Well, August is done now, and I start my third LIS class tonight! I'm taking three classes all at once now, rather than one at a time as I did over the summer, so I don't know how that's going to affect my reading. And I'm going to try to get some volunteer work with a library or two or twelve so I can get some of that experience stuff that people like so much. Also, Scott and I purchased a Wii over the weekend. And got Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box for the DS. So... yeah. Books? What are those again?
The numbers!
Days spent reading: 24
Books read: 13
...in fiction: 11
...in non-fiction: 2
...in speculative fiction: 6
...in humor: 1
...in fantasy: 1
...in thriller: 1
...in young adult: 2
...in children's: 1
Series reads: A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Codex Alera
Favorite book: The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (Review) 10/10
Challenges
Summer Lovin' Challenge: +3 books for 9/10
The Baker Street Challenge: +0 books for 0/3
My Year of Reading Dangerously Challenge: +1 books for 4/12
Orbis Terrarum Challenge: +0 books for 8/10
Critical Monkey Challenge: +1 books for 1/6
31 August 2009
Musing Mondays (31 August)
Today's Musing Mondays is rather appropriate considering my Friday post, I think. "Do you buy books as gifts for children – either your own or those of friends or family? Would you buy books for all children, or only children who are already practiced readers?"
Books are the only things I buy my youngest brother for present-giving days. My parents indulge him with collectible card games and video games and such; I give him paper. :) He used to be a little miffed when he opened up a book from me, but now he lets me know what books he wants in advance! He actually told me over the weekend (his birthday's not until practically December!) that he wants "learning books and A-Z Mysteries", so we'll see what he ends up with. My beloved Jo-Beth has its kids bargain book blowout coming up, and there's always good stuff to be had there!
I don't currently have any other kid-types to buy things for, but when I imagine tiny people and the gifts I would buy them, I definitely see books headed their way.
Books are the only things I buy my youngest brother for present-giving days. My parents indulge him with collectible card games and video games and such; I give him paper. :) He used to be a little miffed when he opened up a book from me, but now he lets me know what books he wants in advance! He actually told me over the weekend (his birthday's not until practically December!) that he wants "learning books and A-Z Mysteries", so we'll see what he ends up with. My beloved Jo-Beth has its kids bargain book blowout coming up, and there's always good stuff to be had there!
I don't currently have any other kid-types to buy things for, but when I imagine tiny people and the gifts I would buy them, I definitely see books headed their way.
30 August 2009
Links of the Week
Links! What fun!
Totally fake Amazon reviews for classic books. (via LISNews)
This has nothing to do with books, but it's a fun word game nonetheless. (via kottke.org)
They want to do what with The Time Traveler's Wife? (via Just One More Page...)
Totally fake Amazon reviews for classic books. (via LISNews)
This has nothing to do with books, but it's a fun word game nonetheless. (via kottke.org)
They want to do what with The Time Traveler's Wife? (via Just One More Page...)
29 August 2009
B is for Beer, by Tom Robbins (28 August)
This is a weird little book. It is subtitled both "A Children's Book for Grown-ups" and "A Grown-up Book for Children" and it has a big ol' glass of beer on the front. Oh, yes.
It's basically an excuse for Tom Robbins to write a book of fun facts about beer and how it's brewed in the "explain this to my five-year-old daughter" way, because the protagonist is five and gets curious about beer. Her uncle, Moe, who is totally that slacker uncle that your kids love and you don't care much for, promises to take her on a brewery tour for her sixth birthday, but when her birthday totally falls apart it doesn't happen. So she drinks a bunch of beer (for a six-year-old, anyway), vomits, and then goes on an adventure with the Beer Fairy. Yeah, you read that right.
It was cute! And entertaining. And wholly unbelievable. And it had some bad puns. Really bad. Terrible. But it's still really funny.
