The Library

[Steph]

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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*SeniorLearn's Archives 
 

So many years in Florida, I sort of accept roaches.. Spray of course, but they come home with you in all sorts of ways..
I am a fatalist about that stuff. I try to be good and just accept.
Hmm.l Ginny.. More and More, I do wonder if I can not tour with Kait, but fly into Berlin, stay a few days there and use a local sightseeing type stuff, then possibly take a train to Munich, stay there for a few more days and do local tours. to Dachau, the castle, etc. I really do not know how Kait feels about allthe museums, and town tours, so we could pick and choose. Would it be safe for two women one old, one young,, and how long is the train ride clear across Germany from Berlin to Munich. someone else also said Stuttgart is really nice as well.

[ginny]

I'm the wrong person to ask that of, Stephanie because I don't do tours. hahaha  I have NOT been to Berlin, so I can't speak for it, but otherwise I don't see why you can't make your own plan and go where you want. You can get a Eurail Pass, or a German Pass,  the train schedules are all online, if you take an i pad  you can get it quicker than the train conductor can tell you, the times, the stations, etc.

I think the plan you outline above is very doable.

The two of you could plan your own itinerary and catch the local hop on hop off city  tours or spend as much as you wanted with the local guides or specialized day tours.

If you're  only going from  Berlin to Munich on the train you don't need this info, but just FYI:  Rail Europe last year advised me to go First class in Germany because 2nd is very popular with the Germans and it's hard to get a seat.  . All you need to do is be sure you're not sitting in somebody's reserved seat. If you knew exactly when and where you wanted to go you could then get a reservation.

(On the German trains in 2013 the reserved seats are  indicated in a new way. Over the window are two small LED windows, if they show a destination,  they are reserved. They no longer give the patron's name, just the destination. If they are blank, nobody has that seat and you can sit down.)

 Rail Europe http://www.raileurope.com/ will let you plan any trip, see the schedules and the fares and get tickets which they will deliver to your door before hand.

For instance, it's  6 hours non stop on the right train from Berlin to Munich. And that's on an ICE train, their state of the art trains where you can watch the engineer behind glass  from the first coach . Berlin to Krakow is 7 hours and 28  minutes, change at Warsaw.

 Would she accept Dachau instead of Auschwitz? As you know it's very easy out of Munich to Dachau.

Jeanne P is right about the National Holocaust Memorial in DC. If she has not been there, you want to make that a sort of stopping off place, maybe fly OUT of DC?


As far as safe, I know you have street smarts and would not have a child out late at night but I'd read ahead anyway and you can always ask at the desk if your destination is safe if your guidebook does not tell you.  You'd want to read up on it a LOT but again, the more she puts into the trip and the more you put into the trip the more you'll both get out of it.

How's your  German?

We know Munich is wonderful and you don't need much beyond basic  German.  That Science Museum alone is perfect. I have not been to Berlin and have heard that the former Eastern areas are where you could use/ probably need/  some  German. I have no German to speak of, it's never been a problem to me, I went to Bad Homburg and then way out in the country to The Saalburg,  and Frankfurt and Cologne by myself,  last year, as well as down the Rhine to  Bacharach and   I've done Munich, but Berlin, being a big (and I've heard "aggressive and edgy" city, gives me pause. So I can't advise there. And I am listening to  German tapes.

 Dana, did you need German in Berlin,  (perhaps you speak it to start with), and if so, where?

Dresden is 2 hours with one change from   Berlin. That's nothing for a day trip. Plenty of history.

I think Auschwitz is going to be the deciding factor.  If you can leave it off and do another instead (there is another one right out of  Berlin, too), you could do two on the one trip, but Poland is going to cost you and take time.

I think what you propose is very doable.

[Dana]

No you don't need German in Berlin.  I was very comfortable in that city, people were friendly, everyone spoke English.
Dresen is a super place, full of history.

