Losing space...ebooks versus physical spaces...

Every time I see these new Kindle commercials, I cringe just a little bit. I was trying to pin point what it is that really bothers me and I think I know what it is after reading this quote that Bright As Yellow posted.

I used to enjoy the old Kindle commercials, they were much more alive and warm and kind of gave you this sense of transporting you to another place.

Or this commerical:

But now there is this starkness, like the Apple commercials and there also seems to be this battle with place.  I am not sure if I am making sense here but I will try to articulate what it is that I am thinking and feeling. The first of the new commercials I watched was the one above - I'm going to the bookstore (or library), but hold on, you don't have to GO anywhere, I just bought the book you wanted in 60 seconds. Girl stops and just starts reading. The second commercial, the same girl has a book and again the guy has a Kindle (which probably deserves a comment as well) and she's describing being outside and the physicality of the book and again gets awed by the amazing-awesomeness of the Kindle.

I don't want to people to stop going to bookstores or libraries. I think, even with these e-readers that it is still important to have these spaces to go to where you can browse the shelves and maybe find something else to read or run into friends or have a place where you can feel the weight of a 200 page book in your hand.

Don't get me wrong, I read ebooks, I listen to audiobooks, but I don't really like that there is this battle between the physical book and the ereaders as well as what looks to be as this battle between going out to places where these books are shelved and the ease of the download (never leave your home again!!!!)

Books are Evil! Don't Read Them!!!

I have been busy with the end of the school year and am now reading all of these articles. Here is the thread of articles I've been reading so far...

1. WSJ "Darkness To Visible" by Meghan Cox Gurdon - it started it all. I completely disagree with her and I wonder what YA books she's actually really sat down and read. There, I said it! I mean, not all YA books are violent. My favorite book is 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, which is actually happy and positive. The sequel is coming out or just came out too! No suicide, no vampires, no self mutilation. But I guess, Ms. Gurdon didn't go looking for THOSE kinds of books.
2. SLJ Blog response "There's Dark Things In Them There Books! - great links and says what I think..pretty much
3. Libba Bray's response on Twitter as posted by WSJ 
4. Teens responding on the Figment forum
5. Search #YAsaves on Twitter 
6. Josie Levitt on PW - Young Adult Fiction Not All Doom and Gloom 

If you have more helpful links..feel free to comment or post..Thanks!

Also, I really didn't appreciate her tone about the challenged books...If they take away all those "bad books" I would never have read Harry Potter..and MILLIONS of kids would not have read them either and developed a love for reading.

Book Drops: What I Read in 2010

I was inspired by my friend, CP, to list out what I read this past year. I did it last year too but didn't lay it out as a list. Here's that post. I have to check a couple of different spaces I think because I started using Get Glue this year and I might have stuff on Good Reads which I don't really use. But let's see how I did because I know in the summer I got a bit lazy.

1. From Fear To Facebook - Matt Levinson
2. Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
3. National Geographic's Rare
   
4. Ghostopolis - TenNapel
5. Zombie Chasers Book 1 - John Kloepfer
6. reread - Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
7. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
8. reread - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
9. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkahan
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
12. Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix
13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
14. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
15. The Lost Hero - Rick Riordan
16. Fever Crumb - Philip Reeve
17. Here Lies Arthur - Philip Reeve
18. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
19. The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson
20. The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson
21. Robot Dreams - Sara Varon
22. The Wave: In Pursuit of Monster Waves - Susan Casey
23. Mouse Guard Vol. 1 - David Petersen
24. Lola: a ghost story - J. Torres
25. Creature Tech - Doug Tennapel
26. Pencil Fight Number Three
27. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz - Eric Shanower
28. The Marvelous Land of Oz - Eric Shanower
29. Bayou - Jeremy Love
30. Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing
    
31. Sense and Sensibilities - comic version
32. The Complete Alice In Wonderland - Dynamite comics
33. A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
34. Last Call - Daniel Okrent
35. The Tiger: A true story of vengeance and survival - John Vaillant
36. The Warriors: Power of three - the fourth apprentice - Erin Hunter
37. Everwild - Neal Shusterman
38. Asterios Polyp - David Mazzucchelli
39. Julius Caesar - Ellen Galford
40. The Forbidden School House - Suzanne Jurmaine
41. Extreme Scientists - Donna M. Jackson
42. Going Bovine - Libba Bray
43. To The Heart of the Storm - Will Eisner
44. Life in the Boreal Forest - Brenda Guiberson
45. Pedro and Me - Judd Winick
46. How Robots Work - Tony Hyland
47. The Ancient Persians - Virginia Schomp
48. Hush, Hush - Becca Fitzpatrick
49. Leviathan - Scott Westerfeld
50. Hatter M. Vol. 1 - Frank Beddor
51. Hatter M. Vol. 2 - Frank Beddor
52. Muckrackers - Ann Bausum
53. Isadora Duncan: a graphic novel biography - Sabrina Jones
54. The Raucous Royals - Carlyn Beccia
55. One Hundred Demons - Lynda Barry
56. Doomed Queens - Kris Waldherr
57. Britten and Brulightly - Hannah Berry
58. Getting Graphic - Michele Gorman
59. Escape: The story of the Great Houdini - Sid Fleischman
60. Peter and Max - Bill Willingham
61. Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger
62. Who was First? - Russell Freedman
63. The Runaways : dead end kids - Joss Whedon
64. The Story Behind Toilets - Elizabeth Raum
    