Rating: 7/10
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
It's basically an excuse for Tom Robbins to write a book of fun facts about beer and how it's brewed in the "explain this to my five-year-old daughter" way, because the protagonist is five and gets curious about beer. Her uncle, Moe, who is totally that slacker uncle that your kids love and you don't care much for, promises to take her on a brewery tour for her sixth birthday, but when her birthday totally falls apart it doesn't happen. So she drinks a bunch of beer (for a six-year-old, anyway), vomits, and then goes on an adventure with the Beer Fairy. Yeah, you read that right.
It was cute! And entertaining. And wholly unbelievable. And it had some bad puns. Really bad. Terrible. But it's still really funny.
Rating: 7/10
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
28 August 2009
Farewell, Reading Rainbow
Reading Rainbow has its last episode today (after 26 years!), and NPR did a story on it. I think what's interesting to note is that funding is shifting more toward TV shows that teach kids how to read rather than shows that give kids new books to read. I, personally, think that's a crying shame.
I didn't really watch Reading Rainbow on purpose as a kid, because I was generally well above the reading level of the books on the show. But part of the reason I read so well is because I read. A lot. I would regularly grab 10 books every time my mother took me to the library and have them read in a week or less. Did I grab so many books because someone once taught me phonics? Heck no!
I read then, and read now, because someone once gave me a love of reading. My teachers and my librarians said, "You should read these Baby-sitter's Club books! Or how about some Bruce Coville? Oh, I bet you'd love Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys!" And I did. And I read them all, because they were good. And then those teachers and librarians looked at what I was reading and suggested similar but more difficult books. And I never stopped reading.
My 20-year-old brother hated reading until my grandmother gave him the first three Harry Potter books. Now he reads epic fantasy, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at! My 10-year-old brother has had to deal with all of the ridiculous Ohio achievement testing and teachers having to teach to these tests since he started school, and gets poor marks on the reading sections because he reads lower than his grade level. But he's already given me his birthday and Christmas list of books I should buy him, so I think he's going to turn out better than the good readers in his class who don't want to read.
I was pondering taking some youth services courses for my library science degree, but this article, among other things, is really making that decision seem like an excellent one.
I didn't really watch Reading Rainbow on purpose as a kid, because I was generally well above the reading level of the books on the show. But part of the reason I read so well is because I read. A lot. I would regularly grab 10 books every time my mother took me to the library and have them read in a week or less. Did I grab so many books because someone once taught me phonics? Heck no!
I read then, and read now, because someone once gave me a love of reading. My teachers and my librarians said, "You should read these Baby-sitter's Club books! Or how about some Bruce Coville? Oh, I bet you'd love Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys!" And I did. And I read them all, because they were good. And then those teachers and librarians looked at what I was reading and suggested similar but more difficult books. And I never stopped reading.
My 20-year-old brother hated reading until my grandmother gave him the first three Harry Potter books. Now he reads epic fantasy, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at! My 10-year-old brother has had to deal with all of the ridiculous Ohio achievement testing and teachers having to teach to these tests since he started school, and gets poor marks on the reading sections because he reads lower than his grade level. But he's already given me his birthday and Christmas list of books I should buy him, so I think he's going to turn out better than the good readers in his class who don't want to read.
I was pondering taking some youth services courses for my library science degree, but this article, among other things, is really making that decision seem like an excellent one.
The Long Tomorrow, by Leigh Brackett (25 August — 27 August)
I love the blurb on the cover of this book:
"By far Leigh Brackett's best novel to date and comes awfully close to being a great work of science-fiction." — New York Times
When I saw that, I thought, "Hmmm. What does that mean? Is this just an okay work of science fiction?" And I'm still not sure what the Times reviewer was thinking fifty years ago when he wrote that, but I can certainly make a hypothesis.
The only real science-fiction-y aspect of the novel is the fact that it takes place in the future, after a World War III nuclear holocaust has destroyed all the cities in the world. After this catastrophic event, the government has outlawed cities (too much of a target) and pretty much everyone has taken to being a New Mennonite and living just like the Amish do today. Part of the new religion preaches the comfort of being ignorant, thus keeping people from wanting to invent another nuclear bomb.
