logorrhea

Reflections on the Festival of Books

2009-04-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted in ages. That's because my mind has been slowly atrophying due to lack of work. However, I have been reading (head over to the Bibliomania blog for more on that).

In any case, this weekend was the yearly celebration/exploitation of everything literary (or tangentially-related) in Los Angeles, otherwise known as the LA Times Festival of Books. Now in it's 14th year, this thing keeps getting bigger and bigger, though not necessarily better.

Quick history: I've been to this thing so many times, and have actually been a volunteer lead (book signing areas) twice. I love, love, love that LA has one of the largest, most elaborate, most attended and most well-organized book festivals in the country (does SF even have one??). See, we're not all sun-baked airheads in So CA!!

So, a few notes on my weekend of exhaustive book-fetishising:

**Being poor really, really sucks. There won't be anything for me to do about it next weekend in Vegas, but last weekend I was able to get away with two days of entertainment for the cost of parking ($7) and food ($20 for both days). I could have brought food, but there is a balance to be found between being poor and being lazy. Sunday, I brought my own soda and water, so that worked well enough.

**The VAST majority of the authors were only too happy to sign the book I brought, since I knew I wouldn't be able to purchase their books. There were a couple of nonplussed douchebags who sneered and scribbled; with those pricks, I was sorely tempted to ask just how their sales were going and how their throats were feeling after calling out like a carnival barker (yet NO ONE was at their table when I went up). Some of the names now in the book: Susan Patron, Lisa Yee, Mike Farrell, Len Decker, Dave Kellett, the guy who does the "Rubes" comic strip, the poet Hope Anita Smith (who signed the book like a HS yearbook!), Larry Niven, Robert Masello, Cecil Castelucci, one of the designers from "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" (and the creator of "Seaweed"), Andrew Smith, Chip Mosher, Todd Borg and lots of others that I can't recognize. I think authors are used to their signatures being in books that they wrote, so they don't have to write legibly. Or maybe that's why they write books...I dunno.

**The wind picked up something awful on Saturday, which would be why several people got conked by one of the scaffolding signs to the Food Court. Is it a surprise that it was the food court that consisted solely of crap food, a la Panda Express, a coffee house and sweetened almonds? Inquiring minds don't actually care, as it was pretty brutal to see.

**An ENORMOUS crowd showed for the Eric Carle presentation in the kid's area. It was amazing and a little frightening to see so many people packed into such an enclosed outdoor space. Like Woodstock, only without the drugs, the mud, or the music. And with more children. And books. Ok, nothing like Woodstock. Moving on...

**While the crowd was listening to Eric Carle, a ginormous (huh, spell-check knows the word ginormous, I did not know that) branch fell from the trees behind the stage. Keep in mind, this wasn't too far away from or in time after the sign incident, so people were a little skittish. The branch (apprx 15 ft long) fell immediately behind the stage tents, but behind the fence that was a few feet from the tents, on the other side of which was a very busy walkway. That branch fell in the one place where no one would get hurt. It's like a Mother Nature mea culpa, I got your back.

**The guys (and lady) at Boom Studios rock. A bunch of them did a cool little info panel on Saturday (which was what put me over the edge for my now-fading sunburn) and I talked with one of the honchos on Sunday. The honcho, Chip Mosher, not only signed my book, but also gave me one of his for free. That f'ing rocked of him. I so should have asked for a job, but you can only ask for so many handouts at one time. I took the book instead.

**The festival organizers really missed the merchandising boat this year. While I get tradition and always having the Festival shirts/merchandise be similarly structured, the marketing leading up to and plastered all over the event were very cool, Eric-Carle designed slogans.

Make Books Not War
Peace Books Understanding (and I would always get Elvis Costello's "Peace Love and Understanding" stuck in my head when I saw this one)
What Are You Reading
All You Need Is Books
I (heart) (open book)

I know there were a couple of others. Thing is, these WEREN'T AVAILABLE ON SHIRTS. WTF?? The closest was the LA Times info booths were handing out I (heart) (open book) pins. Slogans are hip, they're fashionable, and they're a hella lot easier to wear for most people than a giant caterpillar. It saddens me when incompetence mars my good time.

**I'm still trying to figure out what cleaning products, the lap band, medical charities and a nurses union have to do with books, literacy, publishing or learning. I have a feeling not a damn thing except the willingness to purchase booth space, but that's just not a good enough reason for those people to be there. The Festival is losing integrity, here's hoping it stifles the loss next year.

**Speaking of, favorite booth: Two guys. One sitting there, occasionally meditating, mostly crowd-watching. Other guy sitting with a portable typewriter (missing an N and a C) on his lap (though he did score a little tray table later). Sign says something to the effect of Poetry Booth: Name a Topic, Name a Price. Yep, I bought one for $2, about being an out of work booknerd. They guys were cool and pretty busy, I hope they made enough to hitch a ride back to Oakland!!

So there's a few highlights from a very, very busy weekend. I slept for a ridiculous number of hours last night, so I'm rested and ready to finish my book (People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks, if you're wondering). Oh, and look for a job. That too. :D

Another day, another $100 in books

2009-03-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Now, I don't want to mislead anyone by this post's title. I didn't actually spend $100 on books today. That would be ridiculous. I mean, I'm out of work, I haven't received a paycheck or income (other than book sales) in more than a month, and my savings is damn near depleted...no, I actually spent about $75. Much more reasonable...

Thing is, I justify this buying by selling the books with my Amazon store. That's why the $1 bookstore guy is so used to me (I spend about $30 at a time there), and the guys at my FAVORITE used book place, The Bookman in Orange (they have graphic novels! they have graphic novels!!), are quickly beginning to recognize me. And don't even get me started on the Friends of the Library bookstores (except for the one nearest me, I'm going to volunteer there and I PROMISED not to pilfer their collection).

So I have a pretty decent selection to sell now. Things were picking up for awhile and it took some analysis to figure out why: The fastest selling items were the ones that I bought because I would want to read them. So that's kind of changed how I've been buying books. For one, it makes it much, much more difficult to list the books that I'm trying to sell, since I'm buying books that I want to read. And it's been sort of what spurred on the sister blog that I started, Bibliomania.

So let's take a look at the books I bought today. Of course, these are only the ones I want to read NOW. There are others that look interesting, but I have to practice some restraint. Of course, peruse the store at www.amazon.com/shops/wurdnurd).

First the graphic novels:
The Good Neighbors (book 1: Kin) by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (aka one of my favorite YA authors and one of my favorite graphic novelists). Like the first taste of peanut butter and chocolate, I just about squealed with delight upon finding this. Actually, I really did squeal. This one, I'm really, really not sure will make it to Amazon. Excuse me, must wipe drooooool.

The Un-Men: Get Your Freak On! by John Whalen and Mike Hawthorne. I really shouldn't buy books based on titles, since they tend to be zombie-sounding (i.e., Eating People Is Wrong, which is actually a very, very dull British satire). This one may sound like the zany adventures of disco-loving undead and mating mutants, but I seriously doubt it...

Across the Universe: The DC Universe Stories of Alan Moore. After finally reading through the various comics I pilfered from BEA (and from Brudder Davey's collection), I'm starting to really appreciate the superhero genre. Yes, I entered into it via the back door (graphic novels THEN comics, as opposed to, you know, the normal way), but I'm slowly feeling my way around. I went into Bookmans hoping to find a copy of the second book from League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and found this as a happy substitute.

And for the books (where I get into mighty more trouble):
Pirate's Passage by William Gilkerson. This is like Under the Black Flag, but for young adults. Oh, and it's fiction. But it has lots of history. Who DOESN'T love pirates (the past-tense swashbuckling type, not the modern-day hijack oil tankers type, of course)?

Howl by Allen Ginsberg. Do I really have to go over this one? And it has an intro by William Carlos Williams, one of my all-time favorite poets.

Jack Kerouac: King of the Beats, a Portrait by Barry Miles: Yes, I hit the Beats section at Bookmans, and I hit it hard. Would you believe that I don't think I've ever seen a photo of Jack Kerouac? He was kinda hot!

Guerrilla Radio: Rock 'n' Roll Radio and Serbia's Underground Resistance by Matthew Collin: I don't know why, but this sounds like such an awesome topic.

The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break by Steven Sherrill: So there's a minotaur and he now lives in the Southeast, working as a line cook in a diner, and his life falls apart. I shit you not. You can't make this up...well, you and I can't, but Steven Sherrill apparently can.

Letters from Pemberley by Jane Dawkins: I know, I know, I'm SUCH A CHICK!! Screw off, I still want to read it.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel. Not only does this itty-bitty book have an obscenely long title, but it's written by everyone's favorite science-geek-girl. I wish I could understand science like Dava Sobel, but she writes so cleanly that I don't have to, I can read her books and pretend to be a smarty-two-shoes.

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir: I'm so sick of wanting to read this book every time I see it in bookstores that I bought it; now I can stare at it longlingly every day until I finally suck it up and read it.

The Vampire of Venice Beach by Jennifer Colt: Um...You know what? I don't have to apologize for my tastes! And the cover rocks, in a Beach Blanket Bingo - cum - Charlie's Angel kind of way.

Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs: Because I can't just keep BUYING his books and NOT reading them. I think I have three (four?); it's ridiculous.

So yeah, them's the new acquisitions. Do you have a preference for what I should read first, last or somewhere in between? Post your suggestions in the comments and I may pay attention. As I finish the books, I'll post the reviews/info on Bibliomania and Shelfari, and the book will likely be available for sale in my Amazon store.

Sci Fi vs Syfy...seriously??

2009-03-17T09:37:00.000-07:00

NY Times today (yesterday? last week?) has an article about how the Sci Fi Channel is changing it's name to Syfy.

OMG, rly?

What I love about this article is that it's essentially regurgitating a press release, claiming from ONE viewer that this is a good thing, and otherwise spewing chunks from the mouth of some tv executive's lackey.

My initial reaction to the change: Wow, even the geeks are being dumbed down. Congrats guys! Welcome to the fold!

