Speaking Volumes

It’s Banned Book Week! Here in the library we have a collection of banned or frequently challenged books wrapped up in brown paper and patron’s are encouraged to check one out, sight unseen. One patron we were talking with this week was truly surprised that there were books challenged or banned. She couldn’t believe it could happen here… in her own neck of the woods.

The 6 word memoir craze...everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon. A couple of weeks ago I was browsing through a copy of AARP (my husbands!) when the article Less Is L'Amour caught my eye. AARP invited readers to tell their tales of love and heartbreak-in half a dozen words or less. The very next day Megan I were chatting about what to blog about, tossing ideas back and forth. Now, I had already decided I was going for the 6 word memoir idea. I wasn't even hinting at it with Megan cause I needed my own something to write about. All of a sudden it was if she read my mind (did you Megan?) and says, I've been thinking about blogging about the book that Smith Magazine wrote compiling six word memoirs. There went MY blog. In all fairness, Megan did a real good job telling about the project and the book and actually getting some readers to respond with their own "cardinal number that is the sum of five plus one" memoirs. I really couldn't have done better. You can read her blog by cutting and pasting this address into your browser

http://www.engagedpatrons.org/Blogs.cfm?SiteID=9336&BlogID=181&BlogPostID=5505

AARP didn't stop with tales of love. In that same issue they invited reader to sum up in six words "the best advice you've ever gotten-or given"
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Still these memoir subjects aren't quite what I had in mind. Given that this week is banned book week and an opportunity to celebrate our freedom to read I'd like to hear your six word memoir regarding

What does reading mean to you?

Think and share. One great example...can't remember who penned it, sums it up quite nicely and is evidenced in Sara Nelson's great book by the same name:

So many books, so little time!

This week I read an article from the Boston Globe that shocked me. Get this; Cushing Academy, a prep school in Ashburnham, MA, has decided to get rid of ALL the books in their library to build a completely digital library. Here are just a few of the details:

Instead of stacks they are spending $42,000 on three large flat screen TV’s.

$20,000 will go to special laptop friendly carrels.

They are replacing the reference desk with a $50,000 coffee shop, $12,000 of which will be going to a cappuccino machine.

They have purchased 18 electronic readers from Amazon and Sony for a total of 10,000. (How many students will have to share these 18 readers I wonder…)

James Tracy, the head master and head proponent of the bookless school is quoted as saying, “When I look at books, I see an outdated technology, like scrolls before books.’’

To get the full story copy and paste the link below:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/04/a_library_without_the_books/

The whole thing sounds like an article from The Onion to me! First, I have to wonder what the parents think. This is a prep school, they are paying for their kids to attend, and now their kids won’t have access to books in the library, but they will have access to all the COFFEE they want. What happens when all this ‘cutting edge’ technology isn’t so cutting edge anymore? Something newer, faster, better, cheaper, smaller is always coming out…are they going to replace their whole entire library every few months? Is every student going to get a kindle? What if they spill their fancy cappuccino on their kindle – who’s going to replace it? (BTW – a book would just DRY and still be usable) What about the physical and eyesight problems associated with reading off a computer screen all the time?

I’m all for staying abreast of what’s new and using advances in technology to enhance education and learning. However, I just can’t see the students benefiting from the loss of their entire library of books. I’d love to hear your comments!

You can learn quite a lot about some one depending on if they prefer Batman or Superman. Batman fans are darker, broodier, they don’t like the limelight and they’ll always have the last punch, no matter what the cost. Where as Superman fans are cheerier, more optimistic, will smile politely for the camera and will be sensible. 

                             

I've subscribed to Nutrition Action Health Letter for years. The back page is usually devoted to food which Nutrition Action terms The Right Stuff (thumbs up) and Food Porn (thumbs down). A recent issue gave the up thumb to KFC's Grilled Chicken and a big thumb's down to Baskin-Robbins Sundae's which NA dubs Sundae Worst!

I can't help wondering what Nutrition Action would think of the new food addition to the Big E, the Craz-E Burger. Everyone knows that part of the fun of going to fairs is eating all the greasy food. French fries, fried dough, deep fried veggies, deep fried twinkies, clam fritters, mini donuts, melted cheese on anything, etc. New England's biggest fair, The Big E, which is running through October 4th this year has introduced some fair favorites over the years including the Big E Cream Puff and the Big E Éclairs. Is it just me or does the Craz-E Burger, consisting of a doughnut-bacon-cheeseburger, seem a bit over the top? You read that right. A cheeseburger topped with bacon, between two halves of a grilled glazed doughnut. I hear it costs $5, a bargain as fair food goes. Fairgoers are raving about this gooey masterpiece. Let me know if you're brave enough to eat one.

As for me I'm back to reading Nutrition Action Health Letter (available at Saxton B.). I'll let you know if the Craz-E makes the back page.

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Update 10/2/09 ~ Couldn't help sharing this news article as read in The Chronicle, Willimantic on 9/29/09. The article entitled The Big  E Food this Year is Craz-E by Ken Dixon from the Connecticut Post.

