The Gilmore Challenge

I can't say I entirely agree with all of Rory's tastes, but it's hard not to be delighted that Australian writer Patrick Lenton has compiled a comprehensive list of every book mentioned in the series run of Gilmore Girls. Over seven seasons, the total is over 300. That averages to about 49 books per year, or roughly one per week. Life of Johnson certainly isn't helping me keep pace! Quality over quantity.

Immediate Book Meme

(DarwinCatholic started it, Happy Catholic passed it on, so...what the heck?)

1. What book are you reading now?

James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

2. What book did you just finish?

Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. I don't usually mind long books, but man, even good psychology can be a drag. I triumphantly finished the audio today after pushing through it on my drives  for the past 3 weeks.

3. What do you plan to read next?

I just picked up Robert Edsel's Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue A Nation's Treasures from the Nazis from the library.

4. What book do you keep meaning to finish?

I keep getting stuck part-way in Joseph Dane's What is a Book?. Also, Transformation in Christ.

5. What book do you keep meaning to start?

I've picked up Whitman's Leaves of Grass on numerous occasions, but the right time hasn't come yet.

6. What is your current reading trend?

WWII history/libraries/art, I guess? Monuments Men started me on a tear, and I have a brand new beautiful coffee table book from the Newberry Library sitting on my side table.

Latvians Form Human Book Chain to Transfer Books to New Library

Over the weekend in Riga, Latvia, over 15,000 people gathered to form a human chain stretching more than a mile across the Daugava River to transfer books from the current national library to the new building set to open in August.  The event was reminiscent of 1989 Baltic Way, when 2 million people formed a human chain across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

And it looks like they all had a good time doing it too.

Link: National Library of Latvia

The 500 Club

After spending some time in grad school immersed in library ROI (return-on-investment) research, I decided to start a little personal tabulation. Just how much does the library save me in a year? Since I moved in February, I began comparing my library borrowing record with Amazon prices, and kept a running total. In less than a calendar year, I've borrowed over $500 worth of library materials, the vast majority of them still books. Considering that I only borrow 1-2 items at a time, with only the very occasional movie, I was surprised that my total rose so high. Just goes to show how remarkable a library's savings can accumulate. People sometimes complain about their local taxes going to this or that service or infrastructure, but considering the tiny fraction of each individual's taxes that local libraries receive, their return on investment is really quite amazing. Not to mention the really low barrier to entry.  Most public library cards can be obtained with a driver's license or state ID-sometimes without an address even. What other institution is just waiting to give you free stuff basically just for proving that you exist? That in itself never ceases to be an object of wonder for me.

How did you do? How much money did your local library save you this year?

Neil Gaiman: Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading, and Daydreaming

For the 'reasons to read fiction' files:

 "...the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using you imagination, create a world and people it and look out through their eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You're becoming someone else, and when you return to your own world, you're going to be slightly changed. 

Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals."

On the digital divide:

"I do not believe that all books will or should migrate onto screens: as Douglas Adams once pointed out to me, more than 20 years before the Kindle turned up, a physical book is like a shark. Sharks are old; there were sharks in the ocean before the dinosaurs. And the reason there are still sharks around is that sharks are better at being sharks than anything else is. Physical books are tough, hard to destroy, bath-resistant, solar-operated, feel good in your hand; they are good at being books, and there will always be a place for them."

And more:

"We writers -- and especially writers for children, but all writers -- have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were -- to understand that truth is not in what happen but what it tell us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all."

Read the whole thing here.

Related: MIT scientists discuss the importance of science fiction in nurturing inventors.

Worth a Thousand Words: Library Bar

The Library Bar, NYC

Worth a Thousand Words: Library Lounge

Library Lounge, B2 Boutique Hotel Zurich (via BoingBoing)

2012: Books in Review

Always carry a sword an a book-it worked for St. Catherine.

2012 is almost at its end. It has been an interesting, and at times, sporadic, reading year. I'm not about to offer a litany of book reviews, first because I tend to have lengthy opinions about nearly everything I read, but also because I have this terrible habit (or wonderful, depending on how you look at it), of moving on so quickly to the next book that book reviews get neglected (save my personal notes). But here is a rough approximation of what I read in 2012, in no particular order (* indicates titles I have started):

Eugenics and Other Evils, G.K. Chesterton

On Being Human, Bl. Fulton Sheen

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Ever Seen, Christopher McDougall

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain

Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade

Making Christmas Books

During my time in college and grad school, I had the great pleasure of working in book preservation, which was both fun and relaxing. After hours of class and studying, there was nothing like sewing pamphlets and re-casing books to make me feel both productive and rejuvenated. A special pleasure comes from constructing books by hand, seemingly creating something out of nothing.

This year, as in the past, I embarked on some Christmas book-making. I decided to make a sketchbook for one of my relatives.