Clearly, the execs have NO idea who watches Sci Fi. These are the guys who tend to feel superior (intellectually, morally and, um, in other ways) to the rest of humanity. They don't usually appreciate being included as part of the masses and more appreciate turning their nose up to media that is marketed to the everyday consume. I mean, do you think Dwight Schrute would watch "Syfy"?

But, as execs tend to do, they are readily turning their faces away from their core demographic ("Waaaa, we're not just aliens and space travel!! We'll prove it to you!!!") and trying to "hip" up the image. Here's the kicker: "hip" isn't. "Geek" is. I can say for myself that I *like* my enclave of geekdom being just about aliens and space travel, thankyouverymuch. The occasional forays into fantasy still keep with the central geek-theme, so that's welcome too. Quit trying to mess with a good thing!

Oh, hell, if you're going to mess with it, do it right and be obvious. Just change the name to "GeekTV" and you'll be all set.

Time for a random

2009-03-09T13:48:00.000-07:00

Let's play a game of 25 Things (for those who don't know, this is where I blather on in an entirely egocentric and exhibitionist way). For the sake of space, patience, and theme, this will be an abbreviated version, so 10 things about me as a wurdnurd.

1) My life revolves around books. It's probably not healthy, to the extent that my obsession goes, but it's there, and it's better than some of the alternatives, so I'll let it stand.

2) Part of the reason I'm still out of work (since Sept...ouch) is because I'm not willing to start another career that's removed from my books. If it's not in a store, library, or otherwise handling books, I don't want to know about it. Sadly, there is ALWAYS someone more qualified than I am for the job. I can't even get a job at Barnes and Noble. It's frustrating and sad that I feel like I'm never good enough to do the only thing I feel I'm qualified to do.

3) Have you ever had someone tell you that they trust your taste in books implicitly and request a suggestion for their next read? I have. It's the most amazing feeling in the world. Really.

4) Perfect day: Sitting in the park on the grass when the sun is shining and the bugs are playing elsewhere and reading an engrossing, engaging and hilarious book. That's a little slice of heaven right there.

5) My Shelfari page doesn't even list all of the books I own and haven't read. Some are hidden, even from me, and won't emerge until they are ready to be read. I honestly believe that. It's the only plausible explanation for why I keep finding books in my collection that I either forgot or never knew I had.

6) I've been trying out Twitter and Facebook...I prefer blogging. (and check out the new blog that *only* about reviews and book info!!)

7) Last week, I went out for the night and forgot my wallet. It wasn't too big of a deal, I just had to drive home and get it. Even if I had been pulled over by a cop, I would have been fine, since I had used my license as a bookmark that day, and I never go ANYWHERE without my book. So yeah, I'm more likely to be carrying a book than currency or ID.

8) Yesterday, I was at Disneyland, reading in line for Splash Mountain, when I was accosted by Brer Fox and Brer Bear. Brer Fox was pointing at my book and pretending to close it (good luck with that pal), while Brer Bear kept petting my arm with his big furry paw. I really have no idea what they were getting at, and just went back to my book. Maybe that's the karma that resulted in being doused from head to toe on that ride. Lesson learned: never ignore the characters at Disneyland, they have powers we know not.

9) The next book I'm going to read is The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, and I'll finish up an Alphabetical Life sometime this week as well. These will be the 6th and 7th books I've read this month. It's only March 9th.

10) I escape into books because they educate, enlighten and impress me. While I've always preferred reading to writing, it never ceases to amaze me that humans can be so creative and eloquent to convey entire worlds to their readers. I've always been jealous of that ability (much like how I'm jealous of people who can play the piano, dance, act or fix cars), because it's one I've never mastered. The closest I can get to that mastery is the appreciation of it.

Random notes

2009-03-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Last night I had a really great conversation with a couple of poor schmucks (sorry, but conversations I think are great tend to bore the hell out of normal people). Basically, while everyone is in a panty-twist about ebooks right now and are bemoaning (or celebrating, whatever) the demise of the hard copy book, it's really not as dire as all that.
If you can have a fully protected ebook that is shareable and accessible without additional equipment (i.e., Internet, computer, ereader, iPhone), then I would worry. As it is, books are the perfect little portable entertainment systems. You don't need power sources, RAM or screens to access the meat of a book. When you buy a book, you've bought all you need to be entertained for the next 2-8 hours. Kind of like how soccer is the most popular sport in the world because it is so readily accessible (all you need is a ball and space to play), books will continue to exist and thrive, because they are so simple.
So please, everyone, just chill out already!

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Random book of the week that I've sold on Amazon: The Theory of Group and Quantum Mechanics. And, no, it's not chick-lit.

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Something is bothering me: I'm not seeing any entry-level wurndurd positions anywhere. Libraries are only hiring management-level positions, and bookstores aren't hiring at all. The bookstore thing, I get, it's just sad. But libraries...whatever happened to promoting from within and bringing in new talent at the bottom? What happened to fostering loyalty over a career? I know a lot of libraries are worried about succession management, and they should be. For the cost of bringing in a new manager, they could be bringing in two (or more, if we're talking the SF Bay Area) entry-level Librarians. It feels frustrating and terribly backwards that the vast majority of the positions I'm finding are II, III, Supervisory or Directors, especially since those who are brought in at that level will have already superceded others in that system who wanted that job. Not exactly the best way to create a collaborative environment, you know?

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There's a book coming out in May called Smart Girls Marry Money. The romantic in me is crying right now...

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Today is the official first day of the Watchmen movie. I'm not sure I actually want to see it, knowing what ridiculous changes have been made to the story from the original. I understand the need to collapse characters and streamline the story, but to change the ending completely? To change motives and directives? Screenwriters adapting from source material (especially beloved classics like Watchmen) need to remember that the material with which they work IS NOT THEIRS. They may feel ownership because they are adapting the material for a different medium, but the language, characters, action, tone, motivations and development is someone else's.

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PW is reported this morning that Dublin has been declared a Unesco City of Literature. It joins the ranks of Edinburgh, Melbourne, and Iowa City....
There's really nothing else to say, is there...

Mistaken identities

2009-03-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

So I recently discovered googlefight.com (thanks to Salam Pax for blogging about it, such fun!!), which eventually led to me discovering that I have a homonymous doppelganger in Internet-land. S/he is also named wurdnurd in various online communities, yet does not appear to actually read anything. S/he is obsessed with David Cook, and I mean OBSESSED (hell, I only just discovered that David Cook and Dane Cook are two different people!).

I'm not going to harp on this person's lack of taste, culture or awareness. Sure, it bothers me when someone fancies themselves to be something they are not (i.e., a wurdnurd who is clearly illiterate...no, I kid...sorta), but I'm not one to really seriously judge another person's taste. A famous quotes for bookworms: never apologize for your reading taste (I believe this is attributed to Betty Rosenburg). In the same vein, never apologize for your taste in music or obsession, but be prepared to be mercilessly ridiculed for them. :D

Actually, what kind of gets me is that people in certain communities think that I'm this other wurdnurd. Clearly, I'm not. I chose the wurdnurd moniker (which is my handle in Myspace, Twitter, Shelfari, the LOL sites, anywhere else I need to log-in with a handle and, of course, my domain) because it reflects my particular obsession, which is books, reading, and the pursuit of knowledge. Hell, yes, I feel posessive of this name, as I felt it to be a unique identifier of my online (and, to be honest, offline) persona. It bothers me that this person is using a name that clearly doesn't correlate with his/her particular interests, and I am suffering the fallout of that, with folks finding, following and/or contacting me online because of the wurdnurd moniker and thinking that I am this someone else.

I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does. It bothers me more than when someone asks if I'm related to a particular jack-hole late night host because we share a last name. It bothers me more than being serenaded with Sarah Smiles, Sara (Fleetwood Mac or, more often, Jefferson Starship) or the Sara Lee jingle. It bothers me more because I did not choose my first or last name, but I did carefully choose my online handle. Back in 2007. Back before this poser decided to coopt my name and start causing me headaches. Back when I though the name was unique and reflective of a bibliovore, a lover of books, a literate consumer, a obsessive reader...not a David Cook fangirl/boy.

Sigh. My mom was right, I should trademark the name and just be done with it...

Ok, rant over. Peace out, Seacrest (d'oh!).

Oy veh, the joys of new toys

2009-02-25T21:38:00.000-08:00

As happens to just about EVERYONE at some point, my computer was demolished by an evil, awful, horrible virus on Sunday. Luckily, I was able to load all my necessary files to an external hard drive (thank you safe mode!)...except for the pictures (again!). Moving on.

So the Dell guy has replaced half my laptop. Seriously: mother board, hard drive, memory...he'll be coming back to fix the speakers (wiring was somehow cut...damn gremlins), replace the keyboard, rubber feet and left mouse button. I'm very slowly getting a new laptop. And this is why the extended warrantee is a good deal.

Of course, this also means I have to load ALL my programs back onto the computer. You know, all those little programs that make the Internet a little more friendly, like Firefox, iTunes, Adobe Reader, the .docx converter, Flash, Java...I know I'm forgetting some, and I'll soon realize what it is when I hit that one web page where it makes all the difference.

But the joy of this is that I'm now discovering all the latest and greatest little gadgets that make the Internet a cluttered little app-ville. Like Twitter. And Facebook (don't laugh, I only just joined this week...or last week...whatever). So, yeah, I'm now spewing randomness into the Ether just like everyone else. At least I'm not so delusional as to think that anyone reads this, or the Twitter thing, or even Facebook (except for Jammy, who's my reason d'etre on there anyway).

Does this make me part of the overstimulated, hyperconnected, self-obsessed generation that has the attention span of an overcaffenated gnat? Hm. Yeah, I guess so.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I have to Tweet, throw some beads and make some fake friends...

Look me up on Twitter under wurdnurd!

Why I love the Internet

2009-02-21T18:11:00.000-08:00

So I'm doing a little research while writing a Shelfari review of Jacqueline Susann's The Love Machine (yes, I take this crap way too seriously, but it's only because I'm basing my review off of my having read the book 10 years ago, so it's more a refresher course than anything), and I come across this sentence, "It's only a matter of time before someone designs a thin, 9-in. by 6-in. portable TV set that opens like a book."

So it's a pretty funny description of an e-book, ok.

