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Banned Book Week – Conformist or Rebel?

Friday, October 5th, 2012

What Kind of Reader Are You – Conformist or Rebel?

 

By Gail P. (TinkerPirate)

 

Banned Book Week made me think about my reading habits.  Me?  Thinking?  I know…dangerous!  But, the questions remained…do I seek out new genres or stick with my favorites?  Am I the first to check out new books or wait to see what everyone else is reading?  Do I walk on the wild side or play it safe?  Then, I wondered, how would I even figure it out.

That’s when I turned to my second favorite place on the internet…Facebook.  I remembered taking a quiz about the books I’d read (100 Books to Read Before You Die).  I sucked…I’ve only read 29 of the 100, but in my defense I have 2 more on Mt. TBR.  So far, I am NOT a conformist…reading books that someone else thinks are GOOD.  Maybe that’s not bad.  Maybe I’m a rebel.  After all, I am a pirate, right?  I must be reading books that people think are BAD as in BAD for you to read as in challenged or banned or O-M-G burned.  So I hit the Banned Book Week website.

Ahmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, I’m pitiful!  Of the 26 books on the 100 Books list that have been banned, I’ve only read 10.  Well, let’s check out the Banned Book Week site, there’s GOT to be books I’ve read…right?  2 more, that’s it??

12??? I’ve only read 12 books that someone else has thought was BAD…really?  In desperation, I turned to Wikipedia…yeah, I was THAT desperate. BUT, I was able to add 13 MORE BAD books – thank goodness there are 7 books in the Harry Potter series!

But, I am going to take extra credit for reading 2 books that have actually been O-M-G BURNED and that brings me to 27!

I guess that means I’m just an average reader…and, you know what, that is just fine with me.  Reading may be fundamental, but reading should also be FUN and, if I read what I want when I want and how I want, it is absolutely fun and relaxing.

 

In case you want to see how you stack up, here is the list of 100 Books (someone says you should) Read Before You Die:

 

1984 by George Orwell
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
The Ambassadors by Henry James
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dune by Frank Herbert
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Howard’s End by E.M. Forster
In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Little Women by Louisa M Alcott
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
Native Son by Philip Pullman
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) by Philip Pullman
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
On The Road by Jack Kerouac
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransom
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
Ulysses by James Joyce
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

 

And, here is the list of books from the Banned Book Week website that have been either challenged or banned:

 

1984 by George Orwell – Challenged
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren – Challenged
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser – Banned
Animal Farm by George Orwell – Banned
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner – Banned
The Awakening by Kate Chopin – Banned
Beloved by Toni Morrison – Challenged
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley – Banned
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh – Banned
The Call of the Wild by Jack London – Banned
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – Banned
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller – Banned
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – Banned
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess – Banned
The Color Purple by Alice Walker – Banned
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway – O-M-G Burned
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway – Declared non-mailable by the USPS
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin – Challenged
Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell –
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck – O-M-G Burned
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – Challenged
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote – Banned
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison – Banned
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – Banned
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by DH Lawrence – Banned
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – Banned
Lord of the Flies by William Golding – Challenged
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien – O-M-G Burned
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer – Banned
Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs – Challenged
Native Son by Philip Pullman – Banned
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kelsey – Banned
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – Banned
Rabbit, Run by John Updike – Banned
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie – O-M-G Burned
A Separate Peace by John Knowles – Challenged
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – Banned
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison – Banned
Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence – Challenged
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron – Banned
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway – O-M-G Burned
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston – Challenged
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Banned
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf – Challenged
Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller – Banned
Ulysses by James Joyce – O-M-G Burned
Women in Love by DH Lawrence – Banned

 

All of the books – except for the one’s in bold – are currently available on PBS.  As for the books in bold, pick one, buy it, read it, and then swap it!  I’ve already ordered Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel.

 

 

Banned Book Week – A Librarian’s Dilemma

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

Is It Censorship?