Getting started with book-binding can require a substantial initial investment in tools and supplies (there is always the pipe dream of having my own iron book press...). I splurged this year and acquired some colorful linen thread, and also made my own book cloth using material from this fabulous fabric boutique in Chicago (they have the rare distinction of making me excited about fabric shopping-and they have an online store!). 

Supplies, ready to go.

Books have two major parts-the text block and the case or boards. I first made my book cloth using the fabric, iron-on adhesive, and tissue paper, and adhered that and the endpapers to the boards. Next, I assembled the text block by cutting down letter-size paper and folding the sheets into individual signatures, or gatherings of 10 pages each. I then marked and punctured holes in the signatures and boards for sewing.

Signatures and boards, ready to be sewn.

Since a sketchbook was the desired result, I opted to bind my book by sewing the boards and signatures together with a Coptic stitch, which is both easier than making a full case (no glue required) and provides a functional and attractive result. Coptic binding allows for the book to lay open flat on its own-perfect for a sketchbook.

The finished product.

Sometime in the near future I'll be working on a regular full case, and will post pictures then. If you'd like to see some beautiful examples of bookbinding from more seasoned and gifted artists, search for journals or hand-made books on Etsy or through a Google image search.

Merry Christmas!

Dreaming of a White Christmas...

Where is that snow-conjuring book? ::sigh:: One can always pray for snow.

"One of the Best Inventions Ever, Was the Book"

...But don't take my word for it:

Shillelagh Saturday; Or, How I Really Feel About Touchdown Jesus

Deo gratias.

After  quite a few very long and painful football seasons, our day of reckoning has finally come. While I love to make a sport out of feigning my apathy for Notre Dame football during the offseason, I am as excited as any fan for tonight's game against the Trojans of USC. Win or lose, this has been a season of great drama and joy-so cheers to that.

While part of me stands in strong solidarity with those who are sickened by the excessed of collegiate athletics, I also cannot deny that a winning football team also reaps rewards for the libraries and academic programs of the schools involved. Whatever skepticism I may still have about head coach Brian Kelly, his arrival gift to university libraries and research made me slightly more receptive to his style. And as much as getting to the National Championship game would make any alum's heart sing, the thought of the libraries receiving their share of the $6.2 million BCS payout, win or lose at USC, is enough on its own to make this librarian happy.

Notre Dame's library has also been fatefully synonymous with the football program since the completion of the Word of Life mural on the facade of the current library building in 1964, popularly known as "Touchdown Jesus," which can be seen peeking out from behind the North end of the football stadium.

Now I have a big confession to make: 

           I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a sentimental lover of Touchdown Jesus.

 

The Belgian & The Hobbit

While I am here, let me remind you to indulge in a few days of opportunities for semi-literary excitement and celebration of two beloved characters of short stature and a propensity for fine meals. Tomorrow, 20 September, we have Talk Like a Poirot Day, a tribute to the legendary Agatha Christie detective, and an apt postlude to the annual Talk Like a Pirate Day. Dust off your moustache and monocle, and prime your Belgian accent for a day most grand! A little fine dining won't hurt either.

The next day, Friday, 21 September, marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (not quite as momentous an occasion as an eleventy-first birthday, but it will do). Fans all around the world will be celebrating with second breakfast, at 11 o'clock sharp (Owing to the demands of the work day, I will be having a very late second breakfast). The very next day, 22 September, is Hobbit Day, the shared birthday of our beloved Bilbo and Frodo. If ever I had an excuse to bake scones, this is it! Oh, and read. Hobbits love to read:

St. Lawrence Day!

Tomorrow, August 10th, is the feast of St. Lawrence of Rome, deacon, really stellar martyr, and patron of, amongst other things, librarians. When once asked to produce the treasures of the Church, St. Lawrence  is said (by St. Ambrose, no less) to have gathered all the poor together and presented them as the true riches to be sought. 

Sixtus ordains St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence was brutally martyred by being roasted alive. Legend has it that he possessed so much fortitude and good humor that, after being thoroughly toasted on one side, he alerted his executioners: "I am done on this side-you can turn me over now!" I have a feeling he did not want his martyrdom to be 'over-easy'.

This makes me wary of the possibility that I may share this fate with a patron of my profession. St. Lawrence's patronage of cooking and comedy is sensible, but it is at least a little ironic that a man who was burned alive now serves as a patron for a profession for which fire is highly dreaded. Perhaps a divinely guided pre-meditation to the cautionary tone of Fahrenheit 451? 

In addition to St. Lawrence, Sts. Jerome and Catherine of Alexandria have been claimed as patron saints of libraries and archives. Triple the opportunities to celebrate. Let's hope that nobody calls for a roasting of librarians anytime soon.

Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, Valentin de Boulogne

Reading Time...and Time Again

The Doctor reads, then, and now. 

Things I Long to Say to ALA...