Then I realize what I'm reading: A Time article reviewing The Love Machine. In 1969.

Huh, it only took, what, 40 years? So, yeah, I guess it really was just a matter of time. :D

Gotta love the Internet!

Things that seem like a good idea at the time often aren't

2009-02-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

So there's that category of action which, at the time of conception or in the theoretical stage, seem like a valid and justifiable thing to do, but upon entering the practical stage, are just really, really bad ideas.

Things like:
Seeing how fast you can chug a gallon of milk.
Testing the reflexes of a pit bull.
Fishing on a bed of ice during a thaw.
Dying all your clothes the same shade of blue so they always match.

Newest on the list:
Doing a 2000 piece puzzle of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Yes, I finished it, but damn if I wasn't really sick of the thing by the end...

New addition to the site!

2009-01-04T14:18:00.001-08:00

I thought I had done this aaaaages ago, but apparently hadn't. For those who are stalker-esque in people's reading habits, I've added a cute little widget over there to the left, where you can access my Shelfari page.

My impressive moment of the day: I actually managed to figure out where exactly to put all that code so that the shelf would appear correctly. Yes, I'm proud of myself for that, especially since I don't read a like of HTML. Yay me!

The books are ranked by rating, and are only the ones that I've read. If there's a rating, then there's also a review and tags for that book. Roll your mouse over the book to see the pop-up with additional information, including a link to buy from Amazon. Lessee...what else...oh, yeah, and feel free to be my friend on Shelfari! To see my full page there, go to www.shelfari.com/wurdnurd.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled crotchety wurdnurdiness.

I just don't understand people who hate books...

2008-12-19T12:55:00.000-08:00

From NY Times:
"The cadre of book-depositers is not without its stylists. The comedian Jean Villepique, who played Tracy Morgan’s therapist on “30 Rock,” says she likes to slam insects between the pages of library books and then return the corpse-laden tomes. “I like to think that someone will get to Page 62 and think, “Eww!” and then, “Who?” Villepique said in an e-mail message. She preys only on small bugs that land on the page voluntarily — mostly gnats (“like a little dust poof”) and mosquitoes, whether unfed (“neat and dry”) or bloody (“page joiners”). But Villepique warns that if any cockroach in her Los Angeles apartment “dares to creep near my copy of ‘Collapse,’ by Jared Diamond, I will kill, knowing that my behavior and the roach’s existence are both causes of the collapse of our society.”"

I mean, really, Ms. who-ever-the-hell-you-are? You're actually willing to not only destroy a living being for pleasure (yes, I realize they're bugs; still...) AND destroy public property to do it? You realize that the people who are most likely to find your destroyed library books are librarians? (wait, I'm sure you couldn't care less because they won't boost your so-called career) That they then have to remove the book to either fix or destroy the book, then take the time to buy, process and catalog a new copy? (Again, doubt you care; you probably think that the world OWES you the time it takes to clean up after your gross and unsanitary habits) Not only are your little murder sprees disgusting, but they're costing your PUBLIC library time and, worst of all, precious collection development dollars (more likely than not, they're already understaffed and woefully cash-poor, moreso than you, my little nobody-of-importance-or-influence). But of course, if you're the kind of person who takes pleasure in splattering bug guts in library books, willfully destroying property that could benefit EVERYONE, I'm sure the exact kind of person who thinks that libraries are a waste of space and that your sick, demented pleasures take precedence over the millions of people co-habitating your region and utilizing that same library's resources.

Some people are just disgusting human beings. This no-grade non-celebrity is exactly what she claims to detest: a cockroach. She claims to be the collapse of our society...I wouldn't give her any credit; she's just a disgusting nobody who tries to bolster her ego through perverse and destructive means. Here's hoping she never makes it above mediocrity.

Freaking Las Vegas

2008-12-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Ok, I get it: Vegas inhabitants don't see a whole lot of snow without a huge drive or an airplane involved. So I do understand why life might be a little jammed when Mother Earth gets a cold flash and dumps 2 inches on the city...

HOWEVER...

(from cnn.com) "The typically 15-minute trip took six hours, and when she finally arrived at her street, her Prius got stuck in the snow."

Hm...15 minute drive? So, figure that's about 5 miles(most...it's not like we're talking SF or LA here people)...The average person walks 3 miles an hour...That would have been an hour and a half walk. In the snow. Yet this dinky-ditz stays in her pseudo-eco-guzzler FOR SIX HOURS. Here's a hint, pretty baby: Get yer ass out of the car and WALK. Bonus points: You'd *really* be saving the environment, rather than sticking it up Mom Earth's ass with your globe-trotting, chemically-enhanced eco-terrorist car. Think about it.

I don't know what it goes to show, but I had to vent. Thank you and g'night!

Passing thought on tonight's debate

2008-10-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, is anyone gonna explain to McCain that there's a BIG difference between an implant and a transplant? That transplants AREN'T a benchmark for a "Cadillac" healthplan?

Silly robot! Someone has to check your programming!

Things I learned whilst in New Jersey

2008-10-05T14:21:00.000-07:00

So I just got back yesterday from a little trip to the lovely region of Central New Jersey. Like with any trip to a previously unknown location, I learned a few things about myself and my fellow humans over the past few days.

1) People don't need to walk. Driving (badly) to the store can be enough. Anyone who says different must be from California.

2) My Ford Focus rental was a zippy little bastard, with great gas mileage. Too bad I pre-paid for that tank of gas. Luckily, I took me two hours every night to find a quick bite to eat.

3) Central NJ is gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Full of trees, trees, trees. And that's about it.

4) Who knew an Ivy League school would only have one local bar? They must be smart because they stay so sober...

5) Street lights are good. Especially at night. Especially when driving down a two-lane road in the middle of nowhere and the posted speed limit is 45 mph and some asshole is riding my tail and I can't find the hotel. Street lights would be really nice then.

6) I nearly hit Bambi's mom. I didn't, but that's only because the Focus also has awesome brakes. Though street lights would have helped.

7) There is a point where getting lost goes from an inconvenience to being an art. I have elevated it to somewhere between Munch's Scream and Picasso's Guernica.

8) It is possible to read three books in three days. All it takes is being in Central NJ with no where to go.

9) NJ is in the middle of a time-space vortex. I really don't understand how 3.5 miles can take me 20 minutes, but I can make it to NYC in less than an hour.

10) I still want to work in a bookstore. Yup. It's not over yet.

I'ma gonna be cranky bout this one

2008-09-29T13:03:00.000-07:00

Quotable from today's Shelf Awareness:
Scieszka @ NBF No. 2: What do boys want to read? The Washington Post shared some National Book Festival observations from our author du jour: "'We've had this problem with boys not achieving and reading for a long time,' Scieszka says, noting that although we're generalizing about boys, there are always exceptions. 'For the longest time, you couldn't even say boys and girls were different. It was taboo in the educational world.' But different they are, biologically and socially, he asserts. Boys need 'move time,' which they're getting less and less of in school these days. 'That's how they're built,' he says."
Scieszka also told the Post that "the biggest change we can all make in giving boys a love of reading is to expand our definition of reading beyond fiction. . . . [Boys would] rather read nonfiction or humor, graphic novels, science fiction, action adventure, audio books, or online reading and magazines."

Right, boys have never had enough to read, uh huh. Great. Um, is that why in so many of my classes, the protagonists were mostly male? Is that why, when we discussed Widow of the South and its plot, we determined that men would never read it because a) there's a woman on the cover, and b) the title refers to a woman as a main character? Is that why young women feel it's normal to be marginalized in the media, why eating disorders are through the roof, and why young women feel they must be in a romantic relationship to be fulfilled, because their selections while younger reduce them to Gossip Girls, anorexics, cutters, rape victims or otherwise girls in crisis?

Boys don't read because they're coddled and encouraged to NOT read. They're encouraged to be "boys" and to pick on the boys who act like "girls" (i.e., boys who read). Boys are told that reading a book with a girl protagonist is a wussy thing to do, so they won't read those books. Boys are told that they need to like sports and gross things, so that's what they gravitate towards. Boys are told that reading is boring, and they believe it.

How many times I rec'd a book to a boy that had a girl main character and he said yes: ZERO. How many times I did the same, reverse the genders: COUNTLESS.

I've had to point out that certain authors and series characters have actually strong female characters because they're SO difficult to find. And the older you get, the worse it is. When you're a little girl, you have Eloise, Judy Moody, Clementine...you have these independent trouble-makers who shine brightly in a dull universe. They think for themselves, act for themselves, and strive to solve their problems by themselves.

Then you get to be in the middle-grades (as in, 10-12), and you have American Girl (obsessed with being part of a crowd, external fulfillment, greater-good mumbo-jumbo) and the start of the girl-in-crisis lit (i.e., Cut and Perfect, about self-mutilation and eating disorders, respectively). Then you get to YA, and there's a bit of a split. You have the superficial, hyper-sexualized, desensitized Clique Lit genre, and you have the overly traumatic, hyper-emotional girl-on-the-precipice genre. The former, you'll be wondering just how often Princess shags those ill-read pretty boys she's always drooling over; the other, you wonder when your little drama queen will finally call it quits on this mortal coil. Of course, I'm being facetious, but not by much.

So it's not just boys who are having a tough time of it. Girls don't have it much better. In so much male-oriented teen reading, females are marginalized, victimized, or simply non-existent. Look at the classics: The Chocolate War (a dead mother, a random girl the main character really wants to fuck, and a manipulative princess); anything by Chris Crutcher (women, without fail, are viciously victimized by a supposed loved one), Speak (the protagonist is raped and brutally ostracized and bullied at her school), The Outsiders (other than preachy Cherry and a couple of absentee cheating SOs, women are non-existent in this boy-land), anything Judy Blume (my God, what else could happen to these poor girls??).

Even looking at successful hits today, especially the Twilight series, the problem continues unabated: Bella is emotionally wrecked, assaulted (twice! by the same character!), manipulated (especially by the character who assaults her!), lied to, purposely put in danger and is generally a weak-minded and pathetic character. Give me a break, people.