Dixon tells about Rosie Kruze and her husband, Blake, of Plainville whose candy booth in The Conecticut Building has been a real hit at this year's fair.   ($2.00), often selling out by 4PM. 

It's the PBP that really got me. What's that you ask? A peanut butter-bacon and provolone pizza. That's the claim to fame to Randy's Wooster St. Pizza, also housed in our state building. What's next, a PPP (peanut butter-pepperoni, and your choice of provolone or parmesean).

My opinion -  I'll pass on all!

Carol found this little gem in the stacks today:

My Backyard History Book, by David Weitzman. It’s a little paperback book from 1975 filled with information and activities to get know your family and your hometown’s history.

The book begins like this, “This book is about you, and your grandfather, and his grandmother, and the songs they used to sing, and picnics, and the wagon they used to drive, and the house where your mother was born, and the uncle on your mother’s side that everyone used to whisper about. This book is about attics, and your father’s grandfather’s famous horse.”

Originally, Carol showed it to me because it was in our adult section, and it really seems to be geared for children. She asked me if I wanted to move it into our junior non-fiction section.  The truth is neither of us seemed sure of what to do with it, or if we should even keep it in the collection at all!

On the one hand, it’s kind of a unique, quirky little book. I flipped through it and found lots of interesting ideas on how to get to know your family and hometown history. The book has directions on how to make a family tree, a time capsule, and how do make rubbings of buildings and engravings and more. Here is a page on slang that your parents or grandparents might have used: 

This section is on machines that your grandparents may have used: 

On the other hand, it is outdated and doesn’t have a lot of cover appeal. Would someone, child or adult, be likely to notice it and check it out? The last check out stamp in the book is from 1993, but when I looked up the in computer it said we didn’t even add it to our collection until 1997! Very mysterious.

What do you think? If we keep it, would YOU check it out?

There is a little known fact that most Technical Services Librarian’s can swear enough to make any pirate proud. Not all of course, but enough that there are jokes about this being why the Technical Services departments of libraries are often found tucked into out of the way places. I must confess that in my last job, a Technical Services department squirreled away in a locked, windowless basement, when angry, the four women who worked in the room could turn the air blue. I, being the youngest, was often teased that I shouldn’t be allowed to hear such things.

My husband's been retired for three years now. It amazes me how quickly the house and all its' surrounding territory has now become his. Though I love having him home (he's a great cook), sometimes I miss having the house all to myself. When he worked he'd get up pretty early and would be out of the house by 6:15 AM. As I start work at 10, I'd have almost four blissful hours to myself. I could do anything I wanted and didn't have to feel guilty about it. It's not that he's underfoot all the time Frequently he's out in the yard doing what I call potzing. The house and yard are big enough that I can even lose him at times, especially when I really want him for something; that's called selective absence. It's just that he never seems to go anywhere leaving me to my own devices (meaning reading, Internet or foreign films).Mothers with kids who have returned to school know what I'm talking about. House to self! I used to relish those days too, when school started again and I didn't have to hide in the bathroom, the only sacred place that no one followed. So I guess I'm back to that, closing myself in the john,where no man can follow, not out of necessity but catching a few moments of peace to read.

A great series for quick reading are the Chicken Soup for the...just fill in the blank. Last Chicken Soup I read was for the Nature Lover's Soul and I must say this is one of my all time favorites, a tie with the one for a Couple's Soul. Nature Lover's Soul has some wonderful stories, Goose Island in which Tom Lusk helps with the birth of a gosling, a really funny story about Abraham Lincoln's Birthplace, a poignant story by Heather Trexler Remoff about what makes Grace run. There's the story of Lee and her dying wish to swim with dolphins and a mom who lets the chores go to have a picnic lunch with her kids. Like the cover says there are stories here to inspire, stories of joy, insight and adventure in the great outdoors. I so much loved the story by Linda M. Hasselstrom from the book Land Circle called Bells in the Night that I bought her book and have contacted her and made a new acquaintance.

All griping aside, I'm truly glad to find time to read, whenever and wherever that may be. And I'm glad to have those few minutes each day to read a story from Chicken Soup. Frequently when I'm finished with a Chicken Soup, I'll either give it away or swap it on paperbackswap.com. Not this time. It's a keeper!

"I was a Michael Jackson impersonator."

"I still make coffee for two."

And the inspiration for the project, Hemmingway’s six word story, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Anyways, since then a number of compilations of these ‘six word memoirs’ from SMITH Magazine have popped up:

Yesterday the latest was delivered to the library, I Can’t Keep my Own Secrets; Six Word Memoirs by Teens Famous and Obscure:

I’ve only scanned through it but my first reaction is… wow. Addicting to read, and like the others sometimes funny, sometimes hopeful, but often dark:

“I fulfilled my awkwardness quota today.” -Maggie A.

“Use makeup; it covers bruises.” - Kate G.

“Hair’s pink to piss you off.” - Stephanie M.

“I never got my Hogwarts letter.” – Deanna H.

Every year the eighth graders in town do a project on memoirs. I can imagine this new book and the six word memoir project becoming a great extension for our eighth graders, or any other teacher working on memiors.

http://www.smithmag.net/sixwords/

Maybe you’ll be in the next book! BUT – If you’re going to post it there, why not share it here too? What’s your story?