But a couple of kids in the Youngstown, Ohio area (not sure exactly where they're meant to be, but I recognized a couple of city names nearby, Andover and Canfield) are more curious and less mindful of their parents than they should be and end up hearing about and lusting after a forbidden city called Bartorstown, where men are purported to be able to learn things and to be allowed to remember what the world was like 100 years ago, before the bombs and terror and whatnot. These kids set off to find the city, but since no one talks about it for fear of being stoned to death, and they can't even really be sure the place exists, the quest is a little harder than they expect.
I rather enjoyed this little book! It has just the right combination of adventure and reality, and the main character, Len, is really easy to relate to. The novel is really more about Len's physical and emotional journey rather than his destination, and there's a lot of really good commentary about the human condition. And, for a dystopian novel from the fifties, the writing is pretty darn clear and concise. Good marks all around. (Also, Brackett's a chick and worked on The Empire Strikes Back, which is like plus ten more points.)
Rating: 7/10
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
"By far Leigh Brackett's best novel to date and comes awfully close to being a great work of science-fiction." — New York Times
When I saw that, I thought, "Hmmm. What does that mean? Is this just an okay work of science fiction?" And I'm still not sure what the Times reviewer was thinking fifty years ago when he wrote that, but I can certainly make a hypothesis.
The only real science-fiction-y aspect of the novel is the fact that it takes place in the future, after a World War III nuclear holocaust has destroyed all the cities in the world. After this catastrophic event, the government has outlawed cities (too much of a target) and pretty much everyone has taken to being a New Mennonite and living just like the Amish do today. Part of the new religion preaches the comfort of being ignorant, thus keeping people from wanting to invent another nuclear bomb.
But a couple of kids in the Youngstown, Ohio area (not sure exactly where they're meant to be, but I recognized a couple of city names nearby, Andover and Canfield) are more curious and less mindful of their parents than they should be and end up hearing about and lusting after a forbidden city called Bartorstown, where men are purported to be able to learn things and to be allowed to remember what the world was like 100 years ago, before the bombs and terror and whatnot. These kids set off to find the city, but since no one talks about it for fear of being stoned to death, and they can't even really be sure the place exists, the quest is a little harder than they expect.
I rather enjoyed this little book! It has just the right combination of adventure and reality, and the main character, Len, is really easy to relate to. The novel is really more about Len's physical and emotional journey rather than his destination, and there's a lot of really good commentary about the human condition. And, for a dystopian novel from the fifties, the writing is pretty darn clear and concise. Good marks all around. (Also, Brackett's a chick and worked on The Empire Strikes Back, which is like plus ten more points.)
Rating: 7/10
See also:
[your link here]
Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.
27 August 2009
Booking Through Thursday (27 August)
Today's Booking Through Thursday is... "What’s the lightest, most “fluff” kind of book you’ve read recently?"
Hmm. I'm not sure just what qualifies as fluff. If it's "non-serious" reading, I think pretty much everything I read is fluff! For argument's sake, I'm going to define fluff (for today only!) as something short, fun, and non-brain-needing.
And so, I offer you The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. It is weird, it is British, it has next to no plot, it takes a couple hours to read, and the only time you need your brain is to tell it not to worry about a hyperintelligent shade of the color blue. Because if you think too hard about that, your brain will explode.
Hmm. I'm not sure just what qualifies as fluff. If it's "non-serious" reading, I think pretty much everything I read is fluff! For argument's sake, I'm going to define fluff (for today only!) as something short, fun, and non-brain-needing.
And so, I offer you The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. It is weird, it is British, it has next to no plot, it takes a couple hours to read, and the only time you need your brain is to tell it not to worry about a hyperintelligent shade of the color blue. Because if you think too hard about that, your brain will explode.
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