Ok, I'm stepping off the soap-box. It just really gets my goat whenever anyone sits there and says there's no reading out there for boys. There's TONS of reading for them. Just no one will tell them it's there.

the death of scrabulous

2008-09-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it's all just a quirk of fate. Tonight, rather than living it up and emptying out my already-depleting bank account, I thought I'd stay in, take in a few DVDs, catch up on a little light reading, and partake in a little old-fashioned online competition, in the form of scrabulous.com.

*Of course* scrabulous.com has just been shut down.

Yesterday.

Seriously.

I've not visited the site for about two months, so I wouldn't have known about the whole "one day we're here, the next we're not" thing beforehand. Instead, I try to access the page, get a lame-o GoDaddy splash screen, and quickly proceed to the information stand-by, Wikipedia.

According to that bastion of popular knowledge:
"The original web site appears to have shut down as of 25 September 2008. Users attempting to access it are advised "The site is taking a coffee break. Sorry for the inconvenience".
As of 26 September 2008, the scrabulous.com site had been fully replaced with a GoDaddy.com placeholder page."

I have impeccable timing, n'est pas?

So, please take a moment to bid a fond farewell to that scrappy underdog, scrabulous.com. You fought the battle well, but not well enough.

I guess I'll be stuck playing Free Cell tonight.

words of wisdom

2008-09-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

I dunno, now that I'm out of work and soon to be out of an apartment, my life seems a little disconnected right now.
(deep breath)
I've actually considered just chucking all my crap into storage, taking off on the open road, and going from state to state around the US, trying to figure out what it is I'm supposed to do. I guess, to make things a little more productive, I could take along a webcam of some sort and make it a video blog...
Maybe...

In any case, while clearing out a ton of old papers and whatnot (HOW do I still have old papers??? I only moved in six months ago!!), I came across the list of favorite quotes from books. I forgot that I used to do this when I was in high school (note, my obsession with books obviously manifested itself early on). Rather than keep a notebook with only a couple of lonely pages filled in, I'm going to list this random collection of quotes here for all to enjoy!

Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the moooooooooooon? - Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut (winner for best insult; and, yes, I remember counting the number of "o"s in "moon")

Words do not express thoughts very well; everything immediately becomes a little different, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another. - Journey to the East, Hermann Hesse (the quote was spoken by Siddhartha...gotta dig that crazy cat!)

The children thought that Uncle Jimbilly had got over his slavery very well. Since they had known him, he had never done a single thing that anyone told him to do. - The Old Order, Katherine Anne Porter (FYI: Porter is my FAVORITE Southern author, even more that Tennessee Williams, and scads more than Faulkner. See, she actually had a sense of humor, which makes her immensely more talented than those depressing tosspots.)

Lord knows none of us is perfect. We weren't made perfect. The only angels is to be found in heaven. - Blackbird Pie, Raymond Carver (followed with a sigh)

If living in history means that we cannot help leaving marks on a fallen world, then the dilemma we face is to decide what kind of marks we wish to leave. - The Trouble with Wilderness, William Cronin (interestingly, this essay was republished in Best American Essays 1996...it was my first awareness to an idea like "carbon footprint")

And the newest kid to be inducted to the list (pay attention kids, this is a long one, but worth the wait):

If you love freedom, if you think the human condition is dignified by privacy, by the right to be left alone, by the right to explore your weird ideas provided you don't hurt others, then you have common cause with the kids whose web-browsers and cell phones are being used to lock them up and follow them around.

If you believe that the answer to bad speech is more speech -- not censorship -- then you have a dog in the fight.

If you believe in a society of laws, a land where our rulers have to tell us the rules, and have to follow them too, then you're part of the same struggle that kids fight when they argue for the right to live under the same Bill of Rights that adults have.

This book is meant to be part of the conversation about what an information society means: does it mean total control, or unheard-of liberty? It's not just a noun, it's a verb, it's something you do. - Little Brother, Cory Doctorow

Time to revisit some silliness

2008-07-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

I wonder if publishers get together for drinks after work and plot the titles of their upcoming books so they all sound really similar...
The following books are reviewed in the June 23, 2008 Publisher's Weekly:

Famous Suicides of the Japanese Empire
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee
Confessions of a Contractor
Hairdos of the Mildly Depressed
The Death of the Author
The End of Empires
The Culture of War
City of Refuge
The Book of Matthew
The Alchemy of Air
Boys of Steel

What's with all the prepositions??

Bonus point!
I'm so juvenile, I can't help it. I normally refuse to buy a book because of the cover (ok, not really, but I try), but there is one that I would buy ONLY for the cover: The Big Penis Book. Seriously. It was just released (ahem) on June 26.

Ok, moving on.

gotta keep truckin on

2008-06-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

So I've done it. I've made the leap and am leaving one of my jobs to be swapped out for an indie bookstore. I hereby solemnly swear to not become an ironically tattooed (other than my parents would disown me, I can't settle on a design for more than 10 minutes), bespectled (hullo...three surgeries to the eyes; I'm not turning four-eyes if I can help it), knee-high wearing (they itch and they fall down a lot), clunky shoe dragging (anyone who's seen me attempt that complicated dance called walking will understand this), ugly clothed (um...never mind) hipster.
I promise.
Of course, now I have to deal with a million and one librarians asking me where I'm going, and, more to the point why?!?!?! Why on earth would I want to work for a successful book peddler? Why would I want to live, breathe, (practically) eat the books that I adore so much, without it being spoiled by the petty bickering and politics of a public library? Why would I try to force myself to fit into a mold that is demanded of me, whether it be children's, teen or adult services; why bother choosing?
So yeah, I think I've made up my mind. Don't get me wrong, the master's won't go to waste; it'll just be reappropriated for awhile.
Should I be this calm right now?

It's all about phrasing

2008-06-17T10:32:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting here reading my morning Shelf Awareness, just after glancing through a few listserv digests, and I realize that I've seen the name Catherine Coulter pop up a few times. All her associated titles sound like crime/mystery/suspense dealios, but I'm remember some bride of Satan Bush-babe with the same name. So I pop over to Google, type in "Catherine Coulter" to see if there are a couple of broads that write, but there's just the one. Hmmm...

Then I type in "right wing nut job"

Ann Coulter was the second result.

It pays to know your taxonomy.

The debate over age-banding

2008-06-09T08:37:00.000-07:00

Across the pond, a battle rages about whether to print on the covers of books their "appropriate" audience. Phillip Pullman is up in arms, rallying the troops and setting up an online petition (http://www.notoagebanding.org/) through which anyone with an inkling can sign up and speak out.

Apparently, Brits haven't been paying attention to the Yanks.

This kind of age-branding has been going on for ages here. See, there's this fascist program called Accelerated Reader (there are other similar programs, but this what is used all over the Bay Area) that dictates at what level a child reads, based on how they score on multiple-choice tests. There are no psychological evaluations, maturity assessments, life-history inventories or interest factoring. It's all strictly, objectively, by the ABCs. As in, choose answer A, B or C correctly (ahem, predictably), and you're suddenly a fourth grader reading at a college level. Or, if you're like most kids, you're a fourth grader reading at a second grade level.

Hypothetical (though very common) situation: a 12-year old girl in the sixth grade comes up, asking for a recommendation to read in class (about a half-hour a day). This kid isn't much of a book-reader (some would call this reluctant, bah), but loves sailing and the ocean and absolutely adored the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies. Now, first thing you think is Avi's The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, right? It's about a 13-year old girl going to sea and becoming a pirate. While it's a little long (300 pages), the typeset is big and the story is engrossing; you mention the basic plot to your customer and she's hooked, ready to read and starting to bounce (you know how kids do that when they're excited, it's so cute!). Thing is, you first have to check to see if the book is on her school's AR list. If it is, cool. If not, keep searching...and leave the girl hanging to read that book at some other point. Then you have to check her reading level (every kid knows theirs): hers is 4.5. Small problem: Charlotte Doyle is grade 5.3. Her teacher says she has to read between 4.3 and 5.0, but not above or below that range. Ah well, looks like Charlotte Doyle goes back on the shelf, even though it is well within the girl's interests and maturity level. Time to hunt for another book, or to pick from the list randomly and hope for the best.

I wish the above were just a hypothetical. I've had to work with kids for 30-45 minutes, going through their damn AR lists trying to find a book at x level that will actually interest them. For those evil adults reading this who claim "why does it matter if they're interested, so long as they read?"...give me a break. If you were forced to read crap after crap that has no interest to you, holds no bearing in your life, and bores you to tears, do you think your love of reading will grow into a bountiful harvest? Hardly. More likely, those so-called "reluctant" readers will become anti-readers, since they'll think it's their fault that they don't enjoy reading, that they avoid reading because it is boring and TV is more interesting, and that they've never read a book they've enjoyed.

I remember reading Wuthering Heights as a kid. I found it so dull, so off-putting, that I literally cried from boredom while reading it. It was like being forced to eat a plate of mushrooms (and I really, really hate mushrooms). My mom told me, "Just finish the book so you can say you finished it" and I did. That was the WORST decision I ever made (and I've made some doozies, lemme tell ya). Because of my complete distaste for Emily Bronte, I carried that dislike over to Jane Austen, George Sands and the rest of the 18/19th century female canon. It was not until this past year that I read Pride and Prejudice (then Persuasion, then Northanger Abbey, and into Emma...), and I can't help but feel that if I hadn't forced myself to choke down Wuthering Heights when I was 14, I would have been open to and fallen in love with Austen's humor, insight and strength a whole lot sooner than when I was 29.

So now there's a movement to label the books by age. A kid who reads at the arbitrarily-set level x will be cornered into that reading section, and if there's a book of intense interest in arbitrarily-set level y, well, tough noogies, kid'll just have to wait till never to read it. Heaven forbid we treat children like individuals. Heaven forbid we expect librarians, teachers and booksellers to do their jobs and help children to find books that will interest them at their level. Heaven forbid we encourage the adventure, curiosity and risk involved with exploring a bookstore or library.