The Wednesday after Labor Day  is special to me. Odd I know, but it will forever in my mind be the first day of school and the start of Fall. I know this is not true, in either official calendar or practice, but it is one of those things so firmly entranced in my mind, I can’t shake it.

If you'd like to find books about Fall, things to do in New England this season, or just get back that new school year feeling with a pile of books to read... Come see us @ the Library!

So what does the best read traveler read on a trip to Panama?

As might be expected The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914 by David McCullough was the book of choice of at least three of my fellow travelers on my recent trip to Panama. Part of the excursion was to be an intimate transit by 24 passenger catamaran through all 3 sets of locks. Though we would get a first hand account of the history of the canal by visiting The Miraflores Visitor Center, the ship director's excellent presentations about the canal and the overall general knowledge of our tour guide over the several days of our journey, nothing can quite equal the scope of McCullough's tome. At 698 pages it's a hefty book, so much so, one reader only brought the pages she hadn't read. Feigning horror at her destruction of the book, she assured me it could be repaired on her return home. In reality I thought it quite clever of her to reduce the weight of her suitcase this way.
 

Having finished the only book I brought on the trip, I went in search of another by visiting the beautiful historic library at The Gamboa Resort Hotel. Located on the second floor at the end of a spiral staircase, this room was not the usual thrown together stack of shelves that comprise most hotel libraries. Large expanses of wall shelves, a staircase leading to the loft, a library ladder, tables to host table-top books, excellent subdued lighting and natural light from  arge windows looking into the atrium and grounds made this a very welcoming place. I think I was the only one from my group who actually spent some time here, browsing the collection of books on Panama birds, fauna, animals and history in both English and Spanish. I found three good books left by other travelers to take with me. Two I had already read, but knew someone else in my group would be in need of a good book. Within minutes of leaving the library, I encountered one of my group who caught the title of one book, Still Alice by Lisa Genova.. She told me that it had been highly recommended by a friend and that she intended to read it soon. One book down and one to go. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson soon found a new home and I settled down to read my pick, How to Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward. It was the cover that captured me.

Also spotted being read on our leisurely three day journey aboard The Discovery were these books:

Moscow Rules Daniel Silva
Loving Frank Nancy Horan
T is for Trespass Sue Grafton
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer
No Time For Goodbye Linwood Barclay
Floating in My Mother's Palm Ursula Hegi
Confessions of a Shopaholic Sophie Kinsella

I'm certain there were others, tucked into carryons, and taken out in the privacy of rooms each night. What's a vacation without a good book to read!

 

Some time ago Carol posted to this blog asking people about their favorite audio book readers. As she put it, “Any audio book enthusiast will tell you the narrator can make or break a book. If you don't like the voice, nothing will save the story.” At the time, I didn’t comment on Carol’s post because I had never listened to an audio book. Well, since that time I have tried a few of them and have found just how much the reader, the voice, can make or break the book.

My favorite by far (mind you, I’ve only listened to a handful) was Feed, by M.T. Andersen. Feed is a YA book that takes place in a future world where almost everyone has a ‘feed,’ which is like a television, radio, and computer all in one, implanted into their brains. The audio book was read by David Aaron Baker who did and excellent job with the boy AND girl teenage voices. In conversation between the futurist teens he switched seamlessly between loud, obnoxious, boy voices, to sarcastic, drawl, valley-girlish, girl voices. His reading made the futuristic slang believable and natural. (I literally almost found myself using it in conversation afterwards). And perhaps best of all were the ‘feedcasts,’ the constant stream commercials and chats pouring in through the feed. Su is the one who originally recommended the audio book, and now I’ve found myself pushing it to our teen patrons.  

Right now I am a little more than halfway through Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. Loving Frank is a fictionalization of the life of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who’s best known as the woman who architect Frank Lloyd Wright ran off to Europe and had an affair with. Even this far in I have mixed feelings on the story, but one thing is clear, Joyce Bean, the woman who reads the book is incredible. Although a lot of the book is told through the voice of Mamah Cheney, the book she switches from child, to man, and a variety of characters with heavy German, Swedish, and Irish accents. I am so impressed with her reading – it may be reason I have stuck with the book this far.

Ok last one and NOT a positive reader review. In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollen – uggg. This one was read by Scott Brick. I picked it up on audio because I was interested in what the book had to say, but I know I get bored easily with non-fiction. I thought the audio book would solve that problem; but Scott Brick’s voice is dramatic and condescending. The whole thing sounds like a BORING college lecture. When I looked at reviews on Amazon to see if anyone else felt the same way, I found one reviewer who wrote, “sounds like a bad version of Frasier Crane.” I couldn’t have put it better myself.

Let me know your about latest adventures in audio!

As many of you know, when I sit down to write, I sometimes look for what happen today in history just for inspiration. (And of course, it’s a good excuse for diversion, since we don’t get an exceedingly large number of reference questions each day.) As a result, here’s one I bet you would never guess: It was on September 2, 1969 that the first U.S. Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) made its debut. Hmph!