 

by Vicky T. (VickyJo)

 

I spent the better part of my Sunday afternoon selecting new books to purchase for the library.  This is—by far—the best part of my job.  I love reading reviews, reading blurbs about new books, finding a book that I know certain patrons will want to read.  We have a limited book budget, and so I try to make my money stretch as far as possible.  I want to purchase books that will be read, and recommended to others.  I don’t want to waste my precious book budget on books that won’t be checked out, or that no one is really interested in reading.

So that brings me to “50 Shades of Gray” which is my current headache.  For those of you who have not heard of this book, let me briefly fill you in:  a huge Twilight fan writes a novel (actually she wrote a trilogy) based on the Twilight characters and setting, except she took out the vampires and inserted sex.  Kinky sex, by some standards.  It becomes a publishing sensation, hitting the top seller spot on Amazon, and probably breaking selling records right and left.

Why does this give me a headache?  Well, I don’t want to spend money on it. I have a limited budget.  But I have patrons who have requested it; they want to read it, and as a public library, we try to provide books that people want to read.  So I should spend money on it.  And in fact, it’s included in my recently assembled book order.   I’ve put off buying it for a while, but I feel as though I’m being a censor, which I abhor.  And yet…

Don’t get me wrong: I don’t care about the kinky sex subject matter.  It’s none of my business, nor anyone else’s, what people like to read.  And frankly, we already have novels containing kinky sex scenes in the library.  My problem is the writing.  It’s terrible.  The author knows next to nothing about the craft and the art of writing.  I can’t imagine an editor ever saw this work before publication—but if the book was edited, I have grave doubts about both author AND editor.

Here then is my headache: Do I have an obligation to provide quality literature?  Or do I just provide whatever it is people want to read?  There are so many wonderful, well-written books out there; do I pass those by and choose sub-quality work, and thereby validate poorly written novels?  If I don’t buy 50 Shades, does that qualify as censorship?  Or snobbery?

It’s ironic that this should be plaguing me at the start of Banned Books Week, a celebration of our freedom to read sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors, to name just a few of the organizations involved.  We may not think about it too much, but every day in America, someone somewhere would like to see a book pulled from library bookshelves forever.  If they succeed, they chip away at your freedom to read.

Censorship is something that we as Americans should stand against.  If we let our freedoms erode, then we let America and democracy erode.  Those who came before us worked too hard and sacrificed too much to let that happen.  President Harry Truman said, “Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”  One of our greatest privileges as Americans is the freedom to have open discussions, open debates, and a free-flowing exchange of information and ideas, without the fear of repercussion.

50 Shades of Gray has been banned in Florida libraries.  I’m sure this has only increased its popularity.  The people censoring this work feel that in this case censorship is necessary.  They must feel as though they are protecting others from…what?  A lack of originality?  Perhaps.  All I know is that, in the end, I didn’t want to be a censor.  I’m free to give my opinion, but I have an obligation to provide materials that my patrons want to read.

There are standards when it comes to collection development which I follow.  I read reviews, but what happens when there are too many bad reviews? I don’t purchase the book in question.  Then again, should demand outnumber the bad reviews…well, it’s time for Tylenol.  I may not be able to struggle through a poorly written novel, but others can and will.  Noam Chomsky said it best: “If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.”  That’s hard to put into practice sometimes, but it’s true. Here’s my quote: If we don’t believe in freedom of expression in novels we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.  I will click the “Proceed to Checkout” button with great reluctance, but I will click it.

