Daily Thoughts 7/7/2010

National Library of Bhutan, Thimphu. Main buiding in a snowfall, 23 January 2008, Christopher J. Fynn, Creative Commons, Share Alike Attribution 3.0 Unported

Daily Thoughts 7/7/2010

This is a link to an article and video from News 12 on the layoffs at Mount Vernon Public Library http://www.news12.com/articleDetail.jsp?articleId=255625&position=1&news_type=news I also posted it on Twitter which feeds into my linked in account now. I want to have maximum linkage and exposure for what I am saying. Part of that process is creating links between social networks

It felt odd coming in today. I was reading the New York Times Book Review and looked at the routing list. It had my initials only, with four other initials crossed out. It reminded me of how many people were affected. I also took some time to read Publishers Weekly. One book which caught my eye was The Vertical Farm The World Grows Up by Dickson Despommier. It is about urban agriculture. Vertical farms, are hydroponics and aeroponic farms inside skyscrapers. They are often designed to be mimic ecology. I find them to be fascinating. Part of this concept originates in The New Alchemy Institute which developed the bioshelter concept. It is radical science at its most interesting. http://www.thegreencenter.net/

I also had a chance to log in to my first online chat session of The Readers Advisory 101 Class. I learned quite a few interesting ideas. Joyce G. Saricks suggested The Adult Reading Roundtable as a resource for readers advisory www.arrtreads.org/ which is in Illinois.

There were a number of suggestions on how to pick books for patrons.
1) Check on the last book they read. 2) Check on the last book they returned to the library. 3) Suggest they read the jacket blurb, and read two pages at random to see if they like what they are reading. The librarians also use Goodreads a lot to pick out books to read. They think of it as an excellent social network for readers advisory. http://www.goodreads.com/ It is also important to make displays of books which you can recommend. Many also used Novelist which is a database about books and book reviews to find read alikes, or similar titles between authors. Some librarians used Fiction Connection which is a readers advisory tool created by Bowker. http://www.bowker.com/index.php/bowker-brands/fiction-connection

There is a difference between a book which you can recommend. A book which you can recommend is a book or author you have read and like. A suggestion is something you think a person may like based on other peoples reading habits or literary reviews. This is the general idea.

We were talking about appeal what makes a person interested in a book. This is different than whether it has quality. It is about what people like to read no what matter what it is. Joyce G. Saricks, the instructor has a quote, "Never Apologize for Your Reading Tastes." A lot of the discussion was about popular genre fiction. A lot of appeal is about how a book affects us.

We discussed how people track their books. They often keep a log of their reading in a binder. I don't. I use this blog and Goodreads right now. This is a good enough way to track my reading.

A lot of appeal is being comfortable talking about books and recommending what people may like. I picked ups some ideas that the small group of librarians taking the class have about literature. Character centered books tend to be literary oriented, plot centered books tend to be more action oriented, women tend to read authors by both men and women, and men often only read books by other men. Romance tends to be better when there is an element of suspense. Books that are banned often become even more popular because of censorship. Political views can skew whether or not people will like a book.

It was an entertaining session. I am looking to catch up for my next session. I was really supposed to start last week, but the potential of layoffs before it happened upset me a little bit.

Daily Thoughts 6/13/2010

Dr. Seuss cartoon, 14 November 2006, Image From Wikipedia Article by Greg Williams, Creative Commons Attributions-Share Alike 2.5 Generic on Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 6/13/2010

During the last several days, I have been watching a dvd called Seuss Celebration 9 Favorite Televised Classics. It includes The Lorax, The Cat In The Hat, Pontofell Pock and His Magic Piano, Green Eggs and Ham, Sneetches, Zax, Grinch Night, The Grinch Grinches The Cat In The Hat, and The Hoober Bloober Highway. Some of these are cartoons which I had never heard of before. They are both longer, more colorful, more oddball, and stranger than the books of the same name.