One of the arguments for age-branding is that it will help parents to know what is appropriate for their child without having to actually read the book. Hm. I've met an awful lot of parents who will literally do all the talking for the child when asking about book recommendations. I've even had one mother body-block me when I scooted a little to the right to ask her (teenage) son about his interests. Literally. These are the parents to whom age-branding would appeal. They can look at the cover, know if there's any inappropriateness inside (because, you can tell if there's sex, language, drugs/alcohol, magic, religion, atheism, animal abuse, violence, defiance of authority or any of the other taboos, just by looking at the cover) and, bonus points, whether Precious Jimmy/Jane will be able to read it, because Jimmy/Jane is reading at level x and is in grade y. And Jimmy/Jane will never actually have to select a book, risk seeing a dirty word/picture/idea in print, or start a love affair with evil books, because Jimmy/Jane will never read a book that is interesting or relevant.

Age-branding and other forms of discrimination only serve to disenfranchise children from their own education and discovery process. They serve to tell children that their opinions are not valid, that their ability to make decisions is inadequate, and that their interests are of no use. If we are attempting to create an automaton civilization of unread, indecisive, disinterested adults, we are well on our way to establishing the foundation. And that's the biggest crime of all.

Notes on this, that and the other...

2008-06-04T12:02:00.000-07:00

It feels like it's been awhile since I've reflected on a many and varied topic. It's time.

CNN reports that the a'holes who trashed Robert Frost's cabin in a booze-and-drug-fueled rumpus are being forced to take a class in Frost's poetry. Of course, Frost is the one who stated, "Nothing can make injustice just but mercy." Can you imagine what that class is like? The rolled eyes, the slouching students...it would have been far better for each of the deliquents to be isolated, receiving one-on-one tutoring, 10 hours minimum, on Frost's writing. That'd show em!

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Julie Andrews is a saint. Really! She's the patron saint of public libraries. At least, she should be after her op-ed in the LA Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-andrews15-2008may15,0,3401026.story (note: of course, we all know that the patron saints of libraries are Saints Catherine, Jerome and Lawrence...nothing against Mary Poppins...)

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A few days ago, I got back from BookExpo America...for those who don't know, BEA is a kick-ass convention for people in the book industry, and the groupies who love them. I straddle somewhere in the middle, so I spent most of the weekend scuttling from booth to booth, drool hanging from my bottom lip as authors, free books and bibliomania abounded. While I did manage a itty-bit of restraint (especially after Christopher Buckley ogled my tits), I walked away with a case of new books, all free, now all sitting in my living room. The other two cases are at the library for the staff to peruse (and bring back, if they know what's good for them). And I now must submit to the fact that I need yet another bookcase. It never seems to end...

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My powers for author/book recall have reached a ridiculous level, as I've inadvertently discovered. Me being me, I didn't think it would be all that special in a library, like this is why librarians do what they do...sadly, they don't. My powers are, in turns out, unique, and a little scary, even for me. Someone mentions an author or book title, and I can see covers in my head, plots unfolding and characters reanimating. It's a sickness as much as a talent. I must only use these powers for good, never for evil. With great power comes great responsibility. Uncle Henry said that, and he's right.

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Nobody mess with the librarians!! From today's Shelf Awareness: "Best description of librarians, by Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! at the ABA Day of Education lunch: 'They are a group of people you do not want to meet in a dark alley if you want to trample on free expression.'"
Damn straight. You try to trample free expression, a librarian is gonna stomp yer ass. Got it?

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End with where we began. No one respects poets, not even if they're the best in allllll the land. At least, John McCain doesn't, according to an article in the Washington Post (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/03/poetry_question_stumps_mccain.html).
Sadly, no one bothered to correct the little factoid that the Poet Laureate is appointed by that almighty behemoth of library goodness, the Librarian of Congress.

RIP The Old Courthouse

2008-06-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

A sad day in the land of make-believe. The major movie star, the Old Courthouse, which starred in such movies as Back to the Future, has burned to the ground at the Universal Studios lot.

RIP Old Courthouse, we hardly knew ye.

Surprise of the day

2008-05-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

According to this week's Publishers Weekly, Gene Simmons was one a proofreader for PW and Library Journal. Though I'm not sure why I think so, that is SO cool! The man has been raised in esteem for me.

What to do with $1 trillion dollars

2008-05-08T11:42:00.000-07:00

In PW this week, they review a book coming out in July asks the question: if we weren't blowing $1 trillion on the "unwar" in Iraq, what could we spend it on?

May as well put an unpaid plug in here: What We Could Have Done with the Money: 50 Ways to Spend the Trillion Dollars We've Spent on Iraq, by Rob Simpson.

Some of the ideas from the book cited in the review are great: providing every human on Earth with an iPod; taking every Iraqi citizen to an MLB game (we'll win them over with Dodger Dogs!); fixing Social Security AND Medicare...

But what else could we do with $1 trillion dollars?

If you wanted to see some *real* drama, you could buy 502,512,562,814 episodes of Degrassi: The Next Generation from iTunes.

Or, if you prefer to Tivo it, you could afford 3,344,481,605 3-month subscriptions to Tivo...approximately half of the Earth's population (almost exactly half, actually).

But you need to get off your ass, so you buy 4,016,064,257 Wiis (or 3,134,894,511 Wiis, if you include the Wii Fit to whip everyone into shape).

While you're a gadget head, you like to enrich your mind, so you decide to buy 2,506,265,664 Amazon Kindles (that's 8 Kindle's per person, plus a couple of bucks for books).

Eh, I love the Kindle, but I love me my hardcover books more, so that $1 trillion will probably go towards buying 40,080,160,321 books. Ahhh...heaven....

Course, you need to store the 40 billion books somewhere, so why not buy 12,501,562,695 Billy bookcases from IKEA? Each bookcase would hold approximately 157 books, so we'd really only be using 255,287,645 of the bookcases).

With all this knowledge, you really should go to school, so why not share the wealth? How about sending 11,151,753 kids to school on a full-ride, four-year scholarship to UCLA? Yup, every single kid in California could be going to UCLA full-ride, with an off-campus apartment with a few billion left over.

So these kids need to get to class, right? Fine, we'll go ahead and buy 47,393,365 Priuses (hey, if we're going to buy so many, might as well have a smaller carbon inprint, right?).

What, UCLA not good enough? You're a total snob, aren't you. Alright then, you win. How about we send 4,810,653 kids to USC on a full-ride? Sure, they'd have to live on-campus, but what do they need to go off-campus for anyway? And those almost-5 billion kids? Yeah, that's every child above the age of 5 years old going to school....

This is just getting me depressed. I think I'm gonna go hunt down a cookie (it's the least...most...whatever...I can afford).

Can books really affect your well-being?

2008-05-02T13:27:00.001-07:00

In the past month, I've read or listened to the following books:

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes, Chris Crutcher: Fat boy is best friends with burned girl who was brutally abused by her dad and abandoned by her mom.

Deadline, Christ Crutcher: X-country jocko finds out he has a terminal disease with maybe a year to live, and decides not to treat it or tell anyone.

Fallen Angels, Walter Dean Myers: Young enlistees in the thick of Vietnam, 1966.

Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson: Girl is the school pariah after calling the cops from a party, which busted the party, but she never reported the reason for the call.

Stuck in Neutral, Terry Trueman: Kid with cerebral palsy narrates about his family, including his dad who wants to euthanize him.

Buried Onions, Gary Soto: Kid in the Fresno ghetto, trying to get out without getting killed.

Looking for Alaska, John Green: Three pranksters in boarding school, including the irrevocably damaged Alaska.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie: Kid from the res goes to town to discover himself, losing his best friend in the process; lots of people die.

What Happened to Cass McBride, Gail Giles: After a kid's suicide, his brother abducts and buries alive the girl whose note may have caused it.
Spanking Shakespeare, Jake Wizner: Insecure senior in high school finds out that his embarrassing parents aren't all that bad compared to the issues other kids face.

Breathing Underwater, Alex Flinn: Sophomore boy dates sophomore girl, boy beats the shit out of girl, girl presses charges and gets a restraining order, boy goes to anger management; and that's where the story begins.

Currently reading/listening to:

Sickened, Julie Gregory: Girl is brutalized by her mother in the form of Munchausen by proxy, and it doesn't help that Dad has a "mild and questionable" case of paranoid schizophrenia.

The Chocolate War, Robert Cormier: Boy in high school is initiated in a gang that terrorizes the private school they attend, then defies them, leading to all sorts of fun stuff.

So, class, what do all of these books have in common?
Pile this much desperation, brutality and suffering on top of a person, and they're bound to get stuck at the bottom. I actually find myself becoming inured to the problems of other people, becoming depressed in my thinking and behavior, and even quicker to anger when working with people. In short: I start acting like a teenager.
My biggest issue is that, of the above books, only 3 have a female voice, and *every* one of them have a female being brutalized or victimized in some way (except Chocolate War, which doesn't even have a female in it, not really...except for the dead mom). Even though the authors are split, male/female, the misogyny, the abuse and brutality aimed at the females in their books, serves to only marginalize females in the real world.
Yeah, all of these are required reading for one of my classes (except for Spanking Shakespeare... I just needed an audio book until I could get my hands on Chocolate War). So this is what we're teaching our YA librarians to be: depressed with internalized rage and dismissive of strong female characters who get to be the heroes *without* having to suffer some extreme humiliation or traumatic ordeal.

I'm cranky. Three guesses why...

When I'm done with this class, I'm so going to read me some Jane Austen...

A sign of trying too hard

2008-04-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

A panel description from Library Journal's overview of BookExpo America, happening next month in LA:

"To Read or Not to Read: A Discussion of NEA Study Results and The Big Read...The National Education Association's 2007 report on reading was gloom and doom. Seems so many adults and especially teens are so hooked on crackberrys and video games that books take a backseat. NEA reps Sunil Iyengar, director of research and analysis, and literature director David Kipen will rap on the group's counterattack called The Big Read."

Um.
"Crackberry"??? For one, most teens can't *afford* a Blackberry, even in LA. They tend to get a txt phone (you know, with the QWERTY keyboard), which is a much different animal. Someone's been watching too much of The Hills.