So enjoy a banned book this week, even 50 Shades.  If your librarian looks at you with sympathy and whispers, “It’s crap,” read it with relish.  Don’t ever let anyone take away your right to read.  Just remember, if you hate it, you were warned.  Now, I’m off to place a book order.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VostromoScope – Pisces

Tuesday, September 18th, 2012

by Vostromo

 

 

 

Ruling planet: Neptune
Element: Bouillabaisse
Symbol: A caper wrapped in an anchovy
Birthstones: Amethyst, aquamarine, dried wasabi

 

Fans (a word wrapped in Super Secret Double Probationary air quotes) of the VostromoScopes know I’ve been struggling to put the Pisces entry together for quite a while. There are some straightforward-enough reasons for the delay (the RIP of EoP; Chicago meteorology babe Ginger Zee’s defection to Good Morning America; that rerun of New Girl; McKayla Maroney’s smirk; Thursday; the persecution of Pussy Riot in the Soviet Un– sorry, “Russia”; also I dropped a thumbtack) and the inescapable reality that the creative process, howsoe’er crappy the outcome, is not on any schedule known to humankind.

But the difficulty has persisted for so long even I found it unusual: many ramblings of mine I think not fatally unfunny have come into being since the Pisces entry was due, and quite on the fly (is that the same as off the cuff? why?) — so I set out exploring not only Pisces but why I seemed to be suffering from “Pisces block” and no, I don’t mean the time Rihanna’s security guards tackled me, nor Jolene Blalock not returning my calls because she’s “Vulcanizing”.

Today I hit the answer. Well probably not the answer but an answer. Something, at any rate, on which I can pin the blame. OK properly it’s an “excuse” but the point is, figures prove nothing, and that footage is absolutely not clear enough to identify me. I mean, the perp, whoever I am. — it is! Dammit!

In peering into the depths of the list of notable Pisceans, one overarching fact eventually rose to the surface: collectively, you rock. And not Van Hagar rock either – Van Lee Roth rock.

Yeah, there are exceptions to every rule (Tammy Faye Bakker; Michael Bolton; Fabio; Justin Bieber) and there’s probably sport to be made of the fact that the Pisces are the fish into which Aphrodite and Eros changed to escape the wrath of Typhon, the “Father of all Monsters” whose name is to be thanked for typhus, typhoon, TomeTrader and Tea Party. (The derivation of “typhoon” may actually be from the Indo-Chinese tung fung (“easterly wind”) or an onomatopoeia of the endless exhaling after one’s mother-in-law finally leaves.)  Let’s face it: surely a sign whose formative concept is running and hiding in a pond is open to mockery, n’est-ce pas?

I thought so too. But there are so very many Pisceans whose mark on the world is undeniable, epochal, transformative:

– in music and dance: Giovanni Palestrina; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Frederic Chopin; Maurice Ravel; Enrico Caruso; Rudolf Nureyev; Kurt Weill; Fats Domino; Nat King Cole; Johnny Cash; George Harrison; Kurt Cobain

– in art and architecture: Palladio; Michelangelo; Auguste Renoir; Mies van der Rohe; Piet Mondrian; Ansel Adams; Hubert de Givenchy; Diane Arbus

– in science: Nicolaus Copernicus; Alexander Graham Bell; Linus Pauling; Jane Goodall; Erich Fromm; Albert Einstein

– in culture and politics: George Washington; Andrew Jackson; James Madison; Joseph Stalin (who, despite being evil, was incredibly handsome as a young man, which just goes to show you); Harry Truman; Dwight Eisenhower; Joseph Pulitzer; Ralph Nader; Bobby Fischer; Ariel Sharon; Mikhail Gorbachev; Steve Jobs

– in showbiz: Fritz Lang; Carl Reiner; Fred Rogers; Cyd Charisse; Lou Costello; Rex Harrison; Michael Caine; Sidney Poitier; Jerry Lewis; Bernardo Bertolucci; Sam Peckinpah; Jackie Gleason

– in literature: Victor Hugo; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; Bertolt Brecht; Ted Geisel (Dr Seuss); Anais Nin; John Steinbeck; Jack Kerouac; Anthony Burgess; Tom Wolfe; Edward Albee; John Updike; Phillip Roth; William Gibson

– in ladies with big boobs: Ursula Andress; Elizabeth Taylor; Amber Smith; Jennifer Love Hewitt

– in men who appreciate them: Mickey Spillane; Rob Lowe; Tony Randall (well… maybe not Tony Randall)

— to name just a few!

