Pam Webb

a writer's journey as a reader

Archive for the category “Libraries”

17 Aug 2014
11 Comments

Stacking the Odds


Barbie

image: Amazon.com

Now and then I try to squeeze in volunteer time at the library by shelving a cart or two of books.  Having worked at a couple of libraries I can do the Dewey sufficiently well.  In the future I should remember that the reason the non-fiction juvenile cart is up for grabs is because it takes a loooong time to do. I will have to say that it does involve quite a bit of aerobics stretching from whales to the Star Wars cookbook.

Besides the getting some calisthenics in and helping out the library, I volunteer shelve because I find all sorts of treasures for myself. And because I am on my own clock now I don’t suffer the guilt (and rebuke from my supervisor and coworkers) when browsing. Okay, I do feel a little bit of guilt.

Here  are some of the treasures I’ve discovered:

 

The Good, the Bad, the Barbie by Tanya Lee Stone
Being a Boomer girl I had quite the Barbie collection. I even had the one in the zebra one piece. Had Midge, Skipper, Ken complete with a kitchen set and canopy bedroom ensemble. Oh, yes, I do wish I still had them. No, not because I’m a Barbie fan, but I’m sure my retirement account would have been a bit healthier because there are LOTS of Barbie fans out there.

Lincoln Lawyer (this was a series before the movie!)

Limitless–having watched the movie I was intrigued enough to read the book. Go with the movie.

Monk? based on the series? How could a book do him justice?

Deadly Pursuit–a Christian thriller mystery? I’m game. Toss it on the TBR list.

I also made some observations:

If I look like I know what I’m doing people will think I do know something. I felt really, really good about helping a patron find a book she wanted. We didn’t find it but I gave her information how to place a hold or a search for the title.

I had no idea how prolific Christie, Cussler, Jance, Patterson are as authors until faced with trying to alphabetize their numerous titles. SIDENOTE: I found out it’s okay to get the titles in place by author (you know how that’s dratted patrons just mix them up anyway–wait, I’m a dratted patron).

People really do read Melville’s Moby Dick.

And To Kill a Mockingbird still rocks the shelves! Big yeah on this one.

So don’t be shy, trot right on down to your friendly local neighborhood library and see about volunteering for shelving. You’ll feel good, the library folk will be happy, and you’ll have an even fatter TBR list.

Posted in Books, Libraries, Literature, Reading, Reflections, Uncategorized, writers and tagged , , , , , ,
03 Aug 2014
19 Comments

Read Me a Story


One of my favorite classes in college involved learning how to read picture books out loud to children. Yes, and we did get credit for doing so. This class gave me real life skills. For true.

I learned there is a proper way to hold the book when facing the audience.

  • First of all, sitting down facing your audience, you hold the book’s bottom spine stretched out on your forearm.

*By the way if you are looking for a dazzling, scintillating meme-worthy Prezi, it ain’t happening*

  • You then read sidewise, yet facing your audience because eye contact is quite important. This is easier than it sounds because picture books usually have more illustration than words.
  • It is then important to properly turn the page. This is done by reaching over and across the top of the book, sliding the first two fingers done the present page and the next, and pulling the page over for the next spread. NOTE: though commonly practiced, it is not in the best interest in the book’s wear to turn from the middle bottom, especially towards the inside spine. Rippage and tearage can occur in doing so.
  • Proceed throughout the entire book in the proscribed method.
  • It is also important to use appropriate voices for characters, and it can be highly desirable to create separate voices for each given character. NOTE: characterization voices are best done by those who can do so without creating havoc among the audience. For example: if your Cockney mouse is such a smash hit your audience might laugh to the point of interfering with the story’s progress.
  • Body language is  also important. Leaning in to emphasize special junctures, or pausing for same can add a delightful amount of drama and dimension to the story.

I believe the course to be quite edifying and suggest signing up should the adult education flyer come through the mail. Today I utilize those skills reading to the grandkiddo, although I use my snuggle reading skills instead. I have read stories to my high school students. Yes, that is one reason I am known as the weird English teacher.

