Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man.
~Benjamin Franklin
Happy New Year Y'all!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunday, December 30, 2007
How To Talk about Books You Haven't Read (copy)
This past fall, I was walking with my girlfriends when one asked if I was a fast reader. My answer was not really; although, I am much faster due to library school. In some courses, students are required to read 25 books, give weekly book talks, and write essays on each book. One is forced to speed up in order to keep up with the course work.
Then my friend continued her line of questioning. Do I read the whole book I’m writing about? Well, I never thought that would be a question. I admitted to not always finishing books before deadline, but that was a technicality. Yes, I do read the whole book, not scan the material.
For the book talks I write it isn’t necessary to complete the book. What person in their right mind would tell the ending anyway? It happens though. I was truly enjoying a review in the Commercial Appeal when the reviewer wrapped up her review with the ending. Well, what good is the book now! It is like a movie trailer which uses all the best parts of the movie and then gives an ending shot. I’ve heard of “dummying down” but to give the whole storyline—whether book or movie—is going too far.
Now this girlfriend has me thinking. Do I really need to spend my time reading all these books? Oscar Wilde said, “I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so.”
Then a copy of How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard was laid on my desk. Now, here is the inspirational guide to my new resolve to not waste time reading.
Author Bayard demonstrates his point through a literary librarian in the parody, The Man without Qualities by Musil. This librarian, known for his exceptional organizational skills, refuses to read any library books in his care. Bayard’s explains:
Reading is first and foremost non-reading. Even in the case of the most passionate lifelong readers, the act of picking up and opening a book masks the countergesture that occurs at the same time: the involuntary act of not picking up and not opening up all the other books in the universe.Bayard’s book is purely tongue and cheek, but I see a use. I might need to start reassuring those books around the book I choose so feelings aren’t hurt. But wait a minute, books have no feelings. Right, they evoke feelings, but they have none?
I think this is going to be the first resolution I break in 2008. Not only do I need my walking buddies, but I need my book friends, too.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
I Dare You! (copy)
I dare you! You read me right. I dare you to add more books to your life in 2008. Go ahead, make this your New Year’s resolution. I’ll wait. This is important, maybe you should write this down. I’ll continue to wait as you locate a piece of paper and pen.
Okay, are we all set? No? Why? What seems to be the problem? No time with all those other pesky resolutions? Hum, I see we need to prioritize. Where does “read more” fit into our other resolutions such as lose weight, save money, spend quality time with friends and family, get fit, stop drinking, stop smoking, learn a new skill, take up a rewarding hobby, get organized, and spend more time in prayer? Let’s see, most people opt to lose weight at the beginning of the year. Remember Atkins and South Beach, both require books to follow; thus, losing weight might require some reading. So, if one wants to lose weight may I suggest Mark Hyman’s Ultra-Metabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss: Awakening the Fat-burning DNA Hidden in Your Body or Rory Freedman’s Skinny Bitch in the Kitchen: Kick-ass Solutions for Hungry Girls who want to Stop Cooking Crap (and Start Looking Hot!).
Would you like to save more money the smart way? That means reading a book about investing instead of listening to word of mouth investors. Remember the old slogan, “When E.F. Hutton, talks, people listen.” The updated version should say, “When J.C. Bogle speaks, people invest.” Here are two hot new books: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C. Bogle and The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing by Taylor Larimore, Mel Lindauer, and Michael LeBoeuf. Um, John C. Bogle is the creator of the successful Vanguard Investment Group. Enough said.
Ah, spend more quality time with family and friends. What is more precious than a child or grandchild sitting in your lap being read to? Try Counting Kisses by Karen Katz or Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney to display affection and love. Spread the love by taking turns reading aloud to your spouse while doing chores. Sea-faring tales are great for this activity and two proven series are Patrick O’Brian’s Captain Jack Aubrey and C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower.
To show friends you care, pass along a book you recently enjoyed. Christmas Jars by Jason F Wright is making the rounds in my area.