So maybe my struggle with Pisces lay not within myself, but in my stars: there seem to be an inordinate number of majorly major people born under this sign, and one is led naturally (or as naturally as anything Vostromental can be) to a single question: does this look medium-rare to you? No, sorry, I wasn’t writing to you, I was writing to Becky, who’ll be my server today. Thanks, Becks. Those extensions are completely undetectable.

Anyroad, it was Roald Dahl’s uncle Oswald who cracked the shell for me: the way to ‘pproach the ‘portant Piscean puzzle is not to look at these superfish themselves, but at their collective origin — parents! — all of whom enjoyed getting their freak on the previous May and June. Could there be something in the Spring air that made their frolics extra-frolicsome? Could there be something in the old saw about a young man’s fancy turning to thoughts of the horizontal be-bop (or, as in Sharon Stone’s case, a strained cry of Sure, but first put the knife down…)? Could young ladies be o’ertaken by stealth whilst whacking the dust out of carpets in the lush meadows? What about the southern hemisphere, where it was turning to winter, not summer? — could there have been some panicked rushing to store seeds, if you know what I’m saying? Why does Jon Bon Jovi sound mellifluous when speaking, then sing with an annoying nasal whine?

We may never know the answers to these questions. But this much is clear: NBC has no idea how to properly broadcast an Olympics, and Water Polo is as much an Olympic-level event as I am an astrologer. So watch the twelve-hour Unrated Unending Unendurable cut of Waterworld instead, and thank your lucky pescatarian stars McKayla Maroney can’t see you trying to do The Smirk, because she’s a Sagittarius, and she will shoot you in the face with a poison arrow.

****

This month’s forecast: Be considerate of others at your place of work, as not all will be up to the challenge your cologne poses. For a change of pace, try looking for love in all the right places. I thought so too, but I didn’t have the asparagus.

*****

An Open Letter to the Minionship:

With this final entry the VostromoScopes as we have known them come to a close. Each Sign has been examined, each nuance explored, each arcane secret revealed. Or not, who can say. But there is nothing more to be learned in re-examining the astrological cycles, just as there was nothing to be learned by reading this crap in the first place. And yet, here we are.

It is My hope to continue bringing you the VostromoScopetacular Experience in a new form from here onward: a monthly forecast, coupled with answers to your most pressing questions. Anyone who has ever wondered about anything — anything! — that puzzles them, be it a question on life, love, art, the Segway, or how Megan Fox can possibly be pregnant when I’ve never met her, is welcome to submit a question to Me by Private Message here at PBS. I will choose the two or three most vexing, beguiling submissions each month and publish an answer to the best of My ability. Which is to say, hardly at all. But there will be words, big ones sometimes, and line breaks, and even more random Matt Lauer references, and altogether it will seem pithy, in a deeply and obviously shallow way.

So until we meet thusly and again, Minions, I humbly thank you all for your time, as I’m sure you all humbly thank Me for the lovely toothbrushes you’ve been using to clean the Moat.

Vostromo out.

 

 

 

 

Desperately Seeking Sex & Sobriety by Paul Pisces

 

Fish Soup by Ursula Le Guin

 

The Typhoon Lover by Sujata Massey

 

Bud’s Instruction Manual: Learn More then the Basics about Janitorial Floor Maintenance Carpet Cleaning Office Cleaning and More by Richard S. Takasch

 

 

 

                                                              

 

Author Spotlight – Jane Austen

Thursday, September 13th, 2012

Author Spotlight Shines on Jane Austen

By Mirah W. (mwelday)

 

 

“I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.”  I swear, I think those are some of the best words in literature.  I mean, dang, Jane!  How long did it take you to come up with that?  Did it just roll off your quill or did you craft for hours how Captain Wentworth would declare his love to Anne?  However it happened, it’s spectacular and it’s purely Jane.

