The Library

[Steph]

The Library Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is  always out. Do come in from the wind and rain and join us. We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not) right now. Let the book talk begin here! Everyone is welcome!

 Suggestion Box for Future Discussions



N o, Pedlin,, It is Deaths Half Acre. Hard back, found it at a flea market for .50.. so grabbed it.
A bit more adventuresome than most of hers. I loved it though. Daddy is still a piece of work.

[Tomereader1]

On Saturday,  I was a bad, bad girl!  You all line up now so you can give me a whack with the paddle!  I went to Borders Books, with my 30% coupon in hand, and spent more than I should've.  I got a book for my granddaughter, in the "City of____ series"; i.e. City of Ashes; City of Glass (kind of fantasy/SF stuff), bought "The Middle Place" for myself; also a hardcover edition of "Middlesex" which was on display as "Previous Bestsellers" $5.99; 30% off the most expensive book, plus when you spent $30, you got a free "journal".  Then, having had almost more fun than was allowed, I treated myself to a large hazelnut latte!  Um, yum.  You may begin the punishments now!  LOL

[pedln]

Really, Tomereader -- 20 lashes with a wet noodle for you.

Have you not YET learned that you cannot go into Borders, Barnes and Noble, or any bookstore and come out with just ONE book.  At least it's very difficult, for most of the folks here.        But anyway, it sounds like you had a wonderful time and are still having a ball.

On another note -- do you all sometimes wonder what planet other people are living on?  Or is it just because all of us here talk about books all the time.  But I'm often really surprised when intelligent people in my circle of acquaintances profess total ignorance about books and/or authors that have been IN THE NEWS.  You can't pick up a weekly news magazine and not see something about books, or listen to NPR, or read a major newspaper.  Even the cable news channels interview authors.  I had a dr. appt. this am and she always asks what book I have in my hand. She'd never heard of Mortenson or Three Cups of Tea.  Some libraries had over 400 holds for Guernsey Literary Society, best seller list, and yet some of the marathon bridge ladies had never heard of it.  (I will admit I don't follow American Idol, or much in sports, but I do catch their names occassionally.)

[BarbStAubrey]

Pedln we are a rare breed -  I preview at least a 100 house a  month and would you believe of the 100 I am lucky to see 5 that have ANY books in the house -  even family homes with young children and NO books - These are not low income homes - these homes are most often the homes of college educated  sellers - these are mid to high priced homes - amazing - head scratching confusing.

[Frybabe]

I can remember more than a few years back when my boyfriend and I cruised through the bookstores he seemed to know just when to pull me out before I bought anything. At the time I had very little spare money to spend and he knew it (we were both back in college at the time). Now I cruise the online books, visit the major bookstores in the area and two used book emporiums. I even got him to stop into a used book store up in Avis on our way to family reunion last year.

The one place I haven't visited since I was a youngster is the Library. I like to keep my books, lending them to family and friends on occasion. I also like not having to rush to read them or worry about renewing books not yet finished. Of course, the last time I was in a Library we were only allowed to renew once. Should I feel the need to use the Library, I have a branch just 5 or 6 blocks away AND the Senior Center is in the same building. I've been meaning to check that out too.

[Tomereader1]

I can't imagine anyone, anywhere not having books. (Especially if there are children in the household!)  If I visit a new friend, and they lead me into their den or living room and there are bookshelves, I immediately start to browse the titles.  So, they think I'm nosey, but I like to know what folks are reading.

An aside to Pedlin:  I can't even get out of the library with JUST ONE book, even though I go in thinking I'm just going to return something, I have to browse the new fiction shelf, or the specialty displays they set up to trap poor, helpless waifs (grey headed waifs) like me!

[mrssherlock]

Since I no longer buy books I average 20-30 books checked out of the library at a time.  Plus my reserve list is up to 15!  My son swore that  he wouldn't move my 40+ boxes of books ever again so I began to unload the paperbacks.  I use those storage boxes from Costco and they hold maybe 40 PBs.  There have been so many estate sales where there are shelves of books and no one is buying them. I only buy cookbooks amy more.  Unless is spot a treasure, likw Will Shortz Book of Sudoku for $3.