Change takes a little reading to become a habit, and look at all the books you will be adding to your reading list if you truly decide to change. Oh, and don’t forget I dared you. Hum, I double-dog dare you, and now you have to add more books!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Challenge Wrap-Up!
First of all, big THANKS to Lesley at A Life in Books for the Armchair Traveler Reading Challenge! I had tremendous fun reading other books outside my adopted state of Mississippi. I got rather creative with my selections and might be disqualified, but we will let Lesley make that decision. You know, smart, powerful, beautiful Lesley! ;D
Books read took me to places I would like to visit or return to!?!
Italy, India, & Indonesia
Italy
Africa
Georgia
Rust Belt of Connecticut
My Youth
Last Night at the Lobster (copy)
As I close my latest book and look down Main Street, I see a beautiful American flag dancing in the sunshine. Usually, I use the flag as a wind indicator before heading outdoors, but today it captures my gaze as I think about Stewart O’Nan’s new book Last Night at the Lobster.
I originally grabbed the book for its Christmas angle. The book is set entirely in one day which happens to be four days before Christmas. On December 20, in America’s Rust Belt, unbeknownst to the eating public, New Britain’s Red Lobster will close its doors forever. With this premise, I immediately concluded the book will be a tale of Christmas miracles involving the soon-to-be ex-Red Lobster employees.
Boy was I wrong. If there is any miracle it is the fact that employees have chosen to participate in work at all. At least this is how manager Manny DeLeon sees it. As he sits in his hand-me-down Regal, taking one last toke in the mid-day gray, he speculates on who will and who won’t show for this last shift. He guesses those who will be accompanying him to the Olive Garden in Bristol and those eager to get their hands on a pre-Christmas pay check will come in or at least make an appearance.
Manny hates to admit it, but at 35 he likes being manager of Red Lobster. For many years now he has ensured his customers enjoy prompt service in a clean facility. He is still in shock over the closing. He never saw it coming since his numbers remained high even though they resurfaced highway 9 this past summer.
Unlocking doors and turning on lights, he ambles past the appliances he has maintained for years, patting each as a pet. What will he miss most? It has to be the familial nature of the job. Whether he is breaking up brotherly fights between his cook, Ty, and slacker Fredo, or listening to motherly advice from Roz, the lifer waitress who wears a nametag so old he can’t find it on eBay, he realizes those days are over.
He knows one thing; he will not miss the beast. Covered in a corner, far from his eyes, the snow blower sits, taunting his manhood. Unfortunately, on his very last day, a nor’easter is kicking up and it looks like the beast will be needed.
As I gaze back at the flag, I realize author O’Nan has written a day in ordinary America, where each service worker deserves a little Christmas miracle.
Note: Number 6 Armchair Travelers Reading Challenge
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
I'm cleaning my e-mail and I thought this was a nice note from the author of The Year of Fog.
Dear Maggie--
Thanks so much for your wonderful and creative write-up about The Year of Fog on your blog. And many thanks also for promoting it in newspapers in Mississippi! It's quite a treat for me that you're getting the word out about the book in Mississippi, as both of my parents grew up in Brookhaven and I have cousins, aunts, and uncles who live in Prentiss, Brookhaven, and rural Lincoln County. I spent a lot of time in Brookhaven as a child and have vivid memories of the drive from Mobile, through Hattiesburg.
The Year of Fog didn't have a big marketing budget behind it, so its success depends enormously on word-of-mouth. So, once again, thank you!
All Best,Michelle
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Christmas Jars (copy)
All it takes is a little glass jar full of coins to change the world. In my latest fictional world, there is a family, who by yearly tradition, use an empty mayonnaise jar for spare change. This spare change, which collects until Christmas, sometimes equals less than a hundred dollars, but somehow makes all the difference to that year’s recipient. This year is Hope Jensen’s turn.