This author spotlight post is pure indulgence on my part.  I love Jane Austen. I’ve read her books multiple times and I could talk about her books all day.  Mayhaps you think I’m crazy because classics are boring.  Oh, my dear reader, don’t pierce my soul!  Jane Austen is timeless.  I said in a previous post if I had to pick someone, living or dead, to eat dinner with I’d want to have Jane sitting at my table.  No doubt Jane and I would talk into the wee hours about life, love, family, society.  She would ‘get me’, I know it.  And perhaps she’d read my mind and read aloud some of her favorite passages from her novels.  I often have wondered what parts she liked best…when Darcy dismisses Elizabeth at the first dance when they meet, when Lady Catherine spews her ‘shades of Pemberley’ nastiness or perhaps when Mr. Tilney and Miss Moreland walk together and talk of books at Beechen Cliff. It’s all amazing and bears the question: where did this creative genius come from?

Jane Austen was born in 1775 to Reverend George and Cassandra Austen at Steventon Rectory.  Jane’s father encouraged education for his daughters and Jane and her sister Cassandra were sent to boarding school when Jane was just eight years old.  Jane kept journals with poems, short stories and plays.  Before 1796 Jane penned Elinor and Marianne, which would later become Sense and Sensibility, her first published work in 1811. And by 1799 Jane completed her first draft of First Impressions, which would later be published as Pride and Prejudice (1813).  In 1800 Jane’s father retired from the clergy and the family left Steventon to live in Bath.  After her father’s death in 1805 Jane became more dedicated to her writing.  Her mother and sister took on more chores and duties so Jane could write freely and her brother began to get her works published. Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice received positive reviews and were followed by the publishing of Mansfield Park and Emma.  In 1816 Jane’s health began to deteriorate but she continued to write in an effort to complete works she’d already begun.  The next year her brother Henry and sister Cassandra took her to get medical treatment but Jane was very ill and sadly passed away on July 18, 1817 when she was only 42 years old.  After her death Henry and Cassandra saw that her final completed works, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, were published.  It wasn’t until after her death Henry made it known Jane Austen had written the six novels, whose author had previously been anonymous.

Jane Austen was a woman ahead of her time.  She forged ahead with her writing at a time when women were meant to be demure and bend to wills of their fathers or husbands.  Jane’s love life didn’t have the happy ending most of her female characters experience. It is widely believed she loved Tom Lefroy but was kept from marrying him because of his family’s disapproval.  Her other romantic tie was to Harris Bigg-Wither.  Jane actually received and accepted an offer of marriage from childhood friend Harris but later declined because she was not truly in love with him.  Both relationships are mentioned briefly to family members in letters written by Jane herself.

Jane’s novels are like manna for me.  Having a bad day, read some Jane.  Feeling like life is kind of crappy, read some Jane. Need just a little pick-me-up, read some Jane and call me in the morning. And I don’t even have to read the entire novel, sometimes I can just read my favorite parts, like the letter from Wentworth to Anne I quoted at the beginning of this post.  Maybe I’m biased by being married to a sailor, but Persuasion is my favorite.   I mean, really, how could even the most cold-hearted sod read that and not feel a little flutter of love?  Impossible, I say.

Jane expresses love, hate, friendship and pride in a way that is incomparable.  She puts the truths of society and humanity into words that can’t be ignored.  Take this little gem from Emma:  ‘Vanity working on a weak head, produces every sort of mischief.’  Preach it, Jane!  I think themes about vanity and pride are in all of Jane’s novels.  How often do we discount others, even ourselves, because of pride or vanity?  How many opportunities do we miss because we think we’re too good or not good enough to deserve the chances?  Pride and vanity were interfering with people’s happiness in the days of Jane Austen and it’s still happening today.

Another common theme in Jane’s novels is being true to self.  I think of Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility who wants a quiet life in spite of his mother’s plan for public greatness.  In a conversation with the Dashwoods he provides these words of wisdom: “I wish, as well as every body else, to be perfectly happy; but like every body else, it must be in my own way.”  Bravo, Jane! Jane, a woman who didn’t live the way society dictated she should, eloquently reminds us all we need to be true to ourselves in order to find our happiness.