Then again, there are those who possess natural skill at reading and technique does not actually matter. Case in point is our boy Sherlock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4laPY7ZX4dI

Have you a favorite technique for reading stories?  Or better yet–any famous readers you’ve come across? One of my most favorites is Meryl Streep’s audio book reading of Jeremy Fisher by Beatrix Potter.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmC42GtmrD0

 

Posted in Books, children, education, Libraries, Literature, Reading, Reflections, Teachers and tagged , , , , , , ,
21 Jul 2014
17 Comments

Remaining the Orphaned Narrator


It is always exciting to discover a new-to-me author. In this case it’s Kazuo Ishiguro. I know, I know. I’m a bit late in my discovering; however, better late than never in finding an author of mesmerizing style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nlyIvHY1Xw
I knew the movie Remains of the Day, before finding the novel and didn’t realize the movie was the adaptation.
How could I possibly pass up a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson?
Flash forward five years later and I’m perusing the AP Literature list (“read that one, will never read this one, not reading this one again”), when I recognized the title Remains of the Day and connected it to the movie. Then I read the author’s name and I must admit I expected something like Adrian Smythe or Winston Greene, not Kazuo Ishiguro. After all, the novel is about a very proper English butler and his reflections of what it takes to become the best of English butlers. Wouldn’t one need to be English to understand that sort of nationalistic pride? I’m not getting points here for narrow-minded thinking, am I?

It turns out Ishiguro is quite well-suited to the task of writing about the English since he moved to England when he was around six years old. This gives him the ability to have an insider’s view with a somewhat detached perspective. The result is  basically a stream-of-consciousness narrative concerning the tunnel vision of a man’s quest for the unattainable. Trying to live a life that is beyond reproach, to achieve a status of perfection, requires sacrifice. Can sacrifice be made without regret? This is the hidden truth Stevens, the butler is searching for, except he does not realize it.
A quest novel of notice did not go unnoticed, for Ishiguro’s debut garnered him the Man Booker Prize and set a bar. Would he be a one shot wonder or would this be the first work of a noteworthy word smith?

image: goodreads.com This cover indicates the layers found within the story.

My literary taste buds curious for more, I trotted down to the library. Grabbing any title of his that caught my eye on the  shelf, I opened up his fifth novel When We Were Orphans. I immersed myself in reading it to the point the MEPA queried, “Still a good book?” Yes, thank you. Prognosis? After reading two novels, indications are Ishiguro is wordsmithing wonder.

Here are some bio facts and  stats:

  • Two novels have been adapted to the screen, Remains of the Day, and the more recent Never Let Me Go. Both have been received well, considering Ishiguro’s stories are mainly first person narratives, making them difficult to translate into a cinematic plot.
  • His novels are historical in nature, with attention to detail.
  • The stylistic viewpoint is that of the unreliable first-person narrator, one who is flawed in outlook.
  • Although born in Japan, he did not return until thirty years later.
  • He has received four Man Booker Prize nominations
  • The Times ranked him 32 on the list of the 50 most influential British writers since 1945.

As for an actual review of When We Were Orphans, I leave it to the more qualified:
New York Times review:

I plan on continuing my course of exploring Ishiguro’s work and look forward to introducing a contemporary author to my APters, who, I’m sure, would like a break from dead white folk now and then.

Any thoughts on Ishiguro’s writing? Any suggestions for the next title I should read of his?

Posted in Awards, Books, creativity, Libraries, Literature, Movies, Reading, reviews, Teachers, writers, Writing and tagged , , , , , , , ,
18 Apr 2014
2 Comments

Get Your Poems and Pockets Ready…


Get your poems and pocket ready. April 24th is National Poem in Your Pocket Day!

From Poets.org:

On Poem in Your Pocket Day, people throughout the United States select a poem, carry it with them, and share it with others throughout the day.

You can also share your poem selection on Twitter by using the hashtag #pocketpoem.