"rap on"...wow, now I *know* someone's been watching too much of The Hills, or maybe 90210. I don't pretend to be hep to the lingo or anything, I know I'm waaaaay too old to sound like a 15 year old (though I have a bad habit of asking "what's up?" when someone comes to the desk in the library), and I'm one of the younger folks in library school (not even talking about the veteran librarians); so what the hell makes whoever wrote this think that librarians are going to connect to this blurb? Who is this supposed to be speaking to???
So something good came out of this mire: I'm now giggling maniacly over the idea of two old-fart dudes beat-boxing and laying down some mad rhymes about To Kill a Mockingbird or Dave Eggers. Yeah, that'll work...

Observations of the day

2008-04-29T08:27:00.001-07:00

Why is there a picture of a spermy on the cover of Maria Shriver's new book?

People are all up in arms about Miley being semi-nude in a photo that was taken by Annie Liebowitz. A) It's freaking Annie Liebowitz people!! B) Miley's not showing anything that can't be seen when wearing a bathing suit (hell, a one piece at that). I'm far more concerned with the fact that you can clearly see her ribcage through her back. We don't need another LiLo; someone please feed this girl!

Why would anyone use an exclamation point in describing a plot? It makes me think about the four year old trying to tell a story, where you really don't know what the kid's talking about, so you listen for the exclamation points to cue the "oh!"s "really?"s and laughter.

The only places I can find a decent selection of books on CD is in the library. Another reason for me to love my library.

Speaking of, check out www.wearefree2.com. The Bay Area Libraries have created a pretty cool marketing campaign to help bring awareness to libraries. Oh, yeah, and I'm in charge of the blogging and whatnot on the myspace and facebook pages, so be nice and be my friend. Check it out at: www.myspace.com/wearefree2 and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Free2-Campaign/12027053009

living up to potential

2008-04-28T09:47:00.000-07:00

From Friday's SA (again...I'm playing catch-up; you know how it is):
Ashworth Wins Borders Employee Fiction Writing Contest
Ralph Ashworth, a supervisor at a Borders store in Tarentum, Pa., near Pittsburgh, has won the Borders Group fiction writing contest that was open to its 30,000 employees. His crime-thriller, The Killer of Orchids, will be published by Borders's State Street Press early next year and will have "the full support of Borders's merchandising and marketing arsenal," as the company put it. Employees submitted more than 200 manuscripts.The book "follows two amateur sleuths, Xander Pooka, an 11-year-old boy who is bright beyond his years, and Jeff Redwing, a single, gay computer genius, as they investigate the murder of two local men by a samurai," Borders judges at the corporate office said. "Their investigation leads them into an underground ring where murder is the game and they become the hunted." Ashworth, who has worked for Borders since 1994, said in a statement, "Two years ago I made a commitment to establish myself as a nationally published author, so this is a dream come true. . . . writing fiction is my passion. I'm thankful for this great opportunity Borders has given me to help me achieve my dream."In 1994, Ashworth published a book, Greetings from Pittsburgh, which tells the history of the city through postcards. A video featuring Ashworth and his postcards are part of a permanent exhibit at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh. He has also written feature articles for Pittsburgh Tribune Review and Pittsburgh Magazine. Ashworth studied writing at Carnegie Mellon with historical novelist Gladys Schmitt and attended a master class with 10 writers, including E.L. Doctorow, Raymond Carver and Frank Herbert.

===
Anyone else realize just how sad this is? The guy went to Carnagie Mellon, he's studied with freaking Raymond Carver (yes, yes, and the rest)...and he's a supervisor at a Borders in PA???? Shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque...

Gotta love stats

2008-04-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

From Friday's Shelf Awareness:
The president of the Iran National Library and Archives (INLA) said that Iranians spend two minutes per day reading books, according to the Tehran Times.

I realize that this is, of course, an average that covers a large population, but it's still funny to think about. Like, do they break the two minutes up over the course of the day? 30 seconds here, 15 second there. Two minutes isn't long enough for a decent pee, so reading on the john is pretty much out. You think they could have simply said that Iranians read for an average of 15 minutes a week, or an hour a month. That makes more sense, and it's the same figures...

Reasons I love audiobooks

2008-04-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

I've recently become enamored with audiobooks. This makes sense, now that I've changed my commute from 6 miles roundtrip (with two jobs that were a mile from each other) to 100 miles a day (between two jobs that are exactly the same distance from my house...in opposite directions).
Ugh.
So, yeah, I'm on my fifth audiobook in the past two weeks. I think it's a love affair to last the ages. And here are five reasons why:

1) I get a little tired of hearing my own voice reading out loud.

2) The wheel gets in the way of turning the page.

3) Bawling my eyes out while driving makes other drivers feel better about their lives.

4) Listening to someone else's (fictional) problems is so much more interesting than being stuck in Bay Area traffic.

5) I can't really blow off the other stuff I need to do, because I look like a total ass (or psycho stalker, six of one) sitting in my truck staring into nothing while listening.

contemplating the future

2008-04-11T16:29:00.001-07:00

If Barnes and Noble buys out Borders, will they change their name to Barndors?

awesome (and awesomely bad) book titles

2008-04-11T16:12:00.000-07:00

I swear, I noticed this a couple of days ago while reading PW and Library Journal. Then I started to compile a list from memory and this week's PW...unfortunately, I then turned to the Soapbox column (of course, the last page of the issue), and it was exactly the topic I had been contemplating.
Sigh.
I'm either really, really good, or terribly, horribly derivitive. I leave that to you to decide, dear reader.

Ridiculous book titles:

First, the new stuff:
It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music, by Amanda Petrusich
I Shot a Man in Reno: A History of Death by Murder, Suicide, Fire, Flood, Drugs, Disease, and General Misadventure, as Related in Popular Song, by Graeme Thomson (crud on a cracker people!!!)
The Ladies of the Night: An Historical and Personal Perspective of the First and Oldest Profession, by Gene Simmons (yes, THAT Gene Simmons)
Unplugged: How to Disconnect from the Rat Race, Have an Existential Crisis, and Find Meaning and Fulfillment, by Nancy Whitney-Reiter (in other words, how to stop paying your cable bill and go to the park every once in a while)
Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Mooney, God and Diversity on Steroids, by Julie Salamon (well, no need to read the book people, it's all in the title!)
Working at the BallparK: The Fascinating Lives fo Baseball People - from Peanut Vendors and Broadcasters to Players and Managers, by Tom Jones (no, not THAT Tom Jones)
Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art out of Desperate Times, by Susan Quinn (brought to you by the future Committee of Un-American Activities)
Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam, by Pope Brock (there's a goat on the cover. I'm not sure why)
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu (we just got this in the library; it's been on my wish list since about November of last year...yaaaaay!)

Now, some older titles:
The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 Facts About the World's Greatest Human, by Ian Spector (yup, I actually read and own this book)
Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology, by Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon, Shad Petosky, Kevin Cannon, Mark Schultz (a graphic novel about competitive dinosaur bone hunters...can you blame me for not reading this?)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party, by MT Anderson (such biiiiig wooooords!)
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, by AJ Jacobs (if he's so humble, what's with the long-ass title?)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, by Peter George (classic!)
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, by Ntozake Shange (dude! it even has street in the long-ass title!)

Then there's that whole breed of titles that aren't terribly long, they're just awkward to say and can't be shortened without the speaker looking like a total tool:
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, John Le Carre (The Spy? The Spy Who? Spies in the Cold?)
any book that starts with the word Assassination (I have a couple)
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, by John Perkins (try saying this when you've had a bit o' vino and try not to sound like you have a speech impediment, I dare ya)
The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, by Robert Rankin (I guess you could shorten this to Hollow Chocolate Bunnies, but you still sound like an ass)
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons, by Kurt Vonnegut (this one is fun to say, but all anyone would hear are the marbles apparently rolling around in your mouth, unless they've heard the title before)
The Revolution of Little Girls, by Blanche Mccrary Boyd (any grown man saying this title automatically gets 200 marks in the pervball column, no questions asked)
Why Girls Are Weird, by Pamela Ribon (and 1000 punchlines are born...)
The Cold Six Thousand, by James Ellroy (I don't know why, but I always hated this title, it always tripped me up)

Ok, that's all the time I'll spend on this topic. Book titles: man, what a craaaazy business!

I love when those stupid quizzes work out...

2008-04-03T13:04:00.001-07:00

The problem with these quizzes is that it's tough to know if you're answering how you really are, or how you want to be. I tried to answer totally honestly, but I'm sure others would find me to be more of a Kitty...

Which Pride and Prejudice Girl Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Elizabeth

I am Elizabeth. I am headstrong and intelligent. I love to be myself, and am very loyal to my family. I can sometimes be prideful and "prejudiced," but I try to remain open minded and I usually regret past mistakes.

Elizabeth

75%

Charlotte

70%

Jane

50%

Kitty

45%

Mary

40%

Mrs. Bennet

35%

Lydia

25%

Borders is now BORDERS (sort of)

2008-04-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

This has to be the most confusing thing I've ever read about bookstores:

American Booksellers Association (ABA) has a public face called Book Sense. Basically, Book Sense is like the lobbying/marketing tool of the ABA. There's the magazine, the branded loyalty programs, the website, etc.

So, it looks like Book Sense is rebranding, to become Booksellers Organization for the Revival of Downtowns and the Expansion of Retail Sales (never mind that there are tons of indie bookstores NOT located in downtowns, but whatever). Lame name, right? Until you realize that the acronym is BORDERS.

Here's where it gets fun:

Borders, the bookstore, is having financial difficulty right now, contemplating putting itself on the selling block and all that. BORDERS will be *buying* several of the storefronts that Borders has put up for sale. Keep in mind, BORDERS is independent and funded by an endowment (which I believe means it's a non-profit), while Borders is a publicly-funded company. They're calling it "coincidence" that the organization has the same name as a globally-recognized brand.

Oh, and here's the beauty: independent bookstores that aren't a member of ABA and exist in the communities where BORDERS will be operating? They got a sly middle-finger up the kazoo with this quote: "We wish them well as we compete on a playing field that is finally level."

Um. What? These are chain stores that did *poorly* in communities with indie bookstores. The playing field *was* level. Now you're pitting indie against indie, just because store (a) didn't want to pay into the national organization that is too bloated and stuck on it's own self-importance...