[JeanneP]

Most of Europe you can get by with English .you may find some people understand it but act like the don't. It has been thought in their schools last 24 years.same with France.
She would learn far more at the DC museum.camps just old buildings now. They may have added a few things on to keep the tourist coming. Not worth going miles to of your way to see.
How long did you say you were going for? Most cities need at least 3to 4 days. I laugh when I see these tours giving " see 9 countries in 14 days"

[Frybabe]

Just read an article this morning in BBC News that Amazon is planning to do what they did with music a year or so ago. Customers will be offered either free or discounted digital copies of print books they bought from 1995 onward. So far around it covers around 10,000 titles from two publishing companies beginning in October in the US. This is similar to what they did a year or so ago for customers who bought music CDs.

[Steph]

Myhusband and I toured all over Europe and northern Africa and did not have problems with English, so that does not worry me. I had heard that Berlin is sort of edgy, but if I went for a center city hotel, large.. with a restaurant, that should work. I plan on Dachau.. and thanks for the first class tip. Now to talk to Kait.. she has been to Washington and that museum as have I. I came out cryig, dont know about her. I think she wants to see the camp,, Possibly to imprint what she has read.

[Tomereader1]

To whomever it is that plans to tour Germany:  Go to the New YOrk Times website, Sunday Book Review, then scroll down and on the right hand side in a separate box titled "Most Emailed", down a bit to #7 - Titled 36 hours in Berlin.  An interesting article!  Hope you can find this.

[ginny]

Frybabe, why are they going to give you a free or digital copy of a book you bought before?

That makes no sense to me? (They will also go broke with me). hahahaa

Steph, keep us posted, maybe we should open a Travel section on SL, for folks who have traveled, will travel or like to dream vicariously or have read about the places, or like travel writing or books like Life in Provence, etc.

I am reading a new book just mentioned by People Magazine, called
The Asylum: A Collage of Couture Reminiscences...and Hysteria
by Simon Doonan

After nearly a lifetime spent in the Industry, author and fashion insider Simon Doonan is ready to let you in on a little secret: his peers in this multibillion-dollar industry are just as nutty as the denizens of your local loony bin. In The Asylum, an unabashedly hilarious collection of autobiographical essays, Doonan, the creative ambassador for Barneys New York, tells the real-life stories of glamorous madness and stylish insanity.  

Doonan has witnessed models unable to work for fear of ghosts, gone deep-sea fishing with a couturier pal and his jailbird companion, and watched Anna Wintour remain perfectly calm while the ceiling fell—literally—in the middle of Fashion Week. Once you start looking, he says, you’ll notice telltale signs of lunacy everywhere. Style insiders see patterns and trends in everything; they suffer from outsize personality disorders and delusions of grandeur; and of course, they have a predilection for theatrical makeup and artfully destroyed clothing. No one is more suited to the asylum than the truly die-hard fashionista—after all, eccentricity and extremism are the foundations of great style.

With his gimlet eye for the absurd and a love for eccentricity, Doonan’s personal and professional stories never fail to entertain. “The David Sedaris of the style universe” (The Boston Globe) gives us the scoop on the kooky, cutthroat—but always fabulous—fashion world, and proves himself one of the sharpest humorists writing today.

The world of fashion fascinates me. I know nothing of it and certainly could  not enter it, with my orthopedic shoes and my not weighing 100 pounds, but it's the strangest place.  I still think Valentino the Last Emperor is an amazing movie, these people just move to a different beat. And I found out, looking at his dresses at the Ara Pacis, that the people who wore those dresses were 10 feet tall and did not weigh 90 pounds, too. It's a real eye opener to stand up against one.



And of course the success of the movie The Devil Wears Prada (and the book, but not the sequel) shows what the world is like.

So does this book. It's a different world and not always as ...er.....clean and pretty as we'd like to think. Names are named and they are big ones. It's an insider's view of  the world of Couture, good and bad.  It may be too much for some folks, but it's  what really happens, and the book is the latest buzz.

Weknow these folks are odd, but don't they influence what YOU wear? I bet they do. Shoulder pads are out or are they IN? Is that long dress going to do for church or have the hemlines risen? We may say we don't care but I bet they influence us more than we think.

 Stephen King's new book, the sequel to The Shining,  Doctor Sleep, is excerpted in Entertainment Weekly Magazine,  because I guess King used to be a columnist, and he's giving the magazine a break.

The Book Excerpt is something I  love. Was it the Saturday Evening Post which used to do them? Did the NY Times, too?  I love them. This one has the little boy of the Shining all grown up but he's still got that Shining thing, and it's creepy. You knew it would be creepy. Yet you can't stop reading.

Tell the truth, could you make it thru The Shining, the movie? I got as far as the opening scenes where somebody is looking in a mirror (Jack Nicholson?) and being very odd and could not go further, but you can put the book down, so I read it


Anybody read it?

(Oh and have any of you seen Farm Kings? It's a reality show about a farm family in Pennsylvania. There are 10 children, 9 sons and one daughter, and one 51 year old mother who looks better than I ever have,   making a living at farming. It's a well kept secret and not advertised, it's Thursday nights at 9 on some strange cable network but it's very interesting.

Psychologically interesting. The children are all very supportive of each other and cooperative:  it's a beautiful how they get along,  but now a problem arises: Dad, who does not appear onscreen,  is selling HIS farm and they can't afford to buy it and it's where they grew up. The plot thickens, apparently there's been a divorce. Dad operates a competing farm stand.

It's fascinating.

What are YOU all reading?

[ginny]

Thank you, Tome!!

[Frybabe]

It's a marketing ploy, Ginny. Here is their official press release. You will notice that not all books (I'd bet most) will not be free, but offered at a low price to the customer. To the publishers and authors, they are billing it as an addition to their income stream. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1851331&highlight=  There is a link in the news release that goes to the books already available with this program.

I am guessing that more than a few people have asked about having their books both ways without having to pay full price for the second (digital copy). The retroactive bit is to keep prior buyers happy.

The digital music I got free last year was, I believe, part of a lawsuit settlement (but my brain has become fuzzy on that). It is entirely possible that the addition of the program that offers a physical CD purchaser to have their music ripped to a portable format actually increased their sales going forward. That is a big speculation on my part.

Portability is the key here. If I don't have a CD player (or have not ripped and copied to a portable device) or don't have a print book with me away from the house, I still have access to my music and books via the portable device I have with me. I suspect this will go over big with the younger set. It might work especially well with textbooks that are very, very heavy to carry. Keep the print books at home and still have the textbook with you in class. I like that idea. I bet that they have been getting questions about having books both ways without having to pay full price for the second (digital) copy for a while now.

[ginny]

Oh I see. My goodness, it's a radical idea, isn't it? Here in the House o Duplicate Books it's stunning. hahahaa

I'm sure I'm the only one here who has bought another book only to find I  had it in the first place.

[BarbStAubrey]

I like it when you are traveling or waiting as today for a program to start at an open house - I purchased a book about updating for resale that would have been great to access while I preview a new model home to see how the new home handled the area - also if you are reading away from home and want to refer to a book you read earlier that had information or quotes that would help with the current read - but best of all to keep track of your library - as you say how often I have two of the same book.

Now I wish there was a way to make a list of all the book you ever purchased alphabetically rather than the cumbersome exercise of going back year to year to find it.

[jane]

Barbara....that's why I keep a spreadsheet of my books.  I can sort it anyway I want.

I have my rating of the book, author,title, where I have it [own (which means in print), library, Kindle, Nook], a description of the story.

It's saved me from buying duplicates since I started this and I can add to it via my PC laptop or my IPAD, using dropbox and cloud-on.

It's a lot of work to get basics on, but once that's finished, it's easy to add new buys.

If going back is overwhelming, maybe start one as of now.  

I think there may even be software programs out there that you can buy that gives you the template, but I just made mine own and use the free Open Office spreadsheet.

jane

[JeanneP]

Jane
I paid 4.95 for a app.on apple suppose to cover MSOffice some but can't get it to work.
I have lost it on the WXP pro on desktop awhile back.i just did not like the new one. To much on it.  I just wanted something easy like  MSWord was.

[BarbStAubrey]

Good Idea but oh the work - just trying to get books onto Shelfaire was a chore never completed but as you say just getting started. Since Amazon does make a list of all your book purchases for Shelfaire just copying and pasting that list would be helpful - allowing me to alphabetize the ilist sounds like an operation only for a spreadsheet. Disheartening all that work when the information is right there on Amazon's web site. grrr frustration.      

[jane]

I have both NOOK books and KINDLE books and I don't care for the public access of Shelfaire, so I keep my own listing for just my eyes.

If Shelfaire works for you and it's an Amazon company, I've heard, they should be compatible.

[PatH]

I'm sure I'm the only one here who has bought another book only to find I  had it in the first place.

HaHaHa, lol.  I won't even admit how often that has happened to me.

[Frybabe]

Ditto, PatH. In fact, just this week I got lazy about looking it up on my book inventory, thought I had it, even knew where it should be. Looked (three times) couldn't find it. Bought the book again and miraculously the original appeared right where I thought it was.   

[salan]

Boy, can I relate to that.  Just this week I checked out two books that I had already read.  I somehow overlooked both of them in my list of books read. Grrrr!!  I felt kind of stupid as I had just informed my sil that she should keep a list like I did in order to avoid checking out books she had already read!  Although checking out repeats is much better than buying a second copy!
Sally

[Steph]

Oh my,yes,yes,yes,, I get in a used book store and then go nuts.. Have I read it?? or not?? sigh. I comfort myself in that it is cheaper than a new one.
Wow.. Being very financial.. if I do notuse a tour and pay for air fare,hotel, train, etc, I would spent up to 2000.00 more for the two of us.. I believe will stick to a tour with her., Plus it will force her into seeing a lot more than if we stayed in Berlin for four days,then Munich four days.. Amazing.. I had never priced it out both ways before..

[jane]

Steph...You'll also have all the details, tickets, etc. taken care of, get into museums without waiting in long lines, and a licensed tour guide who'll provide background and history you and/or granddaughter may not know.

[salan]

Steph,  My 3 sisters and I used to take a trip once a year.  It was always much cheaper to go the tour route.  However, we did try to chose those that gave us more lee-way so that we could have time away from the group persuing our own interests.  After my oldest sister died, we stayed closer to home and usually rented a condo on the beach for a week.  My second oldest sister died last year & my younger sister & I are trying to plan a trip now.  Both of my older sisters died at age 75--too young in my 70 year old opinion!
Sally

[rosemarykaye]

Hi all - just popping in to say I am still here, just been so busy over the past few weeks that I haven't had a moment to check in.  Mother's visit, friend's visit, son home for weekend and now in-laws due on Friday for 3 days.  And after that possibly a Comineus project exchange student from Madeleine's school.  In between I have been tied up with the admin for our local art/craft centre and also volunteering at our local art gallery - I enjoy it all but lately I feel I have been running a bit too fast - and I hate losing touch with all of you on here.

Our gallery has just opened an exhibition about East Lothian witches - the area was notorious for witch hunts in the 17th century, when women (and a few men) were persecuted for being in any way different.  James VI personally supervised the torturing of 'witches', including the pricking of women's skin to somehow prove what they were. For the opening of the exhibition, one of the two artists swam up the river Tyne chanting the names of those who'd been executed in 1661 - we all watched from the bridge - it was an unforgettable evening.