All of them include singing and piano music. Each video comes with a sing a long which was a surprise. Dr. Seuss used piano music in many of his works. His live action movie, The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T is very musical. The vision you get of how he intends to have his books read is very different if you watch the cartoons. I very much liked watching The Lorax. I never read the book. My favorite of the collection was Green Eggs and Ham.

The arrangement of the menus is a little odd to look at. It could have been different. I am also not certain that the transfer from the older tapes is perfect, but it is good enought to enjoy.

This collection is nothing like the Beginner Book Videos of Dr. Seuss, each story includes a lot of material that is not in the books. Each cartoon runs for a full half hour in this version, much longer than it takes to read the books. It also has the cartoon characters singing parts of the text you would have read in the book. The Beginner Book Videos are a lot more formal.

The Cat In the Hat has a very different feel than the modern interpretation of Cat In The Hat like you might see with Jim Carrie. It is not a Cat In The Hat you may be familiar with. The cartoon character is much more of a tricky rascal. It is much closer to Dr. Seuss's cartoon works which you might see in the three volume set, Theodor Seuss Geisel, The Early Works of Dr. Seuss. I enjoyed watching it. I think children and adults will like it. I am a big fan of Dr. Seuss.

I did not read that much this weekend. I spent more time writing reviews. I just started reading an uncorrected proof of A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cosse. The book is published by Europa Editions, it is coming out in September 2010 and is translated from French. So far, I have figured out that this is a mix of a suspense story and a book about literature set in France.

Digital Self Publishing Shakes Up Traditional Book Industry, an article from the Wall Street Journal. Digital Self Publishing Shakes Up Traditional Book Industry http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704912004575253132121412028.html

Daily Thoughts 4/14/2010

Ian Fleming oil painting, 16 January 2009, Constance Vlahoulis, Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0 Generic from Wikimedia.

Daily Thoughts 4/14/2010

I finished reading Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks by John Curran. I especially liked the short story at the end of the book, The Incident of the Dog's Ball. I also liked that she was Robert Grave's neighbor. The book was interesting to read. It was mainly a set of notes rearranged to give details on the different works she wrote. Agatha Christie was more than a mystery writer. She also wrote successful plays and radioscripts as well as wrote as a novelist under a pseudonym. This book has notes on almost all of her short stories, plays, and books. If you are an Agatha Christie fan it is well worth reading.

Alexander Jablokov, Brain Thief came in for me to read. It looks like a combination of a cyberpunk science fiction novel and a thriller.

I spent some time today looking at different library fundraising around the county. I also checked on the progress of shifting fiction books and short stories out of the fiction room.

I also spent a little time looking through the gift books. We had some new African American romance paperbacks which were donated to us with popular authors like Rochelle Alers and Brenda Jackson. We also got a few books on cd, including an unabridged CD of a Isabel Allende book.

A patron suggested that I read Chuck Klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur. He compared him to Hunter S. Thompson. I have put it on hold.

Today is the first National Book Mobile Day, April 14, 2010. Our book mobile went out today to do the rounds with the older adults. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6726127.html

National Library Week 2010 America's Most Amazing Libraries from the Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/12/national-library-week-201_n_533978.html

Daily Thoughts 12/2/2009

Portrait of Giacomo Casanova made about 1750-1755 by his brother Francesco Casanova, who was a famous painter (Gosudarstvennyj Istoriceskij Muzej of Moskow).

Daily Thoughts 12/2/2009

Today was a day for working on signage. We put up a sign for our current events book table which says "Current Events and People in the News" as well as two clip on signs for our small display tables with the words, "These books are ready to take out." We are also working on creating a new sign for the New Arrivals section.

I also refreshed a few displays, taking out the holiday display and putting in a book display on gardening and flowers. We have a fairly large section with oversize or quarto books and they make excellent display items.

I started on designing a flyer for the graphic novels club, we are going to start with Neil Gaiman, Sandman as an opener. We are getting a new library card for the graphic novel club.

I spent some time ordering books as well. It has been a nice steady day. This evening, I am going through Powell's Review A Day, and various reviews from Library Journals online reviews to pick out a few more books.