Poems from pockets are unfolded throughout the day with events in parks, libraries, schools, workplaces, and bookstores.

Create your own Poem in Your Pocket Day event using ideas below or share your creative ideas with us by emailing npm@poets.org.

 

Last year I downloaded the poems selected especially for PYPD and printed them out on colored paper and rolled them up and handed them out to students from a special canister.  They unrolled them and smiled and shared them. Yes, some ended up on the floor, but mostly my freshmen and AP seniors thought it pretty cool to have their own poem to carry around for the day.  I enjoyed watching them excitedly ask one another, “Which one did you get?”

So–you’ve got the website link, now get on it!  Get those poems ready for those pockets!

 

 

Posted in celebrations, creativity, education, Libraries, Poetry, Reflections, Teachers, Words and tagged , , ,
30 Mar 2014
15 Comments

Way Too Cool Library(ians)


I am a bona fide bibliophile. I not only love (phile) books (biblio) I adore all that  is connected to them: writing, reading, bookstores, and libraries. If we go on vacation I seek out the library. Some seek out shopping, eating, beaching, hiking, or cycling–I seek out reading. My idea of the perfect vacation tour would be to visit libraries all around the world.  The cool part about libraries is the librarians. There are plenty of movies about super heroes as well as super agents, along with super smart folk who solve crime, save the world, etc.–but rarely is the librarian given credit where credit is due. Being a librarian at heart, I had a fair amount of fun watching The Librarian series–all that knowledge put to good use saving the world. Yeah, librarians do have skills.

image: pinterest.com

Libraries around the world preview:

  • clementinum int 10 of the world's most spectacular libraries

    This is in Prague. Oh, yes, I do want to go. I do. I do.

Posted in Books, Libraries, Movies, Reading, Reflections, travel and tagged , , , , ,
26 Mar 2014
5 Comments

Neil Gaiman: Why We Need Libraries


  • image: greenbaywriters.wordpress.com

Neil Gaiman is one of those buzzword authors. Unfortunately, I have not harkened to becoming a reader of his works. I have tried, really I have. However, I do perk up when it comes to successful authors speaking up about reading, particularly about libraries. Last year, Gaiman spoke eloquently about the need for libraries and the lecture,  “Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming” was reprinted in The Guardian.  

Excerpt:

The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them.

Another excerpt:

Libraries are places that people go to for information. Books are only the tip of the information iceberg: they are there, and libraries can provide you freely and legally with books. More children are borrowing books from libraries than ever before – books of all kinds: paper and digital and audio. But libraries are also, for example, places that people, who may not have computers, who may not have internet connections, can go online without paying anything: hugely important when the way you find out about jobs, apply for jobs or apply for benefits is increasingly migrating exclusively online. Librarians can help these people navigate that world.

  • image: pinterest.com

Check out the lecture. You will be cheering by the end of reading it. You might even feel like running down to your library and say to it, “Thanks for being here.” Don’t forget to hug and a librarian and say the same.

Posted in Books, Libraries, Literature, Reading, Reflections, writers and tagged , , , , , ,
14 Mar 2014
2 Comments

Shakespeare Goes to the Movies


David Garrick in Hamlet, I, 4

David Garrick in Hamlet, I, 4  Is he as surprised the Bard inspired moving and shaking found in film?(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Shakespeare would no doubt be uber-wealthy from selling screen rights had he lived so long to see all his plays adapted to the screen.  In fact, I wonder how many students realize that all those adaptations have a primary source in the form of stage?  Shakespeare was indeed a playwright and not a screenwriter, yet it is difficult to realize that fact with so many adaptations running around in the cinemas. It’s fairly safe to say that a Shakespeare-driven plot comes out at least once during the year.

With that all out of the way, you can imagine my delight when I came across a website devoted to all the film versions of Shakespeare. It groups them by play and 176 pages you get the idea how much influence old Billy the Bard on Hollywood.  The Hamlet section only is nearly 20 pages!

