My friend Steve — who is married to a real live librarian — compiled a list of eleven graphic novel/comic titles that libraries should shelve. The idea caught on and now TangognaT [holy crap I never noticed that was a palindrome before!] has collated those lists into one uberlist.
Category: books
gearing up for the RNC in NYC
So they’re gearing up for the RNC in New York. I do not expect to be going etiher as a “blogger” or a protestor though maybe I can answer some questions for Radical Reference. It seems like the bag-checking on the ferries are getting a bit out of hand. I can see weapons being dangerous but — and I can’t believe we’re going through this again — books?! What book? This book. [thanks chuck]
the library of unwritten books
As many of you may or may not know, Richard Brautigan’s book The Abortion was one of my major insirations to become a librarian, in the hopes that I can one day live in the library that I work in. That book has inspired others to do different things, like the Library of Unwritten Books for example.
The project, called the Library of Unwritten Books, is the brainchild of Sam Brown and Caroline Jupp, who have been travelling around Britain collecting tales from ordinary people they meet on the street. Using a converted shopping cart that doubles as their “mobile recording unit,” the pair ask strangers if they have any ideas for books. They then convert each narrative kernel into a précis only a few pages in length. [thanks iboy]
the decline in reading, another take
The Christian Science Monitor takes on the media conclusions to the NEA “reading in crisis” report, finding some other folks to place the blame on.
Publishers and writers can blame TV, the Internet, and the media all they want, but the problem lies squarely with them. They need to activate their marketing and literary imagination in order to promote their books, as well as the act of reading, in new ways. They, more than anyone, need to be organized keepers of the reading flame.
Obama on reading and anti-intellectualism
Another observation stemming from the DNC. Obama’s speech [which you can read it its entirety here] disussing anti-intellectualism, further discussed by the New York Times. Librarians take note.
“Go into any inner-city neighborhood and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white.”