So it's no longer the indie against the corporation. Nope, now the indie organization is essentially blackmailing non-members either into joining or into being swallowed up into the whole (how is this different than what Barnes and Noble and Borders have done??). That's disgusting. Like the poor person who won the lottery and used the money to destroy his neighbors, ABA is turning to shark tactics to destroy any semblence of a TRUE independent bookstore.

I'm going to stick to bn.com and amazon. Screw em.
============================
[two minutes after hitting post]
oh, wait...it's april fool's isn't it...
i'm such a retahd

web 2.0: libraries are ahead of the curve AGAIN!

2008-04-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

David Pogue's blog this week is a call-to-arms for business's to get off their asses and learn the media that the public is using. What's hilarious is that libraries have been going ape-shit over web 2.0 for ages now and are freaking out over web 3.0 (i.e., SecondLife [meh]). Who knew that the doddy, old, bun-wearing, chain-and-glasses librarians would be so cutting edge? [raising hand]

blogging the bloggers

2008-04-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

I read too, too many newsletters and publications. Seriously:
Publisher's Weekly (weekly, duh)
Shelf Awareness (daily)
Circuits (David Pogue, tech editor of NYT, weekly blog)
In Advertising (Stuart Elliott, advertising industry editor NYT, weekly blog)
Bookmarks (bi-monthly)
Library Journal (monthly)
Library Hotline (weekly)
Reader's Advisory News (no idea about frequency; it appears when it appears)
BookReporter (this is a new one, I don't know how I feel about it yet)
eSkeptic (again, it comes around when it comes around)
Bookstores (Barnes and Noble, Borders, Powell's, Whale of a Tale)

Not to mention the listservs:
YALSA_bk (teen reading)
middle_school_lit (middle school reading)
SJSU (geez, there are, like, three from the school: admin, alumni, quickslis)
CALIX (CA libraries)
SLIS Yahoo group
Fiction_L (reader's advisory)

There's a reason I don't read much in the way of newspapers (except for Sundays; gotta gets me a crosswurd fix!). Every so often I check in with the cnn.com homepage to make sure that the world is still on the slippy-slide to hell, then go back to what I was reading. Much better that way, n'est pas?

So this is why a lot of what I write seems to come from other sources. I'm one of those people who never really has an original idea, but I dis/like other people's original ideas and want to riff on them. Yep, I'm a reader, through and through. That's not such a problem is it?

Of course, what this means, is that I might be stuck in a tailspin heading straight for a post-modern vortex. The problem being that I'm riffing on bloggers, who are people riffing on other people's ideas. This is like a po-mo version of telephone. Me being as anal-retentive as I am, I try really hard to dispel any myths or misinformation, add corrections and all that, and try to disperse only whole and true information, tracking the sources back to primary, and keeping the almighty urban legend at bay. After all, I have a responsibility to my readers (all zero of you).

Just thought I'd put this out there. And now we return you to your regularly scheduled nonsense.

Best/worst book cover ever

2008-03-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

I had a hankering to remember a book I read when I was somewhere between 10 and 12 years old. I think the name was Hating Angela Ashley, but I could be wrong, so I do what any good reader does: I go to Amazon.

The first book that pops up is not Angela Ashley the title, but the author, and this this the cover of her book:

Seriously, people...what the hell? I'm not even sure where to start. This is kind of like Joy of Sex as done by R. Crumb, or maybe Mad Magazine.

So let's look at this cover closely: dude needs to really shave his back before sneaking up on the dude/chick doing his/her naked yoga. Good thing the bathroom floor is shag carpet (or grass...) on dirt, so Chewbacca makes nary a sound while s/he swings a towel around his/her ankles.
Ugh.
For all you interested parties, this book IS available for purchase, for the bargain basement price of $49.21.
Yup, you read that correctly, $49.21. On Amazon. For those of you who think that this bloated pricetag is because this book is a classic in the erotica genre, think again: it was published in January 2005. You know, during that huge Ape-Man/Yoga S/him Erotica boom.

Gotta love that Amazon!

=======================
FOLLOW UP!
Took a few minutes, but I was thinking of Hating Alison Ashley (so close, so close). Turns out it was an Australian novel (which makes sense in no one's world that I would have read it...unless Dad bought it on one of his many trips overseas), which was made into a craptastic Austrialian movie.
Thanks, but when it comes to Australian prep school dramadies, I'll stick with Flirting...

A world of genres

2008-03-26T10:54:00.001-07:00

I love reading Publisher's Weekly, Bookmarks, Shelf Awareness, Powell's/Borders/BN.com newsletter, Book Reporter and anything else that's literary. This might sound odd or obvious, but it's true. There's a whole world lurking between the pages of books, and not just the ones that the author made up. Writers who write about books have their own jargon, their own classifications...sometimes they slip up and slip out, right onto the page.
What brought this on: A review in last week's PW (sometimes I fall a bit behind, what with work and all) for Ed Park's upcoming Personal Days, which is described as a "cubicle cozy"...as in, a cozy mystery (a la Agatha Christie, the grand dame of cozy mysteries) that takes place amongst the cubby-dwellers.
So this got me thinking (especially since I really don't feel like reviewing Plans of Service right now), what other fun genres have been developed?

I propose the following (which I'm sure have been shown elsewhere, because I'm not nearly this clever):
Nonmoir: A faux memoir
Twit Lit: The protagonist is truly an idiot who is so self-involved s/he destroys his/her life for no good reason (i.e., most of chick-lit, Hole in My Life)
Barkography: Written from the puppy-perspective
Clique Lit: Candace Bushnell hits the high school set, keeping the martinis, miscarriages and middle-aged men, minus the marriage, menopause and mid-life crisis

Penguins rock

2008-03-21T10:42:00.000-07:00

Not only are penguins the coolest animal EVER, second in humor to monkeys and third in cuteness (damn otters and baby pandas are tied for first), but they are also ROCKING the publishing world. Well, Penguin is. For the past few weeks, press releases have been coming out about Penguin adding digital content to their e-books (a la DVD extras) and developing new ways to bring classic lit to the masses. Now, they've won the Design of the Year prize from the Design Museum in London, for their Classics Deluxe Editions.

Now, I know you know about these books. These are the books you spot in the store and realize you're looking at a comic version of a classic work (i.e., Voltaire). You think to yourself, "awesome!! There's a graphic novel version of this book! Sweet!" and proceed to flip through the pages. After flipping back and forth a few times, looking for more pictures, you realize you've been had, put the book down, and go buy your latest issue of Cracked.

Or maybe that's just me (except, remove Cracked and insert $100 worth of books, many with pictures inside as well as out, some with no pictures outside as well as in).

Here's the really sad part: I've picked up that copy of Voltaire at least 10 times to see if it's a GN version. And it's always the same...what was the definition of insanity again?

Why weeding can be a bad thing

2008-03-20T09:39:00.000-07:00

Most every librarian has had the dilemma of having to weed a collection. Some enjoy it, others react as though they were trying to saw off their own limbs for the dumpster. There are a number of reasons to weed books from a collection: physical state (as in, the thing is literally coming unglued), overstock (just *how* many copies of Good in Bed does one library need??), circulation (or lack thereof...there's no point to having a book that *no one* has read in *five* years), and plain old space (some libraries have this problem...not many, but some). The following was taken from today's Shelf Awareness. I just have to wonder if this will send librarians everywhere scrabbling into their stacks to check editions and calling auction houses...

"Twenty lots of J.K. Rowling's books were auctioned off by Christies International for a total of £36,560 (US$73,000), dramatically exceeding a low presale estimate of £20,000 pounds.

According to Bloomerg News, a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that went for £4,000 "raised questions about Christie's controls after the London-based auction house confirmed that it didn't check whether the first edition . . . might have been stolen from the Northamptonshire Libraries & Information Service, whose label appears on the volume."

When Bloomberg asked the library to check the book's barcode number, it was confirmed that the library had "disposed of the book in 1999."

"Someone got lucky,'' said Grace Kempster, Northamptonshire's library-service manager."

It's been a rough year for nerds

2008-03-18T18:21:00.000-07:00

Kurt Vonnegut
Robert Jordan
Madeline L'Engle
Fred Saberhagen
Lloyd Alexander
Gary Gygax
Mr. Wizard
...
And now Arthur C. Clarke

The past 12 months have been pretty rough on the brainiacs. The next nerd you meet, give him/her a hug and a little bit o' "Live long and prosper". S/he probably could use the smile right now.

neither wurdy nor nurdy

2008-03-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

but i want one...

Horton hears a...cry of loneliness?

2008-03-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

A while back I heard about a contest that was going promoting the new Horton Hears a Who movie, where whichever town is the loudest wins a free preview screening of the movie (or something like that).
Well, I guess they found a winner...

From yesterday's Shelf Awareness (yes, I read this pretty much everyday, but sometimes I fall a little behind):
Huntsville, Ala., has won the Horton Hears a You--Hometown Challenge (Shelf Awareness, Feb.22, 2008) and will host a special VIP screening of Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! today.The Huntsville Times reported that the city emerged victorious "thanks to a very loud crowd that gathered Saturday night outside a Huntsville Havoc-Columbus Cottonmouths hockey game . . . Mayor Loretta Spencer, 300 Marines and soldiers, and a crowd of children and adults wearing 'Horton ears' banded together outside the Von Braun Center to yell 'We are here!'" Everyone who participated received a free pass to attend today's screening.Huntsville's decibel level topped entries from a number of U.S. cities, including Blue Springs, Mo.; Fresno, Calif.; West Orange, N.J.; and New York City.

Thing is, reading this made me tear up a bit. Ok, maybe it's a raging bout of PMS (probably) or a heinous case of sleep deprivation (likely culprit), but I felt a little heart-tugging in a sad way (like I feel when I remember Heath Ledger in 10 Things I Hate About You and remember he's passed on so tragically young) because I'm imagining this huge crowd of people screaming into the air, "We are here!!"
Because, after all, isn't that all anyone is doing all day, every day? Standing at street corners, trying desperately to be not ignored?
It just makes me a little sad, that's all.

hip hop hooray for summer reading programs!