I daresay Jane’s novels are just as relevant today as they were when they were first published.  Think your family troubles are dragging you down?  Read Mansfield Park…now that family has issues.  Think your love life is complicated?  Try walking in Colonel Brandon’s boots…he has had it rough.  The point is we’re not alone.  Jane Austen observed life, her life and the lives of those around her, and documented life and all its complications in the pages of her novels.  Her novels serve as proof we are not the only ones who stumble, make mistakes, succeed and find love in the most unexpected places.  In my opinion, dear reader, being timeless is the mark of a classic.  And no one is as classic as Jane.

 

 

 

       

 

 

        

 

 

 

Time to Celebrate! PaperBackSwap is 8! Contest Winners!

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WINNERS! WE HAVE WINNERS!

8 Credits each for these 8 winners:

 

 

Debbie S. (mom-of-many) member since 9/13/2007

 

Gail L. (gaill) member since 5/29/2007

 

Alana L. (racemom) member since 3/21/2010

Kerrie W. member since 12/29/09

 

Ellen H. (eeeee) member since 7/3/2006

 

Becky P. (beckmom) member since 3/18/2008

 

Joe Z. (zelman) member since 7/28/2010

 

Lori S. (GroovyGlitterGirl) member since 8/18/2007

 

 

Thank you to everyone who entered our contest! May everyone’s Birthday be as great as our 8th Birthday has been!

 

 

 

 

 

8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Books

Monday, September 10th, 2012

For PaperBackSwap’s 8 year anniversary, we asked 8 members

to tell us about 8 books that have mattered to them.

Today we feature Vicky T. (VickyJo)

 

 

 

 

Books can be dangerous.  The best ones should be labeled “This could change your life.”~Helen Exley

 

“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves.”~E.M. Forster

 

It’s true.  Books can change your life, or shape your outlook on life.  It’s happened to me, when I least expected it.  It’s probably happened to you too; think back to your childhood and the books that changed your thinking, opened your eyes or ignited a spark in your soul.

 

I grew up in a house that had a fireplace in the living room.  On either side of the fireplace were built-in bookshelves, full of books to which I had complete access.  I can remember roaming through those shelves, looking for something to read.  Reading was a compulsion right from the beginning.

 

            I was about eight years old when I first found Black Beauty by Anna Sewell.  I was horse-crazy at eight and I’m sure that was my inspiration for picking Black Beauty.  Little did I know that Anna Sewell would forever change the way I looked at horses, and in fact, all animals.  I am far too tender-hearted where animals are concerned, and have always been that way since reading about Black Beauty’s life.  I grew up to work with dog/cat rescues, providing transportation for animals on their way from kill shelters to a foster home or hopefully a forever home.

 

 

 

Fifth-grade found me bored and turning to the fireplace shelves yet again.  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte spoke to me with a cold shock of recognition and delight.  Jane was the underdog—someone I could root for, someone who knew how it felt to be lonely, to be put upon.  Ms. Bronte was describing my life! (With only brothers in my family, and embarrassing parents, I might as well have been an orphan; my life couldn’t possibly be any more grim as far as I was concerned!)  Not to mention the spooky mystery of Mr. Rochester and his wife.  It was a lovely combination of heartache and fear.

 

 

            That was the same year I found a copy of The Greek Treasure by Irving Stone.  His account of Heinrich Schliemann discovering the lost city of Troy hummed through my veins, and created a life-long love of ancient Greece, Homer and archaeology.  I can remember telling my mother that I was so afraid every archaeological treasure would be found by the time I grew up and was ready to be an archaeologist!  Sometime later, I read Pauline Gedge’s wonderful novel about Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh in Ancient EgyptChild of the Morning fascinated me, pulled me back to a time so thoroughly and completely, it felt as though I was remembering another life.  Another passion discovered!  I went on to college and obtained a degree in Anthropology with a minor in Ancient History.