Oh yeah–this is another Library of Congress find. Have I gushed enough about how the Library of Congress so absolutely rocks?

This treasury of Shakespeare is not just films.  It includes the serious to the silly. Having just finished our AP rundown of Hamlet and Co, I found some select entries for our favorite Prince of Denmark:

HAMLET (Icon Productions/Warner Bros., 1990). Dir Franco Zeffirelli. Wrt Christopher De Vore,
Zeffirelli. With Mel Gibson (Hamlet), Glenn Close (Gertrude), Alan Bates (Claudius), Paul Scofield (The Ghost), Ian Holm (Polonius), Helena Bonham-Carter (Ophelia).
1 videodisc of 1 (laser), ca. 135 min, sd, color, 12 in. LC Purchase Collection. DAA 3087.

HAMLET–CLAUDIUS (ACTOR, A Center for Theatre, Education, and Research, University of California, Santa Barbara/Barr Films, 1991). Series: Shakespeare Explorations with Patrick Stewart. Artistic Director: Patrick Stewart. Technical Director/Editor: Ray Tracy.
1 videocassette of 1 (VHS), 25 min, sd, color, 1/2 in. Copyright Collection. VAD 3701.
Produced for educational use (college level). Patrick Stewart discusses and acts selected parts of the play portraying the character of King Claudius. (VHS)

TALES FROM THE CRYPT. TOP BILLING (Tales From the Crypt Holdings/HBO, 6/26/1991). Dir Todd Holland. Wrt Myles Berkowitz. With Jon Lovitz, Bruce Boxleitner, John Astin, Louise Fletcher, Kimmy Robertson.
1 videocassette of 1, 28 min, sd, color, 3/4 in. Copyright Collection. VBI 9816.
Episode from the 3rd season of the horror anthology series based on the comic books published by
William Gaines in the 1950’s. A failed actor (Lovitz), who cannot get work because he doesn’t have “the look,” answers a casting call for Hamlet only to find himself chosen for the part of Yorick’s skull in a staging of the play by inmates of an insane asylum. (DVD – on Tales from the Crypt–The Complete Third Season)

GREEN EGGS AND HAMLET (Rock’s Eye Productions, 1995). Dir Mike O’Neal. Wrt O’Neal, Chris
Springfield. With Allen Corcorran (Hamlet), Ronald H. Cohen (The King), Richard “Humus” Doherty (The Queen), Josh “Coppertone” Powlesson (Laertes), Robert A. Knop, Jr. (Polonius), Siobhán F. Jess (Ophelia), David Seal (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern), Richard James Mason Horatio).
1 videocassette of 1 (VHS), ca. 77 min, sd, color, 1/2 in. Copyright Collection. VAE 6461.

Got a hankering for a Titus or a Midsummer Night’s Dream?  Check it out Shakespeare on Film

English: banner Shakespeare

Shakespeare (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Posted in creativity, education, Libraries, Literature, Movies, reviews and tagged , , , , ,
01 Mar 2014
1 Comment

Life Long Loving of the Library of Congress


Main Library of Congress building at the start...

Main Library of Congress building at the start of the 20th century (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And yet another reason I continue my praises of the Library of Congress. In recent Internet research sleuthing I stumbled across their Festival Author Booklist. Yippee! I love bookish gatherings, especially when I don’t have to do much traveling to enjoy it.  If you do want to travel, then get your arrangements made for Washington D.C. because that’s the happening spot. Last year the festival ran the weekend of September 21 and 22.  For more information: National Book Festival

Author and Reading Celebration

Since 2001,  authors, illustrators and poets make presentations on the National Mall in various pavilions. In 2013 over a 100 authors represented  Teens & Children, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life, Poetry & Prose, Graphic Novels & Science Fiction and Special Programs.

Library of Congress Pavilion

If a person has longing to know all about the Library of Congress, then a visit to their LOC Pavilion is in order. There is so much moAt the Library of Congress Pavilion than books.