2008-03-12T13:23:00.001-07:00

A new hip hop song has been created for the children's summer reading program, Catch the Reading Bug:

http://www.cslpreads.org/2008/PSA/yaudio/Catch%20The%20Bug.mp3

I was surprised, it's actually not a bad song. In fact, it's pretty cool, in a nurdy way (which no one here will ever claim to have issues with, right?). My favorite part was the line about ask a librarian, they know what's cool, like Siberians. Yup, them Siberian's are pretty cool out there in the tundra. And librarians know that, see?

Check it out @ your library! :D

Seriously?

2008-03-04T09:20:00.001-08:00

Ok, so this whole thing about memoirs being fake...it's a little silly. Especially some of the stories in the titles. I mean, who in their right mind really believed that a little Jewish girl *escaped* a concentration camp, only to *travel through Europe* while *living with wolves*...
I dunno about you, but I see a few things wrong with this story. Seriously: LIVING WITH WOLVES??? I know Jews are the chosen people and all that, but get a grip! So now the author, Misha Defonseca (yup, a good Jewish name...or not) has been found out. Thing is, if the book was so convincing that nobody knew it was fake, then that still makes it a great book, albeit a great fictional book. Change the genre, move to a different shelf, and voila, you have a bestseller! No big, right?

The other good one is a memoir about a half-white/half-Native American who grew up in foster homes in South Central LA, was a drug runner for the Bloods, and went to U or Oregon. So the word gets out that she's a big fat fraud. How much of the story is true? Ummm...all white chick went to private Episcopal school in Sherman Oaks (wealthy enclave east of LA)...she didn't even go to U of Oregon. Geez, girl. If you're gonna lie, at least make it good. Say you went to Cal, or Stanford, or even Vassar. What's this U of Oregon crap? Oh, and the best part? Her *sister* was the one to narc her out to the publisher. Yeah, Thanksgiving will be a little awkward this year in that household...

So here's a lesson kids: unless it's TRUE, then it's FICTION. Just because it happened in your head doesn't mean that it happened in the real world. And if you don't know the difference, I have the number to a great little resort for you to visit, where you can sit all day, relaxing in a room with padded walls.

sigh our president...

2008-03-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

From Library Hotline:

President Bush's proposed budget for FY09 eliminates $25.5 million for the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) Inexpensive Book Distribution Program. Unless Congress reinstates funding, RIF will be unable to distribute 16 million books annually to the nation's youngest and most at-risk children. According to RIF president and CEO Carol Rasco, the program is authorized under the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (SEC.5451 Inexpensive Book Distribution Program for Reading Motivation) and is not funded through earmarks. It has been funded by Congress and six administrations without interruption since 1975. To send a message of support, visit tinyurl.com/2kqmxl.

Well, um. Ok. Our idiot president. Always breaking with tradition, outcomes be damned.

*sigh*

UPDATE!! The link from the article is obsolete. To get involved and sent a message to your lawmakers, please go to http://www.rif.org/get-involved/advocate/what/
Thanks!

garfield without garfield

2008-02-27T09:52:00.001-08:00

i sound thoroughly retahdid when i read this page at work:

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/

I think I may have a reading problem

2008-02-20T08:22:00.000-08:00

From Shelf Awareness:
If setting a good example will increase the number of readers in the U.S., then Amanda Patchin, owner of Veritas Fine Books, Garden City, Idaho, is setting an example extraordinaire. Her goal is to read 200 books--79,349 pages--this year. The marathon read is Patchin's response to the bad news about reading habits as summed up in last year's NEA report, "To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence." One of the findings was that young Americans spend an average of only seven minutes a day reading for pleasure.According to the Idaho Statesman, Patchin, 27, "has obviously not participated in those studies. . . . [She] has read about 10,000 pages since Jan. 1. That's more than 200 pages a day." You can learn more about her quest at 200books.com, where she sums it up this way: "200 books in 2008. Selected from Everyman's Library. Reading while caring for a toddler and a new baby and running a small business. With daily blog posts chronicling the attempt. Yeah, I'm nuts."

My first reaction is: yeah, so? 200 books, what's the big deal? Since January 1, I've read approximately 50 books (yes, I've been known to read 2-3 books a day on weekends). At this rate, we're looking at almost 450 books this year. I fail to see how reading 200 books in a year garners press.

Well, I guess maybe because she doesn't have the benefit of being in two lit review classes to spur her along. But, if that's the case, then the 10 books I read in the first two weeks of January (aka, before school started) would still put me at almost 300 books for the year.

Am I right to feel superior to this, or depressed because it's not like I'm going to be acknowledged for my incredible reading prowess? Or is it just that this chick is 27 and owns her own bookstore...

News from the book-front

2008-02-11T12:58:00.000-08:00

From Publisher's Weekly, Feb 4, 2008:
Dave Eggers joined with Maurice Sendak to write the screenplay for Where the Wild Things Are, to be released next year. AND he's writing a grown-up retelling of the story! While I'm not a huge fan of Eggers (the whole self-important, precocious, overhyped memoir before turning 30 thing kind of sticks in my craw), he does tap into a certain fetish I have: I'm a sucker for a self-important jackass who writes. Can't help it, can't do anything about it, so I just ride the wave. Damn, that jackass gets me hot!

And, in other parts of the magazine, there's an audiobook called The Year Nick McGowan Came to Stay...not to be confused with Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys. Good to know we have an entire generation of young women who will be stunned everytime they meet a McGowan who isn't drop dead gorgeous...yay for standards!!

On the personal front, I'm totally infatuated with cute male writers (see above). Seriously, it's a sickness. I'm like one of those groupies who leeches onto sub-par rock behemouths because they feel like the glory of the music will wash over them too. My god, this is just sad. It's an obsession, a preoccupation. Yep, it's a full-blown malady. Do not cry for me, for I'm already lost...

Talk about building books...

2008-02-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

In 1983, an Argentinean artist recreated the Parthenon using books wrapped in plastic. The NY Times has a couple of pictures here: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/01/31/arts/0201-VIDA_index.html

Now why on earth can't we do something like this today? It's not like the world is safe from tyranny...Books are banned or challenged on a continual basis, even in the US. Just because we don't like under a (ahem) dictatorship doesn't mean that we're not constantly under the threat of having our words and thoughts censored.

Ok, that was a mini-rant. Back to work :D

Would someone please explain the hype over The Da Vinci Code?

2008-01-25T10:38:00.001-08:00

From Shelf Awareness (1.25.08):

"According to today's WSJ, "no book has been as eagerly awaited as Mr. Brown's next novel, purported to be about freemasonry and the Founding Fathers. The problem is, it is still awaited . . . and awaited . . . and awaited." The Journal called mega-bestseller The Da Vinci Code "the biggest publishing event in decades," spawning "literary knockoffs," explanatory nonfiction titles and substantial growth in European tourism to sites mentioned in the novel. The article also noted that, "when Bertelsmann AG reports 2007 results in March, it will be the first time since 2002 that it didn't get a boost from The Da Vinci Code."So, where's the next book? Neither Brown's agent nor the author himself will say, but literary agent Laurence Kirshbaum offered this perspective: "When a major author doesn't deliver, you get down on your knees and pray. You can't threaten, you can't cajole, you wait. . . . When you have that level of success, you feel an obligation. He's climbing Everest times 10. He probably wants to make the next book perfect.""

Huh...I dunno...did I hear one of you say

Harry Potter

?

The fact is, The Da Vinci Code was a bullshit work o' fart that touched on a really fascinating subject. Yes, there were layman manuals that came out after Code to explain what it all meant, but other tomes (i.e., The Templar Revalation) were much more compelling, much better written and much, much more researched, yet were out well before Dan Brown got his grubby little paws on the idea. Code was so hyped, so talked about (and, therefore, so controversial) that no one really noticed that it was complete and total CRAP. And yes, the capitals were necessary. It was just that much crap.

What's so hilarious is that this whole premise of his next book, with freemasonry and the Founding Fathers...isn't that called National Treasure? Yeah, and that movie was CRAP as well.

The rest of the Dan Brown canon is total shite anyway: Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress...um, whatever else he wrote. Seriously, the only difference between my shite writing and Dan Brown's shite writing, is that I'm not trying to pass myself off as something that I'm not. I'm aware that I write like crap. Maybe Dan Brown is finally realizing it himself...

Things your geography teacher lied to you about

2008-01-24T15:53:00.000-08:00

I learned something new this week.
Actually, I learned a few new things. In order of learning:

1) What do Kentucky, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia have in common?
They're all commonwealths. Not states; commonwealths.
Well, la dee da jerkos! What's up with that? According to that bastion of knowledge, Wikipedia, a commonwealth is an English term that basically boils down to mean "common well-being." Awww, aren't we the touchy-feely types? Oh, wait. Mass, Penn and Virginia are. And KY, well, it's all in the initials, isn't it?
So the United States isn't *really* 50 States. Nope, more like 46 states, 4 commonwealths, three territories and one district. So my geography teacher lied to me. Bastard.

2) According to that wacky author Ron Hansen, the 52 cards in a deck of playing cards signify the 52 weeks in the year. The four suits represent the four seasons. And the ace actually derives from a French term for the lowest being (or something), but those wacky French Revolutionists were seeking egalite, so they made the lowest form the highest card (or something). Yup, all this came up when I was talking to him about scheduling an appearance in a couple of libraries. Like I said, wacky.

3) In the same conversation, I learned that the publisher Knopf is actually pronounced KU-Nopff. It sounded too much like something my dad would try to teach me so I'd sound stupid in front of strangers, so I'm disinclined to believe our dear Mr. Hansen. It was a nice try, though!

First post!

2008-01-06T11:48:00.002-08:00

Ok, so this has been a long-time coming. I'm still working out kinks and bugs, so please be patient (yeah, all two of you who *might* stumble upon this).

Welcome to my new blog! This blog will be reflecting on all things wurdnurdy, such as books, reading, libraries, authors, publishing and school. I may post book reviews, but we'll just have to see how this thing goes. For the past couple of months, I've been taking notes on items to blog about, but those can wait a little longer (I'm SUCH a procrastinator!!).

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check in soon for more posts!