65. Aya - Marguerite Abouet
66. My First Book of Tagalog Words - Liana Romulo
67. Food For Thought - Ken Robbins

67 books!!! That's pretty good for the year. So much reading. It was nice going through my old blog posts to see what I read. I totally forgot about the history of toilets book! Lots of graphic novels, a good mix of nonfiction and pretty much a crazy variety. I also included the audio books on this list because why separate them out? Happy reading in 2011!!!

Book Drops: NONFICTION MONDAYS

Picture Book of the Day started the Nonfiction Mondays feature and I thought I would join in the fun.

You can check out Rasco from RIF's blog for the Nonfiction Mondays roundup for Monday, December 7.

These books are available at the Burbank Public Library. It's the holidays and maybe you need some ideas for gifts and these two caught my eye. The first one is Do It Yourself Projects! series : Make Your Own Books. It is a great introduction to kids who are crafty. There are very simple projects and it also stresses recycling and reusing materials. 24 pages with 8 projects and a short history about books. Also filled with wonderful color images and step-by-step instructions. It also includes side boxes with great facts about felt, reed paper, etc.

The second book is from the Money Matters: A Kid's Guide to Money Series. This book is A Kid's Guide to Stock Market Investing. It is a set but we only had this one when I was wandering the shelves. Honestly, I wish my parents had this set when I was a kid and I'm only writing about 1 of the books. It is 47 pages and starts with a story about a boy who gets stocks from his grandmother. There is some history about stock exchange as well as current issues, like the foreclosure crisis. It includes a glossary of terms as well as a brief example of how to break down those stock listings in the paper. It also includes a short homework assignment where kids pick their favorite commodity and follow the stock for a month to see how well it does. It has links to websites and other books and online sources for students to use if they are interested in becoming a stockmarket investing.

Both books are engaging and are even great for teens or adults.

Living like a Hermit

The last couple of weeks I feel like I have pretty much just holed up in my studio and have not gone out much. Granted, I have been sick and I put my self on a pretty tight budget (I've gotta save money for China) - so I ended up reading a whole lotta books. I try to write little book talks here and I was going to try to be ambitious and do mini movies but I think that may be a little too much for me at the moment.

I also have been in a locked in my headspace kind of place so I tend to not want to be around people...

But here is a list of what I have finished reading. I always wondered how those librarians who give those book talk workshops do it and now I know. (1) they don't sleep
(2) they don't go out
(3) they don't have tv (or they do and they don't really like to watch it)
or
(4) they have tv but only receive 1 channel so really what is the point? (that's me!)

Here are books I have finished:

• Ancient Philosophers by Don Nardo. This 110 page book is a brief introduction to ancient philosophy and covers both the east and the west. Nardo focuses on Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, Buddha and Confucius but he also mentions Socrates, Thales and Theophrastus. It contains maps of where these different philosophers lived in relation to one another as well as illustrations and depictions of these men. He pulls out the main questions that each philosopher focused on, writes on their childhood and lives as well as each man's contributions. In the end, there are passages attributed to each philosopher that asserts their contributions or views on things Nardo mentions in the earlier chapters. For example, Nardo writes about how Aristotle believed that slavery was natural and excerpts a passage from Politics to support this point. For Buddha, Nardo emphasized that Buddha focused on suffering and the passage is about how evildoers will not go unpunished. It is short but filled with a lot of good information and a great list for those interested in reading more. As always, Nardo is very accessible for those of us who are not philosophy majors or experts.
• The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. This is based the true story of a German boy named Helmuth Hubener, who at age 16 was tried and executed by the Nazis for spreading "propaganda" on the truth about the war. Bartoletti interviewed Hubener's friends, 2 of who helped him spread his fliers and also were tried with him. It is told with Hubener in prison counting down the days to his execution looking back at his life. His family was very patriotic towards Germany. It is another perspective, one that I do not think we really acknowledge. The Germans who were against Hitler but also loved their country. Life and decisions are much more complicated than they seem. Bartoletti also included photographs of Hubener, his family and his friends.
  
• When You Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris. This was much better than Dress Your Family In Corduroy and Denim. Sedaris again takes us on a hilarious ride as we catch glimpses of his life with Hugh and his family and living in France and then in Japan. The last tale focuses on Sedaris' quitting smoking. I can say that I know exactly how he was feeling except I did not spend $20,000 to do it. I really enjoyed his stories of following Hugh, who sounds like he's a speed walker, and his quest to quit smoking and his impressions of people. One of my favorite stories is about a plane ride where he doesn't want to give up his seat. His lozenge ends up somewhere awkward. You read it to find out where and what happens.
  