Hope, more than anything, wants to be a reporter, not just any reporter, but a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter. A goal she doesn’t take lightly. As early as kindergarten she blurts out her career crossroads, “One day I will grow up to become either president of the United States or a famous newspaper reporter.”
Her mother teases, “The latter is more honorable.”
Hope agrees, and in increments she sets out to accomplish the latter. By second grade, she is making up stories about a pack of fun-loving motorcycling bunnies. Third grade she switches to hero stories with a down-n-out mouse that saves the day. During fourth and fifth she expands into a newsletter called the “Jensen Report” which mails out to family and friends.
Readers can guess her drive leads to the local newspaper where she starts at the bottom with advertisements and now blue inks others as a copy editor. Through it all, her single mother documents the upward climb by lovingly cutting out Hope’s best stories, opinions, and advertisements for the family’s bulging scrapbook.
Ever the workaholic, Hope rises at five in the morning and comes home around nine in the evening. Spending her time in search of the break through story—something which will carry top-of-the-fold coverage and last three or four issues—she doesn’t mind working on weekends. Now that her loving mother has died of cancer, holidays are also spent at her desk.
It is during this first Christmas Eve without her mother that trouble ensues. Working at the office, she returns home to an apartment in shambles. Her television and DVD player are gone, plus the little cash she had hidden away.
As the investigators wrap up, she notices a brown paper bag by the door. Inside is a jar marked “Christmas Jar” filled with coins and a few twenties. Here is her story of a lifetime.
In author Jason F. Wright’s 2005 book Christmas Jars one will find a world of change. Be forewarned this rates four tissue boxes.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Front Page/Bottom Fold
I Love My Job!Northwest Mississippi Community College
Reference Librarian Maggie Moran (left)
shows Senatobia Librarian Verlean Taylor
the colorful illustrations
in the book "No, David!" by David Shannon.
Moran spoke to last week's Lunch with Books
meeting on the Reader's Bill of Rights.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Feeling Like a Kid (copy)
Feeling Like a Kid: Childhood and Children’s Literature by Jerry Griswold is more than a professional development book; it is inspiration. I picked it up for the job, but just fell in love with Griswold’s ideas. In a nutshell, he would like for us to revisit the classics with our adult eye, but child’s heart.
The opening quote by Italo Calvino says it all:
There should therefore be a time in adult life devoted to revisiting the most important books of our youth. Even if the books have remained the same, …we have most certainly changed, and our encounter with them will be a new
thing.
I did that a couple of years ago when I revisited Old Yeller by Fred Gipson. I totally missed some important issues such as the downhill slide of the dog when I read it in my youth. Actually, the book was a much harder read as an adult, too.
Author Griswold would like for us to remember what it was like to be young. He breaks down the book into five different themes: snugness, scariness, smallness, lightness, and aliveness. In “Snugness” he takes a few minutes to remind us how important making tents out of a table and chairs are to youngsters. My favorite place to feel snug was inside a clothes rack at the local K-Mart. I’d wiggle into the middle and play quietly while my mom searched frantically.
Other than the professional nature, I also like this book because it leads to more books. His whole conversation on snugness revolves around fictional children who hide or sleep in snug places within the following books: The Wind in the Willows, Heidi, The Secret Garden, and the stories of Beatrix Potter.
In the “Scariness” chapter, the reader is reminded about those things that make one jump, but then laugh afterwards. Griswold cites the game of “Boo” as an example. Interesting enough, the most famous children’s book in the world is a German favorite titled, Struwwelpeter. Have you heard of it? Me neither. Apparently, parents all over Europe have used this book full of cautionary tales to set their children straight. A particularly gruesome story involves a tailor who cuts off thumbs of kids who suck them.
If you would like to get in touch with your inner child you needn’t wait to read Feeling Like a Kid. Go ahead and get started by reading a Christmas classic such as Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or Clement Moore’s A Visit from St. Nicholas to yourself or any lucky child visiting this holiday season.
Note: Return trip to my childhood Number 5 Armchair Travelers Reading Challenge
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