 

While some of the choices from the fireplace bookshelves influenced my career choices and calibrated my moral compass, others created a love of genre fiction and specific time periods in history, loves that remain with me even now, 45 odd years later.

 

Edgar Allen Poe’s brilliant tales left me feeling spooked and wanting more; mysteries are still a favorite pick of mine.

 

 

Ray Bradbury’s works of short fiction, such as The Martian Chronicles or The Golden Apples of the Sun, instilled in me a strong love of science fiction. One of my favorite books of all time is a science fiction award winner by Connie Willis, Doomsday Book, a book I would never have picked up if not for my early forays into Bradbury’s world.

 

 

Historical fiction was an early favorite, as I’ve mentioned, but some books led me to become fascinated with certain time periods of history.  Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff turned me from being mildly interested in the story of King Arthur to realizing that he could have been real, and Sutcliff showed me quite clearly what his life might have been like by showing me the ‘reality’ of 5th century Britain.  I grew up collecting books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the Once and Future King.

 

 

  I could go on and on.  Books have been my constant companions since the age of four, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.  As I examine my reading life, I can clearly see the threads traveling from the present back to the exact book that started it all; the book that made me care about treating animals with kindness, the books that made me want to travel and discover ancient mysteries, the books that made me long for knights and castles and heroes and glory.  Books have enriched my life and I’m grateful to my parents for stocking those fireplace bookshelves so well.  I think that’s why I settled into life as a librarian; I too want to share my love of reading and books with others.

 

 

 

“The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.”~James Bryce

 

8 Years, 8 Members, 8 Books

Sunday, September 9th, 2012

For PaperBackSwap’s 8 year anniversary, we asked 8 members to tell us about 8 books that have mattered to them.

Today we feature Robin K. (jubead)

 

 

 

When I was first asked to participate in this blog, I panicked.  I had to share eight books that made a difference in my life…Holy Hannah!  Once I started it was hard narrowing my choices down to only eight books.  Well, I did it and here are my eight books!

 

My all-time favorite no matter what my age is The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.   This book was written in 1938 and while there are many adaptations based on this legend, this is my favorite.  It is available through Gutenberg as a free download.  I guess this is my White Knight fantasy, someone who will protect and stand up to injustice.  This is my go to book when I need the safety of my “escape” bubble. Robin Hood is a medieval hero who stands up against injustice and gives a voice to those without position or power. Other telling’s I have read are Sherwood by Parke Godwin (set 100 years earlier than other Robin Hood telling’s) and Robin Hood by Paul Creswick whose telling covers not only the adventures but the man.

 

When I was young, Curious George by H.A. Rey was my favorite.  It seems to this day, I am always thinking about monkeys!  I am not sure how old I was, but I do remember sitting on my mom’s lap while she read this series….a lot.     I remember George’s adventures and how they made me giggle — it was a happy time.  I must say that I never warmed up to the Man in the Yellow Hat, he really annoyed me.  Maybe it was the yellow hat?  My mom saved several of my favorite books from my youth and gave them to me when I became an adult.  I am not sure why she did this, but I am happy to have Curious George on my library shelf.


James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl was one of the first books that I selected to read.  The cover sold me on the book, I loved peaches!  The book is mystical and full of adventures.  I vividly remember coming home from school and finding it on my bed.  I wasn’t too thrilled to see the book, because that meant reading.  I struggled with reading when I was young and reading during those years did not hold a lot of happy memories.  It kept my interest and I couldn’t put it down.  I can flash back to that day, visualize the house we were living in at the time and see myself sitting on my bed resting against the headboard.   My mom was calling me for supper and of course I ignored her … until she came upstairs.  I remember rushing through supper, helping to clear the table and then bolt back upstairs to read this book.  This scene repeated until the book was finished.

