Monday, August 16, 2010

I Love My Librarian

Do you love your librarian? Does the library in your neighborhood, school or university make a difference in your life or the lives of others. Could your librarian or library use some money? I am betting that no one can really say their local library couldn't use the funds.
Here is the opportunity courtesy of the American Library Association and the New York Times to show your love for the library.

We are in the process of nomination our local librarian for a Carnegie Award. I will be conducting this interview with Wylie this evening and then tomorrow we will call the library to get the librarian's name and email address so we can submit our nomination. I will post Wylie's interview tomorrow.

Here are the questions we must answer:











A thank you to Valerie who pointed me to the contest.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Latest Library Visit

We went to the library again. This time Wylie walked straight up to the librarian and said...

(in a very sing songy voice) "Oh Librarian I would like lions and tigers and sharks please"
We were not disappointed!


Most recent books for the Kiddo:

1. Sharks, Gibbons, Gail –One of our favorite animal authors. We’ve read Penguins and Dinosaurs by her.

2. Sharks!, Schreiber, Anne-This is another favorite. This one is a National Geographic Reader Level Two book so short sentences but solid information for Wylie to absorb and enjoy.

3. Face to Face with Sharks, Doubilet, David—This is one of a series that we really enjoy. Full color photographs of the animals mixed with drawings and descriptions of the different varieties of sharks. Did you know there are over 350 kinds of sharks?

4. Tigers, Squire, Ann—Good but not keeping Wylie’s attention. It could be the shark books are much more interesting.

5. A Tiger Cub Grows Up, Hewett, Joan—IN LOVE! Wylie loves learning about the tiger cub and checking to see if Hobbs agrees or has similar features. He wants to read it more and more.

6. Tiger Tales and Big Cat Stories, Chancellor, Deborah—Haven’t read this one yet but maybe tonight.

7. Deep in the Jungle, Yaccarino, Dan—Fun story with a moral. The lion is prideful and goes to the circus only to realize the big mistake. He then comes back to the jungle and his friends.

For the Grownup:

1. Cast a Road Before Me, Collins, Brandilyn—I thought it was a cool coming of age book. I didn’t notice it was Christian literature. I started reading it and while it had a good initial story, the overt use of God and religion as explanation not as part of the story was annoying. The story is that a young girl in the 60s loses her mom and moves to a small town where she is angry at everyone and tries to find her way. Unfortunately every other page she is in church and someone is preaching God to her. This is another one that is going back because it just didn’t do it for me.

Still on Hold for the Grownup:

Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Okrent, Daniel

(Professional Review) While the story of Prohibition (1919–33) is not suspenseful, since we know how this social experiment turned out, Okrent (former public editor, New York Times) helpfully fills in details, explanations, and lessons to be learned while supplementing the familiar story of how legislated temperance did not succeed. He mines archival and published sources and adds memories acquired through interviews and reference to previously unavailable private papers. Okrent emphasizes that the 18th Amendment was a long time coming, passed by the efforts of progressives, populists, nativists, and other morally motivated reformers. Temporarily ending the fifth-largest industry in America, Prohibition transformed the alcoholic beverage business as well as American culture generally. Okrent admits that, although Prohibition promoted criminality and hypocrisy, it did cut the rate of alcohol consumption. He book-ends his work with historical explications of Prohibition's enactment and its eventual demise owing to lack of both sufficient political will and enforcement funds.

Books Returned:
1. Mind for Murder, P.D. James--This one took awhile mostly because I was distracted with reading the Hawaii Guide Book. It was good. I had read the first book and it was the least obvious suspect as the culprit. So in this one I went with my initial thought but this time it was the most obvious and the one with the most to gain as the culprit. Interesting twist. General story: 1960s Psychiatric Outpatient Clinic. General Manager is found murdered. All the psychiatrists, nurses and orderlies are in the building at the time along with one patient who is under the effects of LSD (which is explained as a psychiatric treatment!). There are devious characters hiding behind lies that while seemingly connected are simply just the characters hiding from each other. Very interesting.

2. Hawaii travel guide. We made up our minds and booked our trip to Hawaii! It was very informative and helpful in making our decision.

Books Currently being read by the Grownup:
1. The Night Trilogy, Wiesel, Elie -- I was moved by Night the first time I read it in high school. I remember feeling the cold and experiencing the pain and confusion of the images Elie Wiesel saw in the camps. He continually is questioning how "God" can be doing this and facing his elders who were denying their faith. He struggles with the fact he was destined to by a Kabbalist at a young age and then ended up in the camps.
Dawn is his fictional experience post war as a part of the Israeli terrorists. I'm mostly through the story and it is equally horrifying and questioning as to why this is happening to him.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

2012 Publishing Crash

Huffington Post article: Here
So what do you think?
Would you miss print books?
Would you be willing to pay more for print books?
Would the libraries that are supposedly going away be the only resource for print books?
For those of us who are dinosaurs with the love of curling up with a book will we have to rely on the library to bring us the hard back and paper backs and soft backs that we so love?

Personally if publishing were to crash I would wait for books from the library that are no longer available for sale. I would eventually move to the Kindle for the books I just couldn't wait for but for the most part I think I would wait.

Then again, I already do that for new bestsellers through the library. Yes sometimes that means being in a que of 150 people to have access to 15 copies. If there is a book I must have when it is published I will buy it but for the most part there really haven't been many books that I must have in my possession to read again.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Library Fines

So we returned many of our dinosaur books yesterday. We've kept the penguin, Chet Gecko, and pesky dragon books.
Unfortunately I did not renew the books in time last week and we racked up a day of fines for many of our books now returned.
Cost: $3.90!
Value: Amazing. We were able to renew online so that we only racked up the one day of fines. The cost of just one book is about $15. So 3.90 is nothing in comparison.