[pedln]

Jackie, I love the Will Shortz Sudoku books, and finding one at $3 would certainly be a prize. Do on my recent trip home from California I found a new Shortz series in the airport,  and I wondered, " have these been recycled."  Do you think the same puzzles might get repackaged?  Who would remember, who would know?

[mrssherlock]

And now for something completely different:  Ken Burns' Mark Twain documentary on PBS was stored in the memory of my video recorder, I don't remember putting it there, but I'm watching it now and it has inspired me to read Huckleberry Finn again.  Much praise is heard in the commentary and Finn is compared to Homer, termed the beginning of American Literature, as opposed to American writers who strove to write English Literature.  Twain has always been my overall favorite writer; othersd may come and go in my affections but no one ever supplants Mark Twain.

[maryz]

I've just finished Bold Spirit.  It's a great story, albeit with a less-than-happy ending.  I read it on my Kindle, and have just finished ordering a copy of it sent to my 89-year-old aunt.  I think she'll really enjoy it.

[Steph]

I agree that I am amazed at the number of houses with no books. I sold real estate for a while and the number of houses, nice houses without books was incredible.
But I started a lending library here at our townhouse developments clubhouse. Put up maybe 25-30 paperbacks last year in one section of the smaller rooms. Put up a sign to take,add,bring in, etc and now a year later, it is thriving. People bring in stuff. both paper and hardback and just recently someone is bringing in childrens books. We have fiction,nonfiction, religious,and a lot of other categories. I go in once a month, clean out the pamphlets ( no, we dont want avon or anything else for sale and no Jehovah Witness stuff). But it does prove that people read..

[lucky]

The talk about books brought to mind a memory of long, long ago.  April 15th would have been my 47th wedding anniversary.  I committed a "crime" against my husband for which he never forgave me and looking back I can't say I blame him.  We both brought our records and books to our new apartment.  I brought college texts, books on anthropology, ancient histoy, modern history, poems of Heine, Goethe, classics, etc.  He brought his engineering texts, a few  classics, and a box full of "lewd" books.  At least I thought they were lewd.  He liked to relax by reading mysteries.  All of these offending books were mysteries ( of which I knew nothing) but the covers were "ye gods" revolting, at least to me, girls in all stages of undress, girls in diaphanous dresses, girls naked or so they appeared to be.  And so I did what any young virtuous wife would do- I threw them  out.  There must have been at least a hundred books.  When he returned that night from work he asked me about the books.  When I told him that I threw them out he was stunned.  He never forgave me and now in my widowhood I often think of that incident.  What I did was terrible but at the time I thought nothing of disposing of all that "trash".  I hope he has forgiven me.

[jane]

Lucky..I bet you apologized many times and I bet he came to understand and forgive the rash move and I bet it never happened again.  Of course he forgave you; he loved you.  He lived with you for 47 years!

I understand and have an "inlaw" whose home never had a magazine, never had a newspaper, never had any print material anywhere.  They never talked about what was going on in the world. I'm not sure they'd know where Iraq is. She didn't seem to know much about what he even did in his job. It was the most sterile place I've ever seen.  Even furniture store showrooms had more "ambience" or atmosphere.

On the other hand, I wonder if people "hide" what they're reading because they feel it's nobody else's business?  I read what I read for MY enjoyment. Maybe people feel that putting out what they truly read is too personal and may be misconstrued by others who "stereotype" them as "light readers" or "only reads westerns" or "reads romance" or whatever. Maybe that's what they enjoy and don't want others' judgments on it?  I know some people never understand why library circulation records aren't public and sometimes ask to see what "Fred" is reading, etc.  Well, to me, circ records are private for the same reason your bank account information isn't public. It's no body else's business! 

I've read in open book discussions like this comments from time to time that were very judgmental of certain authors/genres, etc.  It was as if one person could judge the quality of what others were reading or had the right to.  It was as if whatever was being read had to have a "message," a "learning experience," and/or be about "the human condition."  It was as if reading for "pleasure/enjoyment/escapism"  was somehow dirty and shouldn't be allowed.
 
Would readers make any sort of judgment of  someone who had 3 shelves full of Danielle Steel or Louis L'Amour or Jackie Collins or all books on ceramic engineering and nothing else? 


Hmmm....maybe I'd need to run out and buy  Midwest Living,Mental Floss, O,Skeptic, Scientific American, Bookmarks to make me look "well rounded" if I ever open my house for others to see.  That's not likely to happen, but it's always good to have this in mind in case.     [On the other hand, if I wait long enough, there'll be very few magazines left in print and if I get my Kindle2, no body will be able to see what's there unless I let them.   ]


jane

[ginny]

wHOOO~~ What an absolutely FABULOUS post, Jane, we need to put that somewhere and save it.

I vote for a Tour of Jane's Home! hahaha

That makes me want to see what's on display in MY house (not that anybody ever comes, duh, but still.

I just finished  Down the Nile. I have to say it's one of the best books I ever read and I am ordering some of her other books, she's won a prize for one of them, and I'm eager to read it.

I started White Tiger. It's hard to put down. The guy can really write. At the same time you KNOW something nasty is coming. You can tell that by some of the foreshadowing and some of the reviews, page after page after page of  which I keep TRYING not to read, all of which are raves, most of which refer to things which I have not encountered. I was quite surprised at my reaction to it. He can REALLY write, but I am not sure I can deal with what he's about to reveal, have any of you read it and is there any reassurance at all? It won the Booker (I refuse to call it the Man Booker).

And I see the Dan Brown Angels and Demons is coming out as a movie with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard directing. I can't imagine Ron Howard directing that piece of trash, that is without any doubt the worst book (even worse than The Liar's Club) I ever read in my life. Threw it IN the trash once, fished it out, determined to say I finished it,  and again in the trash at the end. Absolutely stupid. Should  I say how I really feel about it?

 hahahaa He wrote it first and could not get it published. Duh. That man has some serious psychological issues with the Catholic Church and I don't think it's an accident the Vatican  would not let them film where they wanted to.

I need to run see what's in my living room displaying as book  taste, because I truly do have the worst taste sometimes in reading hahahaa. All my "erudite" books are not in that room, maybe I should make a switch. hahaaha

Off for the self test, love this twist in the conversation.

A new poll by the No Child Left Behind people says one of the reasons this program has failed is the absence of any reading material in the home!

[mrssherlock]

Jane:  You gave me a pain in the conscience.  Danielle Steele, ah, yes, I went through that phase.  After all, she was local (San Francisco and I lived in San Jose), a youngish single mom, etc. etc.  Next question, do I read books only when I admire the author?  After I read Georgette Heyer's biography, I bragged about her intensive research, etc., but that's not what I read her for.  Another thought, as this country has become increasingly politically polarized, am I'm applying a "litmus" test to authors?  Same with magazines, my growing collection of Cook's Illustrated is proudly displayed, but when I read People it winds up in the trash. Ouch!   

[catbrown]

Great discussion. One person's trash is another person's treasure. We should never forget and you guys have helped me remember.

Me? I read trash, I read non-trash, I read lots of stuff that others consider trash (usually without ever having read any of it), but that I consider treasures (like my shelves full of sci fi and fantasy).

But, I'm never without a book at hand and a pile waiting to be read and a day never, ever goes by without my reading fiction. Never! Ever!

Cathy

[mabel1015j]

Fabulous discussion. I have no concern about what my bookshelves say about me. That's who i am and i'm happy w/ me.
Ginny - i wish you were back in Moorestown, i love your comments, you make me laugh.
It would be great to have coffee w/ you at Friendlys.

I'm finishing up First in HIs Class, about Bill Clinton before his presidency. He's been a quandry to me. I could never figure out if he really is that interested in what people are saying to him, a compassionate, concerned, fun, bright, genuine guy? Or Slick Willy? This book has convinced me that 95% of it is sincere, but he does know how to use all his best attributes and is ambitious enough to use whatever he needs to reach his goal. Unfortunately, it also reiterates the temper, the disorganized always-late, the womanizing, the shooting-himself-in-the-foot behavior. He and Hillary seem like two sides of a coin and mostly have complimented each other, altho there were from the beginning heated arguments between them. But they seemed to have really cared about each other and recognized their need for each other's contrasting personalities. ..................jean

[marjifay]

Ginny, why don't you say how you really felt about ANGELS AND DEMONS?  (LOL)  Actuallyi I really liked it -- better than his DaVinci Code--even if it was way "over the top" in parts.  I read it a few years ago when they were electing a new pope so that part was interesting, and I was fascinated by his snooping around way down in the archives of the Vatican.  I'm not a Catholic -- am an atheist, in fact -- so was not miffed at his views on religion. 

Thanks for recommending DOWN THE NILE.  Sounds interesting.

I also thought WHITE TIGER was a great read.

[maryz]

I love the discussion about books in people's houses.  We have books stacked everywhere - on the hearth, in the woodboxes, on the floor.  Plus the ones we're currently reading or have checked out from the library.  And there is the wall of bookshelves in the office room.    We love to browse through other folks' books, and have never thought anything about it..and certainly never in a critical way.  Usually it's just to see if there's something we might want to borrow.   I can't think of a single family member or friend whose house isn't crammed with books.   I'm like Jean - these are the books that we read.  Who cares what anybody else thinks!

jane, are you going to get a Kindle?  I do like mine.  I've found one problem, though.  John's decided that he want to read one of the books I have on it, and we can't both read in it at the same time.   

[Frybabe]

I too read Angels and Demons. It did seem a bit over the top at times. My main problem was that I could not believe that this guy could have survived such a constant beating and keep going as he did.  I read one of his which had ICE in the name (can't remember the title of hand) which was set in the Arctic and Washington D.C. That was quite good. I have yet to read Digital Fortress.  BTW, I thought I saw recently that he has released another book overseas but not released in the US yet.

Another book I just finished recently is Steve Berry's The Third Secret. That was also set in the inner-workings and politics of the Vatican and the conclave. I guess since it isn't a movie no one has made a huge outcry of it. It took me a little while to warm up to the book, but it was okay. My favorite Berry so far is The Templar Legacy.

[PatH]

What my bookshelves say about me is that I don't have enough bookshelves.  Most of them have piles on top several feet high.  Catbrown, surely no one considers sci-fi to be trash!

[Tomereader1]

I love these posts!  I have run the gamut in my "reading lifetime".  Guess I started with whatever I could find, moved to Agatha Christie, then in the time frame when they first came out, I read the "trash", bodice rippers, but soon tired of those (some folks still love them).  I read all of Catherine Cookson.  Then into Action/Adventure/Spy Thrillers, Detective/Police/Legal Procedurals.  You name it.  Then...came face to face book groups - - I'm in three.  Two "regular" one "mystery".  The regular ones have read widely, best sellers, classics, "literary" type books, which have garnered awards, some of which, if not most, have been real duds with our groups.  These are predominantly seniors, mostly women although we do have a few men and getting more through word of mouth and the library doing a bit more P/R.  We have college graduates, teachers, librarians. Reading is a very "private" thing.  I don't knock anyone who reads, whatever the genre may be.
Marjifay, I read Angels and Demons also, but preferred DaVinci Code.
There are, IMHO, worse authors than Dan Brown, and this after all is FICTION!  And if we read fiction, then we expect "over the top" incorporated with a lot of "hoo-hah". 
Wow, didn't mean to get into an oration here!

[Tomereader1]

PatH, I concur...what my bookshelves say about me is that I don't have nearly enough bookshelves.  I need at least two more 6 ft. tall by 36" wide.  I wish I could have some nice, inexpensive carpenter build me a book shelf wall.  Oh, but then there would still be more accumulations of books after I filled that up. 

I love the discussion about books in people's houses.  We have books stacked everywhere - on the hearth, in the woodboxes, on the floor.  Plus the ones we're currently reading or have checked out from the library.  (I bet I didn't get that "quote" thing right) MaryZ, you should see all my different stacks!

[bellemere]

I have finished The Women, a fictional work based on the life of Frank Lloyd Wright and his bizarre wives and mistresses.  Lots in there about his work and what a genius he was, but he sure sounds like a royal pain in the butt. Boyle is a fine writer.  I liked Tortilla Curtain, a real tearjerker about Mexican immigrants. and another book about the cereal guy, Kellogg, I can't remember the title. Boyle lives in a Wright house in California. I hear they are beautiful but dysfunctional, with drafty windows, etc.
Our Book Club read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a far cry from the ladylike English authors we usually read. Last one was The Thirteenth Tale.  I liked it , the theme of post-traumatic stress syndrome disastrous effects on survivors of 9/11 and the Dresden firebombing, very vivid. We will see what my fellow members have to say.

[catbrown]

Catbrown, surely no one considers sci-fi to be trash!

Ha! Obviously you've never met my mother .... .

[catbrown]

As I'm nearing the end of Colleen McCollough's "Antony and Cleopatra," I'm wondering if anyone here has also read the many, many pages of her First Man in Rome series? She's no stylist, that's for sure, but I find her depiction of Roman life, politics, personalities, battles etc. to be fascinating.

[jane]

Mary...yep, a Kindle is on my "wish list"...wondering if the next edition will have colored screen??

jane

[marjifay]

Like Mary Z, I have books stacked on books, and like Tomereader, I need more bookcases.  Actually, what I need is another house.  I have my so-called piano and reading room lined on two walls with 6-feet bookshelves, have two in my bedroom, two more in the hallway, and three in the living room.  And my newer books are stacked in piles on the floor of my new enclosed porch room, waiting for me to sort out and get rid of some old ones so I can shelve them.  But, of course, I'll never live that long -- I don't have the time -- I have a bunch from the library to read -- I'll need another life! 

[JoanR]

I guess I'm in Marjifay's camp.  We have this big, old Victorian house where we raised four kids.  As they moved out, we absorbed their space - I gained a "library-office-music room" and a sewing room.  My husband has an office where he plays chess on a machine and keeps some of his collections.  He has the living room to hang his art and keep more of his "stuff" which keeps accumulating even though we don't do antique shows anymore.
  Over our antique-ing years I gradually found quite a few lawyer bookcases.  I have 3 in my bedroom with mostly fiction and some poetry, 1 in the sewing room holding mysteries & sci-fi and in my library there are 3 more plus a wall of bookshelves and 3 of those collapsible wooden bookcases that hold mostly paperbacks and current reading.  My grandmother's secretary is in here too with bookselves holding the most precious little books.  Even my computer desk has bookshelves!  I have mostly reference books and classics in here - also the OED in teeny format which has to be read with a magnifying glass - it would be wonderful to have the full-size edition!!
After we retired from our regular jobs and took up antique-ing, I was able to indulge my book-lust without spending much money by haunting estate and yard sales.  Library book sales were always great too.  Occasionally I weed out books that I know darn well I'll never read again but the spaces have a way of filling back up
And I do use the public library!  We have a wonderful one right here within a block away where I worked for 21 years.  There are a lot of great publications that I would never be able to afford to subscribe to and our library has them.  Also movies and music! A warm and welcoming place to hang out.
  I get books there for my husband who never was much of a reader until the last year or so but now that he is mostly sedentary has discovered a whole new world of westerns, stories of the sea, mysteries and adventure.

About Danielle Steele and her ilk - I stopped being judgemental about those books when I discovered that they were  not necessarily the only books that some people have and, after all, any reading of no- matter- what is better than no reading!

[PatH]

JoanR, it's probably silly for me even to try to recommend books to someone whose tastes I don't know, but has your husband tried the Horatio Hornblower series of sea stories by C. S. Forester? They take place in the British navy in the early 1800s.  The first ones at least are strings of short stories that originally appeared in the Saturday Evening Post.  I remember them from when I was growing up, but I recently started to reread them, and for me at least, they are still very good.  They should be read in order.

[JoanR]

Thanks, Pat.  Yes indeed!  He has read all of them - some twice!  We picked up some of the series on trips to England and have the whole thing.  I've read the first 2 and keep saying I'll get to the rest but something always comes between me and dear Captain Aubrey!
WE're open to suggestions though for anything else - his reading is usually a bit different than mine and sometimes I have a hard time figuring out what to get.  I can't  get him into the library to pick out his own.  I think he likes to be coddled!! Men!!!

[JoanR]

OOps!  Yes he has read all of the Hornblower series - I  just sort of jumped to our other favorite series!  2 glasses of wine at supper!

[PatH]

It's a natural jump, since they're both based on the same real life person, Thomas Cochrane, whose actual exploits were at least as improbable as anything Aubrey did, though not quite as numerous.  I wish I knew something else as good.

[pedln]

JoanR, are you going to be home in June?  I hope to visit the Brooklyn girls and would love to see all your bookshelves (and books, of course).   

[maryz]

jane, I haven't heard anything about a colored screen or a potential Kindle 3.  I'm sure there'll be one, though.   Personally, I'd like to have a "whiter" screen with darker print, i.e., more contrast.  But that's just MY vision.  I am liking it more and more.

We're trying to acquire fewer books, and to work harder at passing on the ones we have.  Mostly we get things from the library, or take books to the used book store for exchange, or pass them on to others.  Somehow, the piles don't seem to decrease very quickly.

[Steph]

Such a lovely discussion. I love any and all books.. I just went to look and I dont have a single room in the house that does not have books and bookshelves and book baskets, etc. My office has an entire walll.. But at least 75%of that is genealogy books. I predate the current all in the net era in genealogy and bought a lot of research stuff for years. So if anyone wants to know about upstate New York in the early days,, I'm your girl..
I do have a friend who loves the series romances and does hide them in her bedside table. She feels she should read different things. I keep telling her to read what makes her happy. She has Parkinsons and needs to be happier.

[Babi]

Good point, JANE. I think we do tend to form opinions of people from their
reading prefereces.  Not necessarily 'judgmental', tho' the warmth in my cheeks
is a hint that I have been guilty of that, too.     

FRYBABE, I'm with you on the subject of these heroes...books and movies...who get beaten within an inch of their lives and should be rushed to an emergency room, yet they stagger up and continue on their heroic way. Yeah, right! 

[JoanR]

Pedln - Would love to see you!  The first week in June is kaput but the rest looks fine from here.  I hope you'll be in NYC long enough for me to go hang out at the Strand (or something else interesting) with you.  Can you manage the Long Island Railroad?

[Gumtree]

We have books every where - and shelving for books in most rooms but the shelving has long since lost the fight to hold them all and where we don't have shelves cupboards get stacked with them and boxes are crammed into odd nooks. What my books say about me to new visitors is probably what my friends already know - simply that I read. What I would say about my books is that they are all my friends and that I treasure them dearly even if I don't dust them all often enough.

I always check out the books in other houses  - and especially those lying around on coffee tables - or in the case of my sons' houses - on the floor. Amazing what people will read... I also like to check out what people are reading on buses and trains (even in cafes or restaurants).
One sure thing  is that you can't tell by the look of a person what sort of literature they will be reading. This was brought home quite forcibly to me some years ago when I noticed a very scruffy, and slightly grubby young couple who sported lots of facial piercings etc. sitting near  me on the train.  Each was utterly lost in a large paperback - I strained my neck to see what they were reading -  War and Peace and Les Miserables...  As they say you can't judge a book (or a person) by its cover.

[marjifay]

Someone sent me this a few years ago, and I kind of like it:

THE READER'S BILL OF RIGHTS

1. The right to not read.
2. The right to skip pages.
3. The right to not finish.
4. The right to reread.
5. The right to read anything
6. The right to escapism.
7. The right to read anywhere.
8. The right to browse.
9. The right to read out loud.
10. The right to not defend your tastes.