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2009

Leonard Bernstein seated at piano, making annotations to musical score 1955

Daily Thoughts 10/2/2009

We have an art gallery in the rotunda in our library which is currently showing paintings by local artists. There are four cases on the walls. We put in a display of oversize art books this morning. I like to think that the best books to display are those that are visible. You should first see them from about seven feet away, then be drawn to the cover of the book by the artwork. After the cover is seen, you should be hooked by the content of the blurbs and copy enough to start reading the first chapter of the book. Usually, reading the first chapter of a book is what determines whether or not you want to continue reading the book. This is why many bookstores let you sit and read the book in a cafe. Bright colors and interesting artwork for the cover and inside flaps are a very good idea.

We chose oversize art books on Dali, Modigliani, surrealism, saive art, Klimt, Japanese brush painting, and Caribbean art. The art work in the rotunda is a very interesting mix of different paintings.

I also did some more weeding this afternoon of the 800s. I am looking forward to reading a large graphic novel, Locas II: The Maggie & Hopey Stories by Jaime Hernandez next week. I already have quite a bit to read right now.

On the train home, I finished reading The Cost of Bad Behavior. The last chapter on how civility leads to higher social standing was rather interesting. I also am looking at Noah Wyle, The Librarian Quest For The Spear on dvd. It is an Indiana Jones style adventure with a librarian as a lead character.

I found out that Google limits the number of labels that can be used to search a blog to 2000. This means that I have to eliminate some of the labels I used for previous entries. It also means that I cannot review more than 2000 individual titles. It is an interesting quandry.

Daily Thoughts 9/22/2009

Wasserkriche als Stadtbibliothek; Zeichnung von Franz Hegi, 1845

Daily Thoughts 9/22/2009

Today, I have been working on various things which are designed to boost circulation. We have been putting up more displays lately. We currently have a display of graphic novels, a display of current events, a display of books on Africa and Egypt from our storage section, and a display of oversize art books. This is in addition to the "new arrivals" section. It is something which we have to keep up every day and make sure there are fresh materials added. Displays seem to work best when people can take the materials directly. I spent some time this afternoon moving the Playaways to the "new arrivals" section. Playaways are a form of preloaded electronic audiobook. They are very easy to use.

I also spent some time going through the purchase alerts list which is what our patrons have been putting on hold. The more requests there are for an item, the higher it is on the list. It has been changing considerably since we put in the new arrivals section and started ordering more books for the job information center and many new books. Some of the sections of books which are doing well are graphic novels and manga , urban fiction, job information center books, young adult series novels like the Vampire Diaries, cookbooks, diet books, and martial arts.

I also have been copying down requests from our patron request sheet where we track what we don't have that our patrons ask for. This makes our library a little more responsive to what people need. I have been thinking about how to better advertise that patrons can request what they are interested in having us purchase for all formats of materials.

This afternoon I spent some time filling requests for different books to go to the book mobile; books about Maine, toy trains, and Norman Rockwell. The book mobile serves a lot of people in nursing homes and the material we send out is often very nostalgic. I also sometimes pick out large print books, mysteries, and biographies for them as well.

I finished reading The United States Constitution A Graphic Adaptation. It is a flawed, but interesting graphic novel. I found the artwork to be rather bland. The colors were in rough earth tones which I did not like. Also, I found the drawing to be not that well defined. It was a little better than what you might find in a comic like Classics Illustrated. There were some interesting gimmicks in the art though, like having a supermajority in Congress represented as a superhero with an American flag on its chest and the head being the congressional building. Every page had a different visual gimmick on it..

The text was far better than the drawing. It was well done. The story was presented in a chronological order from the first constitutional convention, bill of rights, and each of the amendments. This covered a complete history of the United States as seen through the constitution. Numerous prominent Supreme Court cases were briefly described including Brown Vs. Board of Education, Miners School District V. Gobitis (1940), and many others . There was also coverage of the Emancipation Proclamation and many more important events in American history. I have to say the writing was better than the pictures. Read it for the history. I think I learned a few things.

Feature Author: Sam Morton

Sam Morton is the author of Betrayed, a new release from Quake!

