Mark's Blog

I worked at the circulation desk of my college's science library while I was there. Shuffling books around and helping patrons was mostly fun but menial. It paid for music CD's while my parent's foresight and debt paid for college. I doubt the real librarian got paid much more.

I can imagine that a larger university library might have some opportunities for non-managerial work, such as computer systems, etc. The real interesting part is making information available to patrons. Then again, maybe they'll just pay undergrads to scan everything and Google will find it.

If you want to get paid to read, you should be an editor for Wired magazine or something interesting like that.

A university library is a possibility. That might be more gratifying than working for a corporate library for instance.

Editing sounds like tough work. I'm a slow reader, and have difficulty memorizing the house style rules. Each time I try to read our in-house style guide, I find my attention waning quickly and my capacity to retain what I've read seriously diminished.

But the idea of editing appeals to me. In particular I wonder how much of a challenge it would be to maintain an editorial line of which you're proud while also dealing with all the pressures of getting things out the door and not turning off your sponsors.