Wait!

There is more bookish good stuff from the LOC. Want handy access to classic reads? Then you need to click on the Read.gov link and start enjoying a range of reading from the John Carter series to Aesop Fables and what lies in between.

Contest!

Are you a teacher, a parent? If books are an important part of your education input, you will want to perk up and take time to read the guidelines about the LOC contest Letters About Literature.  Prizes too! I look forward to introducing this to my students.

Stay tuned for more love notes about the nation’s library.

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Posted in America, Books, celebrations, Libraries, Reading, Teachers, writers, Writing and tagged , , , , , , , ,
24 Feb 2014
4 Comments

Libraries All Over


Libraries. We think of them in terms of brick and glass with rows of shelves and some comfy chairs. Yet, they can appear in many places and in many forms.

A Works Progress Administration Bookmobile visits Bayou De Large, Louisiana. Photo from the New Deal Network.

Pack horse librarians pose in Hindman, Kentucky. From the University of Kentucky’s Goodman-Paxton Photographic Collection

A booketeria in a Nashville supermarket. Photo from the Nashville Public Library.

A vending machine library at a Bay Area school. Photo originally from Inside Bay Area.

A former Wal-Mart photo from the McAllen Public Library.

BiblioTreka transformed into the pop-up library.

Pop-Up Library known as the BiblioTreka (image: libraryasincubatorproject.com)

IKEA shelves. Bondi Beach. Books. Perfection. (image:PeaceandNoise.blogspot.com)

A true book is never phoney. (image: PeaceandNoise.blogspot.com)

This gives me hope books ae not on the wayse as technology encroaches on book-in-hand versus book on-screen. Any unusual libraries spottings?

Posted in Books, Libraries, Reading, Uncategorized and tagged , ,
05 Sep 2013
3 Comments

Sippers, Dippers, and Flippers


Now that it’s back to the 5 to 9 world of teaching (yes, 5 am to 9 pm–hi, ho, hi, ho work is all I know), I’m reflecting a bit on my splurge of reading over the summer.  I ever so did try to balance my reading and writing, but I admittedly succumbed to reading way more than I intended [see Writing Goals *lol*].

My reading proved to be rather eclectic and I found myself segmenting my choices into three distinct categories:

Sippers: Books I tend to read at night before falling asleep. My mainstay sipper has been Da Vinci’s Notebook. Unfortunately this is an abridged version so it does not have any illustrations. However, it still captivates my attention and I find myself sticky flagging all sorts of amazing insights. This man’s genius is truly astounding. Quotes of note:

The natural desire of good men is knowledge.

I obey thee. O Lord, first because of the love which i ought reasonably to bear thee; secondly, because thou knowest how to shorten or prolong the lives of men.

Good literature proceeds from men of natural probity.

It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end.

(And this is just 30 pages into the observations section. I need to read painting, anatomy, flight–and there’s more yet to explore! I may be sipping on this all year.

Dippers: These were titles I didn’t read cover-to-cover, only reading a page here, a section there, relishing a line or two, but not feeling the urge to sit down and absolutely, positively read it. This is the type of book to prop behind the cereal bowl, or lunch plate or pass the time with in the bookstore while waiting for the MEPA to finish selecting the perfect card for his sister. A fave dipper this summer:

and then we come to the major reads section, those books that I couldn’t put down, the ones where I meant to read a couple of chapters and return to writing. Uh huh.

Flippers: Flip. Flip. Flip. I’m flying through these books because–

A. The writing is soooo good I can’t stop reading

B. The storyline is amazingly riveting

C. I’m grooving on the combination of good read, soft breezes, comfy hammock

Titles that were so flipping wonderful:

These both claimed an afternoon each. And of course I had to read the sequel, and the other books in the series. And then write up my GoodReads reviews. Whoosh, there go those writing goals…

How was your summer reading? Did you also sip, dip, and flip?

Posted in Books, Libraries, Reflections, time management, Uncategorized, writers and tagged , , ,

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