From the Back cover:

It’s an election year and Senator Ben “Pitchfork” Stevens from Texas made a campaign promise to stop illegal immigration. He virtually has. Problem is, people trying to cross the border seem to disappear. That’s a dilemma for 15-year-old Austin Pierce whose father is a political consultant and whose best friend, Rico Alvarez, happens to be in the United States illegally. When Austin discovers Rico’s beautiful cousin Veronica helps people break the law and cross the border from Mexico, he faces a decision: should he help his friends or try to stop the senator? Either path could lead to danger, even death.

And here's an excerpt from between the book covers:

"No. Your friend has come to our town—to our country—and I'm interested in what our American friends believe about our culture." Veronica's steel gaze locked into Austin. Even in the low light of the setting sun, he could see the glint in them.

But it seemed this girl had no interest in being friendly and Austin refused to be intimidated. He cleared his throat so his voice would be firm. "Well, I guess I just didn't expect to see all the retail stores here carrying all the familiar products, and whew, the Super Wal-Mart really threw me for a loop! I mean is there a place in the world those guys don't go?"

Rico put his palms out toward his friend attempting to quiet the rising tension and volume of their voices, both to no avail.

"I suppose you expected to come to some third-world dirt village, where the women grind corn and hand-pat tortillas around an open fire, and the men dress up like mariachis and sing the Mexican Hat Dance!" She swept her hands in each direction. "Or maybe you thought you'd find a bunch of gang bangers cruising around with handguns in low riders with bandana's half covering their eyes. Sorry to disappoint you, but that's more prevalent in Los Angeles—you know, the one in the United States."

"That's not what I meant," he said, his voice louder than he intended.

Her head seemed to swivel and she pointed an accusing finger in Austin's direction as she continued her rant. "Take a moment and look, Señior Pierce, and you'll see we're much the same. We have email and the internet, cable and satellite TV…surprise, surprise, surprise."

He cut her off, hands raised. "Exactly what did I do to piss you off, Roni?" Austin threw his hands apart and arched his brows, too. "I mean I hadn't even said hello before you turned your nose up at me like I reeked.”

The two had inched closer, squeezing Rico between them. They sat for a moment in an electric silence until Rico finally broke it.

"I can tell you exactly why she doesn't like you," he said.

Austin's eyes widened, the confirmation that the gorgeous cousin really disliked him striking a blow. Veronica's expression changed too. Her cheeks reddened and Austin thought her pupils glowed red. If the fire in them were real, Rico would be a block of crusted ash by now.

"She doesn't want you to know…"

"Rico do not …" she said through gritted teeth. Balled fists hung past her trousers just inches from the curb.

Her cousin ignored her. "She doesn't want you to find out that she has been helping people here cross the border illegally since she was twelve.

want more? click here for the first three chapters!

Readers are raving:

“I liked it so much, I read it three times!” - Jaylen Suther, 10^th-grader, Irmo, S.C.

“Armed with a powerful story, stunning language, and a belief that right must triumph, Sam Morton weaves a tale of laughter, passion, and fury in Betrayed. Don’t miss a word. Sam is an author on the move.” - Pat Conroy, bestselling author of The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and The Great Santini

Best, Worst, and Craziest Aspects of being a writer—

The best part for me, without question, is the creative process. I have complete control of the story—who lives, who dies, what takes place in the action, the emotions and reactions of the characters. I especially like, when it’s time for a bad guy to get his due, coming up with exceedingly painful and humiliating ways for the bad guys to die. I think I have an over-developed sense of justice!

The worst part of writing for me is always having to figure out how to have something go on behind my main character’s back without him knowing it, but at the same time letting the reader know. Some writers find that easy to do. I find that it takes a deftness of skill I’ve not yet mastered and have to work at.

The craziest part of being a writer—and I’ve talked to enough writers to know I am not alone—is that, as much as I love the creative process, when it comes time to put my fingers on the keyboard and write, I do almost anything to avoid it! I do laundry. I clean the kitchen. I’ll even re-organize my office. I believe I’m intimidated to some degree. Writing makes us all vulnerable, and even though we have back space keys and delete buttons, once you’ve written it, at least in an emotional sense, it’s out there and hard to take back.