Also in my hermitude, I watched a couple of movies, which at the moment, I cannot remember any of the titles of..One of them was "27 dresses" - meh. Also watched "There Will Be Blood" - I don't get the big deal. Why all the hype? Daniel Day Lewis' character, Daniel, is an a--hole but I guess, it was a masterful performance of an a--hole. Then I watched some old favorites, like "Kinky Boots."

Character Building - Do you have book suggestions?

I mentioned earlier that this school year's theme was about "character." Today, I was reading Read Write Web's post on books that can build character. It is a short list but pretty diverse with books by Murakami (my personal favorite) and Lance Armstrong, not only books on technology or business.

What books would you include on a list related to building character?

I have been thinking about what I have read this past year and I think I would include:

• Paul Newman & A.E. Hotchner - Shameless Exploitation
• Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin - Three Cups of Tea
• Randy Pausch - The Last Lecture
• Bethany Hamilton - Soul Surfer

I will look through my list but if you have any suggestions please comment and I will create a display in the library related to the theme.

Moving-In Time

I am about to start my 3rd year as a school librarian/teacher at the prestigious school I work at. I wrote earlier about how challenging last year was for me (I was definitely rethinking my career choice - well, the teaching part anyway) but I have a strong feeling that this year will be more interesting and challenging in other ways.

Things I will focus on this year include, but are not limited to (I got this wording from helping my friend, George, who was a architectural spec writer):

• applying the techniques discussed and practiced at the Fred Jones workshop I attended in June


• "work the crowd, or the crowd works you"


• remembering that my students' have enough friends


• preparing for each class, even though I feel I know the material (there are always surprises)


• learning my students' names before I meet them


• being a lot more open with my co-workers (I admit, I was a recluse last year)


• asking for help before it's too late!!!


• be better at taking criticism (thanks for the reminder BSB-"a thick skin")
  

Last week was officially my first week back. We spent 4 days unpacking books, organizing shelves, fixing magazines, organizing boxes for our offices and of course, catching up with my friends. Everyone had a pretty decent summer and I am hoping that I score on some Alaskan halibut that the Library Goddess caught in Homer.

My hands are pretty wrecked from all the moving but today I can actually type for a decent period of time. I still cannot open jars or bottles (e.g. water) but hopefully they will be back to normal tomorrow.

I have to say that the library looks absolutely beautiful! Lots of natural light, cream-colored shelving and the books are not super cramped! The stacks are not super tall! (I'm small and we have small kids) We can even have the tall books stand with their spine labels showing! You would not think that having books with their spines showing is a big deal but visually, it makes a big difference.

They will be moving in furniture soon so I will definitely take pictures after they are all in place.

With all the changes that have occurred this summer, it is fitting that we are in a new library.

Book 4 is out! Hurray!

Book 4 of Percy Jackson & the Olympians - Battle of the Labyrinth is out! Hurray! The students and I were counting down the days for book 3 The Titan's Curse last year and this year, it was again on of the most anticipated books amongst the students. We have a pretty sizable waiting list that started a few weeks ago. I am also so happy when the kids are enthusiastic about reading and have favorite authors.

I started it and so far it's non-stop action!

YA Review: "Mystic & Rider" by Sharon Shinn

Mystic and Rider (Ace Fantasy Book)

by Sharon Shinn

Mystics are being murdered. There is a strange tension that is building up as Senneth and her companions are traveling south in the country of Gillengaria. Some thing dreadful is happening in this country that is broken up into Twelve Houses, which are ruled by King Baryn, who lives in Ghosenhall. King Baryn has sent Senneth, a mystic on a mission to find out what is happening in this vast kingdom.

Mystics and Riders are different groups. Mystics have powers, for example, Senneth can control fire. Riders are the most elite group of warriors, who serve and are loyal only to the king. Senneth’s diverse group is made up of 2 Riders, one born to it and one introduced to it after being found on the streets surviving, and 4 mystics, one who just discovered his power, one who controls fire and 2 who can shape shift.

As they journey south, they encounter friends but more foes. The people’s views on mystics is changing. They see them as evil and some begin to feel that they need to be destroyed. Why is this happening? Who is fostering and proselytizing the destruction of this specific group of people? However, the mistrust and suspicious is not only outside the group but it is also amongst the companions even though they share the same mission.

Will the in-fighting stop amongst the companions long enough for them to discover the menace that is rising in Gillengaria? Will they make it back alive to the king to report on what they discover?

“Mystic and Rider” is book 1 of the Twelve Houses fantasy series by Sharon Shinn. It is filled with wonderful imagery of a land filled with strange people and strange creatures. Full of adventure and intrigue, as well as a bit of romance, “Mystic and Rider” will leave you wanting to know more about Gillengaria and its people.

See more about Mystic and Rider (Ace Fantasy Book)