So as you can imagine, my reading has been precious little recently - I have a TBR pile so high it's dangerous.  But it's good to have a busy life, and as the winter approaches I plan to batten down the hatches and spend more time with the books.  My daughter Anna is away to university on 5th October, so from then on it will only be me, Madeleine, naughty puppy and wicked Siamese at home.

Anyway, hope everyone is well - I haven't got time to read back through all the posts I've missed, but I intend to be visiting daily now, so I hope I'll catch up.

Rosemary

[BarbStAubrey]

Good to see your post Rosemary - your summer does sound full - always the dilemma what to pass up when you love reading but then you do have a long cold winter to catch up reading that pile. 

[pedln]

Some friends of mine have frequently used UNTOURS, where you have half on your own, but also have professional support.  They would provide you with various options, regarding housing, flights, etc.  They have been in business many years.

Untours

[maryz]

We've been on two trips with Untours, and we're always trying to fit another one into  our schedule.  They are GREAT!  And they support great causes with a lot of their profits.

[Steph]

The German tour I think I will pick in the end, has a full day in Berlin to do what you want and almost that in Munich.  know that I can probably arrange for things she might want on those two days, since the two German areas she wants are there. So.. now for her to stop delaying, get the passport and tell her Nana how she really feels about the tour.. I gather love has reared its head, so just now is impossible.
Will do my leisurely Irish tour next year..

[nlhome]

Rosemary, good to hear from you. Can you recommend any books set in the Lotharian area (my preference is fiction)?

Our Friends of the Library just completed a short used book sale. I donated a large bag of books - then between us my husband and I probably bought as many. One I found and read was by Mary Wesley:  "Part of the Furniture. I had not read anything by here before - it was perfect for reading on a hot and quiet weekend. Has anyone read books by here? Any other recommendations? I see she wrote several.

[rosemarykaye]

Hi NL - do you mean the Lothians?  It depends what you want I suppose!  A lady I know called Marie Macpherson has recently written a fictionalised version of the life of John Knox, who was a very famous locally born man - it's called The First Blast of the Trumpet:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Blast-Trumpet-Knox-Trilogy/dp/1908483229/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378748422&sr=1-1&keywords=the+first+blast+of+the+trumpet


It's had excellent reviews though I haven't read it myself yet - I do know some of it's written in the local dialect, which may or may not be to your taste. 

Occasionally Ian Rankin gives his detective John Rebus an outing to East Lothian, but it's mostly to throw in snide remarks about the rich and idle citizens of North Berwick (we live in a very small village between N Berwick and Haddington, the county town - N berwick is an old fashioned seaside town, very expensive, popular with wealthy retirees from Edinburgh and people buying second homes.  Haddington is much more 'normal', more of an agricultural place, though in the 1960s the government decided to move lots of people out of slums in Glasgow and rehouse them in Haddington, so that certainly added to the mix!)  Alexander McCall Smith also sometimes sends his characters out here - he in fact owns a second home in Gullane, another extremely posh village along the coast from N Berwick, and one of his characters refers to it as 'Edinburgh-sure-mer' 

There are of course lots of books set in Edinburgh, did you mean there or out here?  I'm surprised how few of the latter I can actually think of - there are local authors but their books are not set locally.  A gap in the market?!

I read some Mary Wesley novels ages ago but didn't really get into them, I should probably try them again.  Some of them were televised I think - The Camomile Lawn rings a bell.

Rosemary

[JeanneP]

Steph.  Now is your granddaughter a Teen?.
I did 2 trips with Grandchildren.  First one on last year of his college. Was O.K but he was in LOVE also at home. Drove me a little crazy missing the person.  On the phone all the time.

Next was 2 grandsons. 16 and 20.  the 20 was great. We did the UK and Wales. He loved Castles and such. the 16 we should have put on a plane back home first week. Was awful.  Once we got up to my family in North of England for last week. there really liked it better.  Just did the grandaughter in US and she was O.K as only for a week.

