January 3rd, 2008 Brian Herzog
This post is somewhat in the New Year’s spirit of “out with the old, in with the new…”
Although I’ve worked around books for a long time, two things happened last week that have never happened to me before:
Books, Coming:
I was chosen to be a LibraryThing Early Reviewer! I’ve been trying ever since they started, but this is the first time I’ve gotten to participate.
A copy of Tim Dorsey’s Atomic Lobster showed up on my doorstep right after Christmas ‘07, even though it’s not being published until 1/22/08. I’ve never read anything by him, let alone the preceding books in this series, but I’m always open to reading new things.
Thank you, LibraryThing and HarperCollins. I’ll read and review it as soon as I finish one of my Christmas presents, Water for Elephants.
Books, Going:
Faithful readers may remember me mentioning the idea of an Airport Public Library, and then using BookCrossing to kick it off.
Since then, every time I’ve flown somewhere, I leave books in airports. My trip to Ohio for Christmas resulted in the APL’s first circulation - someone “captured” and registered one of my books on the site.
What a good week for books.
airport public library, apl, book, bookcrossing, books, early reviewer, early reviewers, library, librarything, lt, thing
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December 20th, 2007 Brian Herzog
In preparation for this colder weather, my library had a book display about home insulation, heating efficiency, and weatherizing. This prompted me to purchase a few new books, but I found something I never expected.
When looking for books similar to what the library already has, one of the tools I use is Amazon.com. That might be library blasphemy, but between Amazon’s various suggestion services, its subject categories, and a greasemonkey script for directly checking our catalog, it’s a quick and dirty way to find what I’m looking for.
As you might think, it’s certainly not 100% reliable. But this time, I happened across one book with subjects that puts even “cookery” to shame.
The book in question is Insulate and Weatherize, by Bruce Harley. My library already has a copy, and I was looking at it on Amazon for updates. But I was astounded when I came to their subject listings (keep in mind, this is a home improvement-type book on insulation and weatherizing a house):
“Cloning?” “Babysitters?” “Juvenile fiction?” And my favorite, “Life on other planets?” I know Amazon’s sole function is to push as much stuff as possible at visitors to maximize sales, but come on. At least it was good for a laugh.
amazon, amazon.com, chelmsford, greasemonkey, headings, libraries, library, public, subject, subjects
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December 11th, 2007 Brian Herzog
It’s not uncommon to honor someone by naming a street after them. To honor one of my favorite authors, a group in Portland, Oregon is trying to get 42nd Avenue named after Douglas Adams.
What a great idea. It is so much better than just changing the name of “Elm St.” or “Main St.” to the name of a famous person - 42 actually is relevant to Douglas Adams’ life, works, and his fans.
Here’s a few more reason, from the group’s website:
- It will reflect Portlanders’ commitment to the arts.
- It will reflect Portlanders’ respect for the environment.
- It will reflect Portlanders’ desire to provide technological access to all.
- It will reflect Portlanders’ passion to further education to all people.
- It will remind all Portlanders’ the most important lesson in times of uncertainty and fear…
…DON’T PANIC.
I hope that the Portland Library has gotten behind this effort, as it is a great way to promote reading and fun. This is also something other communities could do, as well - well, those with 42nd streets.
via slashdot
42, 42nd avenue, author, authors, books, douglas adams, rename 42nd
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November 29th, 2007 Brian Herzog
For Thanksgiving, I drove from Massachusetts to my hometown in Ohio. It’s about a 12-hour drive, each way, and I found that 12 hours in the car means different things to different people.
Most people reacted with, “ugh, that sounds miserable” or “I could never sit in the car that long.”
I suppose I am lucky that I am an excellent sitter, but I also don’t mind driving distances like that at all. I enjoy traveling and seeing the country (though it is unfortunate that not much can be seen at 80 65 mph). But this trip also meant 24 hours of audiobooks.
For this trip, I listened to The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman, and also Washington Schlepped Here, by Christopher Buckley. The last one was kind of walking tour of Washington, D.C., with history, humor and current politics all blended together, and the first two are the two books that come after Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. I was thoroughly entertained for the entire trip, and although I didn’t know much about The Golden Compass before, now I’m really looking forward to the movie.
But do you know what I like best about audiobooks?
This post is continued at this point on the other side of this blog
audio book, audio books, audiobook, audiobooks, driving, traveling
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November 13th, 2007 Brian Herzog
I recently finished reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics, by Marisha Pessl, and there’s a library reference I wanted to point out.
The main character, Blue van Meer, is a high school student. During her study hall period in the library, she describes how she spies on her fellow classmates:
…[I] slipped into row 500 and then the densest section of row 900, Biography, where I repositioned some of the larger books from row 600 to the holes between the shelves, in order to avoid detection. (Librarian Hambone, if you’re reading this, I apologize for the biweekly repositioning of H. Gibbons’ bulky African Wildlife [1989] from its proper place in the 650s to just above Mommie Dearest [Crawford, 1978] and Notorious: My Years with Cary Grant [Drake, 1989]. You weren’t going mad.)
What caught my eye was her saying the proper place for a book called African Wildlife is in Dewey 650s. Presuming this book is actually about African wildlife, the 650s isn’t even close (by Dewey standards). It should be more like 591.96, which is in stark contrast to said 650s.
The reason this stood out is that Calamity Physics is loaded with literary references - everything from the classics to technical manuals to contemporary romance fiction to journal articles. This author must have spent Much Time in a library researching this book, as shown by her excellent use of these references to aptly describe characters and situations (unless, of course, every single one of them was just made up).
For example, when describing being honest with her father:
I had to confront him. Otherwise, the lie could wear me away (see “Acid Rain on Gargoyles,” Conditions, Eliot, 1999, p. 513).
When describing a classmate named Jade:
Jade was the terrifying beauty (see “Tawney Eagle,” Magnificent Birds of Prey, George, 1993).
And describing another student’s bedroom:
We walked by what had to be Bethany Louise’s room, painted gum pink, a pile of clothes on the floor (see “Mount McKinley,” Almanac of Major Landmarks, 2000 ed.).
There were about one of these references every other page, which means this 500 page book had a lot of references. So I’m surprised that the Dewey numbers were so far off (although, maybe the author naming the librarian “Hambone” belies a disdain of libraries?).
And since I’m talking about, here’s my overall impression of the book: I enjoyed pages 1-100 and 300-500, but the two hundred pages in between kind of dragged. Lots of high schooly angst and controversy, whereas the rest of the book held interesting plot and character interactions - not to mention an underground conspiracy organization. I ended up liking it, but had to force my way through at some points.
book, books, libraries, library, library quotations, library references, marisha pessl, special topics in calamity physics
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