i decided to see if that library in the east (sounds like something in a fantasy story) has any star trek novels, because it's been awhile since i read any. they have like 37 in ebook form, which is surprising. i think of ST novels as kind of not very popular in libraries

They used to be much more available in libraries, at least in my experience. I remember my library having entire shelves of them when I was a teenager. I guess they've fallen out of fashion among library purchasers.

It is ironic that the numbered novels were almost all stand-alone and the newer stuff has much more continuity. There are some stand-alone newer novels, but many of them are part of larger stories. I've read very little of the relaunch stuff. I keep looking at some of the TNG stuff. It looks vaguely interesting, but I just find a lot of the newer stuff very flat when compared to the older novels.

I hope you enjoy the ones you did find :)