Just have a talk with her and tell what the plans are. See if she is really excited.

I would like to take another trip to Ireland next year also.  My youngest daughter would be fine but she is getting another grandchild at same time as I would like to go.

Her being crazy about babies and living close to them. Don't think would now work either. Think will plan to go solo.  Will go home to UK first and go from there.

[nlhome]

Yes, thanks Rosemary, I meant the Lothians. Sticky fingers here - almost 95 degrees and with the humidity, even in air conditioning comfort my fingers stumble over the keys.

I will have to check back with the Ian Rankin books - I knew I'd heard the name somewhere, maybe in them.

The Wesley books go back to about 1969. None of the titles seemed familiar to me. The one I read had a copyright date of 1997, but the setting is WWII.

[Dana]

Oh John Knox, what fun, he always fascinated me--his arguements with Mary Queen of Scots, his hellfire sermons----at graduation we were supposed to have been touched on the head with a portion of John Knox's breeks (at the U. of St. Andrews)----I wonder if that was true or just a myth.....we certainly were touched with a bit of black cloth....

[mabel1015j]

"The First Ladies" is back on CSPAN2, Edith Roosevelt is spotlighted tonight 9:00

[rosemarykaye]

In that case Dana, do read Marie's book if you can - she's a lovely person who gave a very informative talk at our library and explained Scottish history to me, the only English ignoramus in the room, without making me feel a complete  dumbo.  And the book really has had excellent reviews.  I'll tell her about your St Andrew's experience!

Rosemary

[salan]

Dana, what are breeks?
Mabel, thank you for telling me about first ladies.  I watched the first series & found it very informative.  If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have known it was back on.  They should advertise it more!
Sally

[Steph]

I think Breeks may be trousers.
My granddaughter is 18 and will have just graduated from high school before the trip. It is chosen , since she will be going off to college in the fall and this is a hurray, you are grown sort of trip.She is sweet somewhat shy and into history big time.. The in love tends to come and go a lot.

[PatH]

Yes, breeks are trousers; think of britches.  If that strip really came from John Knox, it must be pretty worn by now.

[Dana]

I just looked it up and apparently a cap is used, or was used, may not be now, which would be a shame, which "almost certainly does not contain a piece of John Knox's breeks" (britches).   Well boo, hiss........I shall, however continue to believe along with many I'm sure, that it does.
I will read the book, Rosemary...

[Ella Gibbons]

Meyer Phillips book - THE SON - was recommended to me by a friend who has the same taste in books that I do but the book was out at the library so I got his other one - THE RUST - it was fascinating - about the rusting cities in America (Pittsburgh in this book) and the characters are sharp.  It's a bit raunchy in a few places, a bit depressing in others, but I liked the characterization very much and the setting.  The dying and outsourcing of manufacturing has caused such disaster in employment in the country; veterans coming from the wars cannot find jobs.  Read the reviews, it was a best book of the month (Amazon) when it came out in 2009:

http://www.amazon.com/American-Rust-A-Novel-ebook/dp/B001TGYTTW/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378836459&sr=8-1-fkmr2&keywords=the+rust+meyer+phillips

And darn, when I did get to his only other book, THE SON, it was such fine print I couldn't read it.  Its theme is the American Indian; read the reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009NF6YLM/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d0_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=1B62PX7MA59812ZT3CW1&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1389517282&pf_rd_i=507846

"His first novel, 2009's American Rust, drew praise for its stark and original characterization of post-industrial America, but Meyer has outdone himself with The Son, as ambitious a book as any you’ll read this year--or any year. Early reviewers call it a masterpiece, and while it's easy to dismiss so many raves as hyperbole, The Son is an extraordinary achievement"

[marjifay]

Thanks for your recommendation of The Son, Ella.  It was also recommended in another group and I have it on my TBR list.  Sounds very good.

Marj