Karenina. Mr. Berger is naturally quite fascinated and keeps coming back to visit with the librarian and Anna. It was a really fun story that made me wish such a job really existed :)

I admit, I find myself anxious all the time, and it's usually for naught. My job is the main source of my stress, although it really shouldn't be. No one's life is in my hands, what I do every day doesn't alter the course of history. I just spend an inordinate amount of my time around unpleasant, rude people who are mean to me for no good reason and as a result I panic a lot. Lucado is of course an inspirational Christian author, and although I don't really subscribe to his religion, I can still take some tips and comfort from what he says. He makes a lot of good points in this book, especially about choosing what you want to think about and dwell on. As tough as it is to say: "just don't think about it", sometimes you really do have to force yourself not to think about it. I'll try.