Nathan Fillion + Childhood Literacy

I've got about ten odd posts that have been floating around my gray matter for weeks, but time and space have not been aplenty. Thus, I leave you with this gem:

More info about "Kids Need to Read," a Fillion brainchild, can be found here and here. 

While I think literacy projects are great-as-can-be, I was a little disappointed at their official booklist, of which I recognized maybe 3% of the titles. This is probably just a sure fire re-confirmation that I am aging and not a children's/YA specialist, but I at least expected Huck Finn and some of the other classics to appear in non-graphic novel versions. I understand that they are targeting youth from mainly 'at-risk' communities, but these kids still deserve better. At least Twilight is nowhere to be found.

Books to Read Before the Summer is Out

Usually I anticipate Summer reading like a shopaholic preparing for Black Friday. The few spare moments of the Winter months are spent compiling a master list of books I ought to read but have little freedom to during the academic year, which I pounce upon as soon as I'm able. When this Summer began, however, life just got busier. Consequently, this year's list of 'books read is depressingly meager when measured against an average season. But as Summer is only half-over, after all, it is not too late to fit in some good reading. Here are a few titles that I have recently [re-] read, and are well worth your while.

Leisure: The Basis of Culture
Josef Pieper
I first read Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture towards the beginning of library school, and found it refreshing after years of rationalizing workaholic behavior and living in a culture obsessed with work (even if, sometimes, for the right reasons). This short essay, paired with The Philosophical Act, examines the fundamental roots of leisure in celebratory sacrifice. Anyone tired of modern workaholic culture or its equally frustrating counterpart of commodified recreation will enjoy this little book. It is a very timely read for Summer, or if you are trying to regain a sense of balance, peace, and order in your life. And at just around 75 pages, it doesn't require a huge investment of time.

Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength)
C.S. Lewis

"A pleasure is full grown only when it is remembered...You say you have poets in your world. Do they not teach you this?"

So an inquisitive alien asks in the first volume of this marvelous sci-fi trilogy from the mind of C.S. Lewis. The delight of the trilogy for me definitely seems to grow progressively with the remembrance of each read. One can think of this series as a slightly more grown-up segway from Narnia. As someone who loved Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time series growing up, I quickly adopted the Space Trilogy as a natural favorite, with its unique blend of space adventure, philosophy, and theology (more like sci-fi with a bit of the latter two sprinkled in). That Hideous Strength, with its blend of militaristic drama, academic politics, sorcery, and subtle commentary on love, stands out as my favorite of the three. Those who have only explored Lewis' more theological writing (e.g., Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce) will enjoy a new dimension of his imagination in the Space Trilogy.

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen
Christopher McDougall
As a rule, I normally treat most contemporary writing as a secondary concern, to be explored after the more enduring works essential to a lifetime reading list. But Born to Run was just too intriguing to save for later. Motivated by the mystery of foot pain, journalist Christopher McDougall presents a delightfully entertaining narrative of his search for the Tarahumara, a reclusive Mexican people who drink corn beer and run ultramarathons in the canyon desert in bare feet. My favorite chapter has to be McDougall's discussion of the ancient practice of persistence hunting, wherein packs of men essentially chase animals to death (the human body never fails to amaze). With its energy-filled story-telling and exploration of human physiology and anthropology, Born to Run is sure to inspire the runner within to hit the road with new life. And it may tempt you to abandon your sneakers and go 'au naturale.'

Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
Edited by Humphrey Carpenter

"Well, there you are, a hobbit amongst the Urukhai. Keep up your hobbitry in heart, and think that all stories feel like that when you are in them. You are inside a very great story!"

-J.R.R. Tolkien to Christopher Tolkien (at war), 6 May 1944

Influenced by a recent conversation with a good friend, I decided to take up The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (after all, it serves a good prelude to a necessary re-reading of The Hobbit before its big screen debut this winter). I have only cracked the surface of this tremendously heart-warming collection of correspondence, and already feel compelled to recommend it without reservation. Like an ageless child, Tolkien's pen seems to be the gateway of a conduit to his heart. The letters to his editors are playful and humble, while those to his wife and children read as effusive parcels of love. His correspondence clearly shows a man with an expansive heart and boundless imagination. Tolkien writes frankly about moral principles and virtue in the wake of wartime, which largely formed the backdrop for his composition of The Lord of the Rings. Not to mention his notes to his sons are frequently sprinkled with Elvish, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon turns of phrase and remarks on the liturgical calendar. Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien is sure to inspire Tolkien fans and captivate new ones.

Happy Reading!

Oh Overdue Fines...

I promise I'm not this sinister, but it does save students a lot of money.

National Library Week!

So the week is almost over...but there is still time to celebrate National Library Week! I suggest going to your local library and checking out a good book, rather than obsessing too much over neo-Enlightenment values.

Library Oath, Bodleian Library, Oxford

For your enjoyment and appreciation of libraries, a potpourri of fun links: