Author Topic: The Library (Read 2083806 times)

Steph · « **Reply #15280 on:** June 13, 2015, 08:49:50 AM »

The Library

Our library cafe is open 24/7, the welcome mat is always out.
Do come in from daily chores and spend some time with us.

We look forward to hearing from you, about you and the books you are enjoying (or not).

Let the book talk begin here!

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Yes, I had seen the so called Tudor Rose in the rose garden in London.. and pink it is and wonderfull smelling..

In Massachusetts in the town I lived in.. Library trustees were an elected position and the Friends of the library always made sure that library lovers were elected.. It certainly helped there, since the library was quite a force in town.

ginny · « **Reply #15281 on:** June 13, 2015, 09:01:26 AM »

That was interesting, Jonathan, on Queens University, and congratulations on your granddaughter's graduation. I love the varied thoughts here.

I must admit at first I missed the old card catalogs, their dogeared and smudged bent little cards in their shelves. I miss the cute little drawers. Wonder what they did with them? The new computer system they put in seemed extremely complicated to me initially and sometimes still does but I think it's come a long way.

As far as filing fiction, B&N stores would do well to do something with the way they arrange their non fiction offerings wouldn't they? They are all over the place. Biographies are in a different place from essays or travel essays, and non fiction gets thrown all over everywhere. Maybe they could follow the libraries and put up User Friendly computers to look things up and show you where they are in the store, instead of having to ask and be led somewhere.

Speaking of the Tudors, I am reading Bring Up the Bodies, the second in the Hilary Mantel (who seems to have a very unhealthy obsession or "thing" about the late Margaret Thatcher) series, and am enjoying it a lot. Having watched the Wolf Hall show on PBS and not being able to get into the first book by the same title, I figured I know the show, why not try the second book, and bingo, it's a hit.

Or to put it this way: I'm enjoying it as a work of fiction, I don't believe a word of what she's saying as fact, but I'm enjoying reading it. It's well written. For the first time I can see the value in "historical fiction," even tho I fear that she's rewriting history broadly... and people are going to believe what she's saying is true: she does.

But just as a book, it's good. No torture yet. Not a problem figuring out who "he" is in her sentences tho a lot of people do express that in reviews.

I'm glad some of you are going to look up "Us," also. Wonderful book. I keep seeing references to Jojo Moyes on our boards and SHE loved it and is one of the authors credited on the cover saying exactly that.

PatH · « **Reply #15282 on:** June 13, 2015, 10:24:15 AM »

My Barnes and Noble does have computers where you can look up the availability and location of a book. The trouble is, there are ways the book can escape from the store without getting off the computer's list. But it's better than nothing. The real trouble I have with B&N is their poor stock. They often don't have obvious things a store of that size should stock, or don't reorder promptly.

Frybabe · « **Reply #15283 on:** June 13, 2015, 12:04:27 PM »

PatH, I haven't been in my Barnes and Noble in quite a while. I sincerely hope that is not company wide, but instead it is your local store management. That being said, I would think that local management has only a limited say in which books they want to stock as opposed to what company wants pushed.

marjifay · « **Reply #15284 on:** June 13, 2015, 12:33:54 PM »

I was lucky enough to have gone to an elementary school in Omaha, NE where we had a class called simply "Library" and where we learned the Dewey Decimal system. We had to do a short report on each book we read. The library teacher read aloud a couple chanpters from a book, enough for us to get interested in reading it on our own. Great class. I don't know whether the DD system is still used. So easy just to use my internet library account to put a book on hold, then have someone pick it up for me when they tell me it's ready.

Marj

Jonathan · « **Reply #15285 on:** June 13, 2015, 04:30:56 PM »

It's always nice to find what one goes looking for at the bookseller's. And it is also a lot of fun just to browse at random and find a good read, or a book on the wrong shelf, misplaced because someone was just guessing at the subject matter, fooled by the title. Here are several lost sheep that I took home with me

Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. I found that in the clearly marked HISTORY section. That's an understandable mistake.

But not so finding a biography of Harold Ickes, the New Dealer, in RELIGION. But with a title like Righteous Pilgrim!!

And where should I display this one the bookseller must have wondered. A book with the title: Her Majesty's Tower, published in 1869, my copy dated 1884, as the Seventh Edition. It's an amazing account of the endless 'guests' who stayed, or lived out their lives in the famous London Tower. I found it in ARCHITECTURE.

pedln · « **Reply #15286 on:** June 13, 2015, 11:40:17 PM »

Those of you who loved the old card catalogs were probably not responsible for keeping those catalogs up to date. Oh ye gods, we were always behind in adding new cards and pulling those of book no longer in the system. Needless to say, filing, in a school library, was not our highest priority. But automation opened up new doors and provided more access to older, neglected books. We were lucky enough to have a dear volunteer who selectively keyed in all the famous people of history, music, art, and so forth in all the books, so now the students knew Thomas Payne was in "Heroes" and Woodrow Wilson was in "Other Heroes" and so on. I think the day we automated was one of my happiest days as a librarian. That, and the day we got rid of the last film projector.

Steph · « **Reply #15287 on:** June 14, 2015, 09:38:50 AM »

Oh the film projectors.. Always a club and always all male and ones that you were not even quite sure of their names. Also slides have disappeared. I remember my husband spending hours setting up the slides for seminars. Trying to make them fun and still informative.. Now.. its all on the computer. Probably so much easier.

ginny · « **Reply #15288 on:** June 14, 2015, 09:46:11 AM »

HA~ hahahahaa, absolutely right on my part and the card catalogs. Never kept one of them up to date at all, I bet that was fun. Grubby, they were often grubby. hooo. When I think of them today I doubt I'd put a finger on one. hahahaaa I still liked them. It's just nostalgia.

That's so true of life, tho, isn't it? The idea is so lovely when one doesn't have to do the work. hahahaa

What kind of projectors are you talking about? When I taught we used 16mm projectors to show film and the old slide projectors to show images, boy how things are changed. I had to have somebody from the A/V department to show the film, I was totally incapable of doing it on that projector, and I DID try. The threading of the film itself was the trick, and it had more places to go than an interstate spaghetti junction. One miss tho and it would break and you were doomed. I had, until recently, an old reel for a 16 mm projector, I wonder what happened to it.

Shame, some of those old films were wonderful. But I am finding now that the new technology can be just as temperamental as the old, in fact more so. In the room I have at Furman now we have state of the art technology, just like you see in the movies. In fact you can open a door and see the innards, it looks like an airplane cockpit glowing malevolently. But sometimes right in the middle of a film it wants to video conference and it begins calling on the phone, and nothing and nobody can stop it: it's amazing how complicated the new things can be.

But they are much much better.

ginny · « **Reply #15289 on:** June 14, 2015, 09:51:58 AM »

I came IN to say that on my trip I also read from a book I had on the kindle on the I Pad, Jane Gardam's (sp?) The People on Privilege Hill. I don't like reading from a screen but when the choice of books available is not in your language, and you have finished the one that was, extremity makes strange bedfellows.

I read about the first 5 or 6 stories, glad to see Mr. Filth again, but the author's attitude toward aging is so severe and so depressing in this book that I began to wonder if I would see the light of the next day, myself, again, and that sort of severed my desire to read on in that particular book.

I know she has a new one out but I didn't get that feel from the original Mr. Filth and I don't want it now so I may not read it.

MaryPage · « **Reply #15290 on:** June 14, 2015, 11:04:42 AM »

I am SO excited; just over the moon! L'Hermione arrived early, early this morning and is moored down at the mouth of the Severn, where it will stay until it does its "official" sail into the harbor on Tuesday morning. Read all about it:

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/marquis-lafayette-sails-again-180954590/?no-ist

When you finish reading and get to the advertisements, scroll down past the ads and you will come to much, much more of the story.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #15291 on:** June 14, 2015, 01:58:38 PM »

Ginny was there any celebration of the Magna Carter's 800 years happening yet while you were in England? I wonder with so many events used to make celebration tea pots and cups as well as desert plates and platters I wondered if any of that was on display.

Found this wonderful bit of now revised history because Scientists have been able to identify two of the four scribes - the article talks about a revision where King John actually wanted to bury the Magna Carter and it is false that he was the one that saw to its distribution.

Here is the article from the BBC news

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33122722?post_id=10200618017089025_10200618017049024#_=_

mabel1015j · « **Reply #15292 on:** June 14, 2015, 03:52:35 PM »

MaryPage- intersting story abt Lafayette's ship, i wonder if it will be in the tall ships group coming to Philly..........oh, it is confirmed!

http://tallshipsphiladelphia.com

Jean

PatH · « **Reply #15293 on:** June 14, 2015, 08:02:23 PM »

MaryPage--thank you for that article. What a magnificent ship. Are you going to get to go aboard her? If so, I envy you. About 10 years ago, visiting a daughter in Boston, I visited the USS Constitution. Unforgettable--I love that ship, and can get very boring enthusing about her. She's still a commissioned ship, 218 years old, and can sail on her own (sort of, with the whole crew keeping their fingers crossed). Never defeated in battle, and not yet defeated by age.

marjifay · « **Reply #15294 on:** June 14, 2015, 08:12:14 PM »

I am so irritated. Just picked up a book I have from the library (by Gorbachev, essays he wrote about Russia and the world). The print is so light and tiny I can't read it. Why do they sell such books? I guess it's my fault. My son picks up books that I've had on hold and are now ready to check out. He doesn't check to see if the print is readable, just brings them to me. I should go with him to look at the books and toss them immediately if they are unreadable. I suppose it won't do any good to send a letter to the publisher complaining about the unreadable print, but I am going to do so anyway.

Marj

PatH · « **Reply #15295 on:** June 14, 2015, 08:19:19 PM »

The lengthy details about Lafayette are pretty interesting. So in spite of his exalted social position, he was kind of klunky socially, and didn't fit in well at court. His army career was cut short when organizational rearrangements eliminated his regiment. So he was ripe to give allegiance to a cause that he had some sympathy with, and became genuinely enthusiastic about our cause.

He was so dense about politics that he didn't really catch on to the fact that he was needed mostly to get lots of French aid and troops for our cause, not to fight. But when he came here he really clicked with our more rough and ready society, and every time he managed to escape from the protections we were trying to enforce, he fought valiantly.

All honor to him, apparently more here than in France, where they don't appreciate him properly.

Frybabe · « **Reply #15296 on:** June 14, 2015, 08:55:03 PM »

Wow, what a beauty she is. That reminds me...

I have in my possession two old volumes. The first is Lafayette: A Life by Andreas Latzko (trans: E. W. Dickes, 1936) and Adrienne: The Life of the Marquise De La Layette by Andre Maurois (trans: Gerard Hopkins, 1961).

ginny · « **Reply #15297 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:17:44 AM »

Barbara, in answer to your earlier question, it seems like I have been reading a lot of articles on the Magna Carta lately, in Britain and here, and some of the articles have been really surprising. I didn't know that much about King John. I like to use two apps, the BBC, and CNN every morning, and the BBC has been full of it all, the pageantry, etc., in fact today there's a great article on it about why should we care at all? And yes apparently there are many souvenirs. I love the way they are making a procession today in honor of it (another boat procession).

That is interesting, Pat, on Lafayette. Looking at those old sailing ships is absolutely exhilarating, isn't it? What will they do, then, sail up the coast, as Jean says they are going to Philly? That would really be something to see. There was a huge sailing ship which came into Sorrento while I was there, I THINK but am not sure it was one of those cruises that you can sign on to go along on because it was gigantic. It was something to see.

MaryPage · « **Reply #15298 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:19:34 AM »

This is what is sad: we do not know our history. We DO NOT KNOW our History! And ignorance makes us appear stupid.

Let me give you an example right here at home.

The facts on the ground are, if the French fleet had not shown up at Yorktown, we would have lost the battle and the revolution and we would have continued to be a British colony until who knows when. Now, for instance? Still?

But back in the beginning of this century, the French did not think it a good idea to invade Iraq. And the popular mood in this nation was to despise them for it. French fries became Freedom Fries, and so on and on. Do you remember? Yes, the in thing was to dis everyone and everything even slightly French.

And in this town I live in, in 2006, several thugish politicians and even our local daily paper loudly proclaimed it a waste of taxpayer money to sponsor 3 exchange students from our long time sister city in France: Rochefort, the place where L'Hermione was built. Of course, mind you, Rochefort was similarly courteous to students from Annapolis, but that remained unmentioned. Loud voices who didn't have a clue what the facts on the ground were prevailed over the more academic types who owned the truth but were not acclimated to shouting slogans.

And so our long cherished sisterhood with a French populace to whom we owed a debt of deliverance languished forlornly. Rochefort and their students were forsaken, and aha, we showed those nasty Frenchmen what we thought of them and their not going along with our foreign policy of invasion! Yep, we showed 'em good!

Did you know that famously an American colonel who knew his history proclaimed upon visiting the tomb of Lafayette in World War I : "Lafayette, we are here!" Folklore now tells us General Pershing himself did this, but it was actually this colonel who was his chief of staff or some such. Some of us knew, but few of us know, the debt we have long owed to the French fleet that galloped over the waves like a troop of cavalry and saved our skins with their bombardment of the British Army at Yorktown.

Maybe we SHOULD be calling them "Freedom" fries? Maybe that would remind us, as obviously "French" does not.

Steph · « **Reply #15299 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:36:56 AM »

People have short memories..and in truth in WWII and DeGaulle, the French as a country were not helpful. They had a really good underground, but they also had a huge amount of people who welcomed the Nazis with open arms and turned in their neighbors, et.

Frybabe · « **Reply #15300 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:52:38 AM »

Steph, regarding the underground, if I remember correctly, the most effective underground, at least early on, was the Communist contingent. They already had a network in place, more or less, because of prewar anti-government activities.

MaryPage · « **Reply #15301 on:** June 15, 2015, 09:14:07 AM »

I remember that, Frybabe! In fact, there was a best seller work of fiction at the time that was a real thriller, and you had to wind up cheering for the fascists or the communists, no way around it, and I was roaring (mentally) for the communists. What WAS the name of that book? They even made a movie of it. There was some mountain skiing escape involved in some way.

Also, it was hard to be totally anticommunist during World War II because the Russians WERE ON OUR SIDE! And they were so noble in the battles of Stalingrad and Leningrad. Ai yi yi! And World War II came right on the very heels of the Spanish Civil War in which so many Americans famously fought the losing battle against Fascism and so many books were written. One thinks of For Whom The Bell Tolls.

Oh, what was the name of that book?!?

marjifay · « **Reply #15302 on:** June 15, 2015, 05:56:30 PM »

I looked for Jane Gardam's Privilege on the Hill in my library, Ginny. Would you believe that have no, nada, books by Gardam. I will ask them why that is so. My favorite Jane Gardam book is God on the Rocks. I liked it so much I bought my own copy, and usually I purchase only nonfiction, mostly history books. I saw another of her books on Amazon (4+ stars) that I have not read: A Long Way From Verona. I'll take a look for it in another library.

Marj

You people are getting me interested in reading about Lafayette. I an planning to read about Napoleon, as there have been a bunch of books about him lately -- must be an anniversary of some kind. Also want to read about Lord Nelson who won the battle of Trafalgar but, sadly, was killed, I think by a stray bullet. Also want to read more about the French Revolution. Hope my eyes hold up. Thank goodness for still pretty good eyesight.

ginny · « **Reply #15303 on:** June 15, 2015, 07:04:23 PM »

It's the People on Privilege Hill, Marj, but no Gardam is no Gardam.

I understand Adrian Goldsworthy is working on a history of Napoleon which I think should be super once it comes out, his books usually are. Dense but thorough.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #15304 on:** June 15, 2015, 08:13:31 PM »

If anyone lives within easy commuting distance of DePaul in Chicago they are purported to have the largest collection of Books on Napoleon, many in the original French - http://via.library.depaul.edu/napoleon/

There is a Napoleon Historic Society - http://www.napoleonichistoricalsociety.org

And it appears there is quite a new 'tome' is the only way you can describe a book with just shy of a 1000 pages - a Bio that shows Napoleon as "one of the greatest soldier-statesmen of all times" without the reader being "subjected to over-sized myths and slanderous libel. Roberts' thesis is that Napoleon was not at all some kind of proto-Hitler dictator but rather the last and greatest leader of the Enlightenment who had many admirable qualities." - http://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-A-Life-Andrew-Roberts/dp/0670025321

MaryPage · « **Reply #15305 on:** June 15, 2015, 09:18:53 PM »

I think everyone who has not already immersed themselves in the Lafayette story would do well to do so. The history of our early relationship with the French is nothing if not fascinating, and it breaks my heart to think that so few know so much as a smidgen about it anymore. Our first and greatest president, General George Washington, thought of him as a son.

Steph · « **Reply #15306 on:** June 16, 2015, 07:55:29 AM »

surprise surprise I just discovered that Tallulah Falls and Gorge in Georgia is having a huge weekend celebration Fifty years ago, the grandfather Wallenda walked a wire across the gorge. You can still see the places where they put up the wire. The town and area is having a huge celebrationThey invited the grandson (NIK??) who is following in Grandpas footsteps.. For 10,000.00 he is just coming, no wire walks, just meet and greet. Hows that for sheer chutzpah

maryz · « **Reply #15307 on:** June 16, 2015, 11:13:55 AM »

Steph, what a hoot! I haven't seen anything about that in the Chattanooga paper or news. I wonder if they'll cover it at all.

MaryPage · « **Reply #15308 on:** June 17, 2015, 08:58:50 AM »

http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/annapolis/ph-ac-cn-hermione-festivities-0617-20150616-story.html

Steph · « **Reply #15309 on:** June 17, 2015, 09:09:19 AM »

frustrating yesterday and today on line. My bank decided to change their entire website.. and woo hoo. they changed to Google Chrome and my outlook express does not work.. They are quite superior, but my computer whiz says the whole thing is stupid.. I am furious. All I wanted to do was my usual set up to pay my bank credit card and cannot do it online.When I return home in the fall, it is time to find a new bank.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #15310 on:** June 17, 2015, 11:39:53 AM »

Thank you, MaryPage. It feels like there should have been larger attendance for this, but it was lovely anyway! History still has the power to stir my heart and soul, and I simply hate the way some try to change history to suit their agendas. History is "what was" --warts and all --not what some would have it be.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #15311 on:** June 17, 2015, 03:37:04 PM »

MaryPage who is the women in the plaque or relief sculpture where all the wreathes are laid?

OH yes, Tomereader seeing snippets of history played out in ceremonies sure is a connection to our past isn't it...

Steph yes, for me a year or so ago it was our Utility Company that for us is the City of Austin - the whole kit and caboodle was changed - I must say though after I started from the beginning as if a new customer with one of their Techs on the phone guiding me the entire time - it took darn near an hour - since then, paying my bill is so easy and I can do it from home without the extra charge they had when you phoned it in.

Well we came through without the rainfall or wind damage they predicted - still a lot of rain but we ended up being on the edge of the Hurricane - still overcaste and supposedly more rain tonight that I am not sure where it is coming from but tomorrow the sun - after 4 years of severe drought and one summer with over 70 days in triple digit temps I never would have imagined my saying I am looking forward to the sun - but I am - this house is so wet I feel like I am trying to sleep inside a steam shower. No sooner said and here we go again with another downpour...

MaryPage · « **Reply #15312 on:** June 18, 2015, 12:09:02 AM »

Barbara, her name is MEMORY, which I find very befitting.

If you do the following Google search, you can find a lot of very interesting accounts of this monument:

Monument to the French St. John's College Annapolis Maryland

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #15313 on:** June 18, 2015, 06:18:32 AM »

I am so tired of waking up and turning on the computer to read about one more lunatic guy shooting up in some public place - now it is a church - it was a movie, a couple of schools, a running marathon (although that was a bomb) was this part of our lives before 9/11 - Come to think I guess Columbine was in 1999 - what is going on - I have no feelings left now when I read this stuff - between police killings and mass shootings it like being in a carnival with real guns.

Frybabe · « **Reply #15314 on:** June 18, 2015, 06:37:40 AM »

I think it has always been going on to one degree or another, Barb. These things seem to flair up and then, after a while, disappear from the news. What with cell phones and tables with cameras, and Twitter and the like, news which used to stay relatively local is now broadcast nationally. Not only do we see more because of this, but I believe that it encourages other no-goodniks to copy-cat. On the other hand, the same technology gives us many acts of bravery, kindness, and funny clips. Too bad people focus on the bad and not the good.

ginny · « **Reply #15315 on:** June 18, 2015, 07:27:11 AM »

Personally, and I'm sure it's a controversial opinion, I think the Media has a lot to answer for in their breathless and non stop coverage of a lot of events. I actually turned off the news for a while in favor of the CNN and BBC Apps which I still start the day with, which allow me to pick and choose from hundreds of stories what I want to see and hear of the news. It works well, really. You can see what the news is and at the same time avoid the endless talking heads on the rest.

I don't need one more story on the background of the Tsarnev brothers (and if it's spelled wrong that's too bad), the German pilot, (I've managed to avoid knowing his name) or any perp, what his neighbors said, what his teachers said, what may have caused him to turn out the way he did. All it's doing is filling up air time, in a slow news week, giving the perp his 15 days, weeks, months even years of fame instead of minutes, and making the next nut think that he, too, can be on the news and famous.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #15316 on:** June 18, 2015, 07:32:34 AM »

Amen to that Ginny.

Steph · « **Reply #15317 on:** June 18, 2015, 08:15:47 AM »

yyes,once the media went to 24 hours a day to fill, we get way too much information. Altnough sometimes it gets interesting. The strange lady who is disguised as a black woman makes me marvel.Does she really believe that if you are smug and superior, you simply tilt your head and say I identify black ...If I were a black woman, I would would be outraged.

Frybabe · « **Reply #15318 on:** June 18, 2015, 09:05:29 AM »

What irritates me is that there is a lot more going on in the world than usually shows up on the 24hr. news stations. They seem to rehash the same four or five news stories ad nauseam over days, not hours.

MaryPage · « **Reply #15319 on:** June 18, 2015, 10:20:58 AM »

My flash point of irritation has to do with THE Election for President of these United States.

MY way of doing things would be to have the two national parties, and any lesser ones that wish to pop up, name their nominees in July, August or September of the year in which the election is to be held in November. This allows me AMPLE time in which to decide which of the candidates I feel would do the better/best job and feel all enthusiastic and bright eyed and bushy tailed come the November election.

But the election NEVER ENDS!!!! To me it is downright sickening. They drone on and on and on and on about this candidate and that one and the other. Do you think this one is running? Do you think that one is running? How 'bout the chances of so & so? Really?

Tell me, please, if you know how I can apply to be granted a license of NOT HAVING TO HEAR about the presidential election for at least three (3) full years after a national election day. I want RELIEF from THIS subject! Don't YOU?

News:

Author Topic: The Library (Read 2083806 times)