 

The fourth book was a 5th grade reading assignment.  Mrs. Carter was my beloved 5th grade teacher.  She understood my reading challenges and helped me find books that I would enjoy and devour.  After leaving the 5th grade, I fell out of love with reading until I was in my late 30s.  I truly wish Mrs. Carter was around to inspire me to read through those years.  Only now do I appreciate her dedication to her students.

The assignment was to read and write a report on Johnny Tremain by Esther ForbeFrom that day forward, I was hooked on American history.  May it be fiction or non-fiction, I love reading about American history.  My favorite periods are the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.

The story was based in Boston and fourteen year old named Johnny Tremain who was a talented silversmith apprentice.  A severe injury to his hand while working on a project leaves the hand useless and ends his dream of becoming a silversmith.  After overcoming challenges, Johnny becomes involved with pre-revolutionary politics and participates in the Boston Tea Party and helps Paul Revere warn the colonists at Lexington.  Once an arrogant teenager, Johnny learns humility and grace.  He even falls in love.  I think my mom still has the book at her house.  I think I need to give her a call…

 

Roots by Alex Haley is my 5th selection.  Though it is not a book on the Civil War it does cover the period and the main reason for the war.   Even though there is controversy surrounding Alex Haley’s accuracy of events and plagiarism, this book is still powerful.  I read this book when I was 17 years old and it has a place in my library.

Being a white Jewish girl from New England, I studied slavery in school, but to me it was part of a history lesson and something I needed to remember for a test.  This book put a human face on slavery.  I finally realized that the end of the civil war may have opened the shackles but they were not removed.  I finally got what slavery might have meant to 4 million slaves and their decedents.  Being Jewish, I have experienced prejudice, but I never felt the true bite of racism.  I will never wrap my head around prejudice, racism and hate; but I did learn what is to have pride, dignity, compassion and hope.  The cast of characters pulled out all of my emotions from anger to happiness, crying to laughing, and from feeling despair to feeling hope.

 

A close friend recommended The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman when I was in my early 20’s.  I wasn’t sure about the series because it was about a widowed grandmother who had grown children and was bored with her life.  She decides to re-enter the work force as a spy for the CIA.  I fell in love with Mrs. Pollifax!  She is a grandmother everybody would love to have in their family.  She is smart, sly, caring, and who would expect her to be a spy.   Her family has no clue that she is a spy and when she is home she attends her garden club meetings.  The series takes you around the globe with different plots and twists.  I would recommend this book to anyone who likes cozy mysteries.  This series always left me feeling happy and inspired.

 

Death on Demandby Carolyn Hart was the book that got me hooked on cozy mysteries.  The series takes place on the coast of South Carolina.  Annie Laurance inherits her uncle’s book store and every Sunday she holds a meeting for mystery writers to discuss mysteries.  One of the writers threatens to release dirt on the other writers and shoed up down not long after.  Now Annie is the prime suspect and she enlists the help of her dear, handsome, rich, lawyer friend Max Darling to find the real killer before she is arrested.  Later in the series, Annie and Max marry and they work as a couple to solve murders.  I have found many other cozy books on PBS with the help of Geri R. (geejay), who I consider the queen of mystery. Geri introduced me to Fran Stewart (Yellow as Legal Pads), Peggy Web (Elvis and the Dearly Departed) and Sue Ann Jaffarian (Ghost a la Mode) to name a few.

 

Lastly, my guilty pleasure…Romance.  My very first romance and favorite is Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie.  Most romances I will not read again, but Bet Me is not on that list.  Though this is a contemporary romance the book deals with a lot of issues women struggle within our society each day. With humor Jennifer Crusie expresses how many woman feel who do not meet society’s view of a beautiful woman.  The book had me laughing out loud, snickering at the one liners and the chemistry between the main characters.  It also has the fairy tale ending, which I love!

 

 

I hope you all enjoyed the eight books that made a difference in my life!  PBS has allowed me to try authors and genre I normally would have tried if I were paying full price.

 

Happy 8th Birthday PBS and many more!!