What's next for Sam and Austin?

Austin will have another fabulous adventure. He will see a wrong and try to make it right. He will encounter the wrath and resistance of those committing the wrong, and his life, and those of his friends, will most definitely be in danger. Will he survive it this time? Will his friends? You’ll have to read to find out!

You can buy your copy of Sam's book early at Quake, or Amazon, visit him at his website or follow him on Twitter and facebook.

Leave Sam a comment or question here at Teen Seen today and connect with this amazing talent!

Thanks Sam!

Daily Thoughts 6/5/2009

A statue of James Joyce in Dublin, Ireland.

Daily Thoughts 6/5/2009

I am going to the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art festival tomorrow. Hopefully, I will get to see one of the panels, AH, HUMBUG! Arnold Roth and Al Jaffee in conversation with Gary Groth from 3:00-3:50 p.m.

I dropped off my my library books at my library. I drove up there. It is raining outside. Then I drove down to Barnes and Noble at the mall. I took a look at In The Stormy Red Sky by David Drake. The hardcover is $25.00 at the bookstore. The cover art is very nice. I could go to the Strand Bookstore and buy it there if they have it for $12.50 if there are any extra reviewers copies. The author is popular enough that there often are not any, or I could buy it as an E-ARC from Baen for $15.00, or if I am a little bit more patient, I could wait for it and order it from my library. I have never bought an E-Arc from Baen.

I watched Steamboy this afternoon on dvd. It is by the director of Akira, Katsuhiro Otomo. The story is interesting. It is about a conflict between Britain and a mad inventor who makes various clockwork steam mechanisms.

The main character is Ray Steam, a young inventor whose father has invented a new form of energy in the form of a high pressure steam ball. The story is quite fanciful. There are armored steam powered knights, railroads, steam cars, dirigibles with giant claws, a steam powered floating fortress, and other mad inventions. There are plenty of fantastic explosions and London nearly gets destroyed. There is a back story of science going out of control. You might call this film steampunk.

It definitely has the feeling of Victorian science fiction. The settings are interesting, Russian Alaska, the english countryside, and London during the 1860s. There is lots of fighting and action. The anime has a lot of detail to it. The characters unlike most anime are not big eyed people from a non-descript setting, they look European.

The main problem with Steamboy was that the characters were rather shallow and predictable even for anime. The villains look like the set piece villains you might see in an old film. The characters seemed to be a background piece for the the inventions and the battles. The dialog was very predictable, but it fit well with the action sequences. Not everyone will like this.

The anime took ten years to make. The drawings are very detailed. The mechanics of the world work quite well. I would say this film is as good as Akira the directors other film which is considered a classic in anime. I could drift right into the action without thinking too hard. If you like cartoons or anime this film is worth watching. It is pure escapist fluff. If you like manga, Akira is considered to be an excellent manga comic.

The Gatekeepers: Raven's Gate (Book Review)

The Gatekeepers: Raven's Gate by Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Scholastic
ISBN: 0-439-85629-9

Matt isn't really a bad kid, he's just looking for someplace to belong and maybe a reason. He is however different from your average kids, and someone out there seems to know that. When he finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, Matt's entire life is ripped apart and he is sent on a journey that is more than a little strange, and altogether terrifying.

Worse yet, when he finds himself packed off to Lesser Malling, things get even weirder. Knowing he needs to escape the nightmare he is living, Matt is faced with mortality and his true self. But everyone who tries to help Matt ends up dead or missing. Is the place he's supposed to call home filled with witches or is there a greater evil at hand?

Anthony Horowitz writes a remarkably dark tale. As an adult, I wondered if it might be too graphic for the kids, but I could not put it down. I can see where readers of the dark and gritty would high five Mr. Horowitz's talent for the creepy. A very good read and I am looking forward to Evil Star.

Reviewed by Karen Syed

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