Librophilia

If you haven't seen the "Better Book Titles" tumblr floating around the internet yet, you should totally check it out. A few of the titles made me laugh out loud. Here's the link, and one of the funnier titles:

Kindle will soon allow users to borrow free ebooks from libraries! I'm super excited. Basically the only reason I've been wibbling so long over my ereader purchase is because I liked Kindle the best, but the library's free lending service didn't work on it.

Given this news, I'm going home and buying a Kindle tonight, yo.

I was reading through the ALA email newsletter after checking in periodicals today (I love my job. Love love love it, it's just exactly what I wanted to be doing...but perhaps I'll do a seperate post on that later), and I came across an interesting article.

The point of this entry is...BoingBoing found a sign in a library which was the "Top 10 Reasons Why the Internet is no Substitute for a Library," and granted, it's a little shameful. It was written a while ago, but it qualifies all of the, er, older librarian arguments..."ebooks? who needs those? they are destroying the industry!!111!!". However, ALA put up a response article that asks librarians for current arguments why libraries are relevant, and those responses are amazing.

The one I like best is: "Getting information off the Internet is like getting a drink of water from a fire hydrant.” -Mitchell Kapor. I've only been working four days, and I've already seen a teen come in with a research project who didn't know how to use a computer. She didn't know how to use the internet...she didn't know what a search engine was. This is an extreme case, but the thing is, not everyone is digitally savvy. Shocking, I know. Some people still need free internet access. Some people need guidance on how to use that access to get relevant information. What is frustrating is that most people who argue libraries aren't relevant are the upper and middle class who grew up with technology, and not everyone has, and it's important to remember that. /end rant

Since I'm too lazy to rewrite this, I'm going to crosspost the review from my goodreads account. It's been a while since I shared a book review, though, so I thought I should at least put up something here other than bitching.

Feed by Mira Grant

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really loved this book and I would recommend it freely. It was an extremely smart zombie novel. Rather than focus on the fact that zombies, they exist, this book went into detail about how the zombies were created, what happened to society when they appeared, and how their existence changed politics and news distribution. At its heart it was a really interesting political thriller. Not only that, I loved all of the main characters--Georgia, Shaun, and Buffy--bloggers who follow a political campaign, and who are satisfyingly snarky. The only reason I hesitated to give this book five stars is that it suffered from some pacing issues. It probably could have been shorter than it was, but when it got good it definitely sucked you in.


View all my reviews

I'm thinking about buying myself a Kindle. It might help me to be less angry at the world, if I can do something nice for myself for working hard. I don't know, though. It's pretty expensive and not really something I can afford, but a splurge just ONCE in two years is okay, right? Do you think it's smart to purchase one now, or should I wait until price goes down, or buy another device all together? Considerations!

Stolen from my FL. I love it.

Memory Is a Disease of Animals
Marc McKee

This is the shirt you wore
when someone you'd hurt wore sunglasses
in an airport at night
and told the woman at the counter
that everything was fine. Fine.
We are populated by each other
and this is a disease of animals.
Whose means include syllables. Jean Cocteau
would have loved this evening,
it's 1930 in Paris somewhere—this is a disease
we airplanes have, chasing bells
hooked into the ribs of the wind-licked causeway.
This is the shirt you wore, right?
which burned in water
like a map soaped in gasoline
calling to matches. These are the sunglasses
upon which such scars of streetlights.
We are each alone. You play a fiddle or a violin,
you make the garrote wire bend resonant
and pretty over a box of shadow.
You get the hot fries from the vending machine
like it's nothing. There is a mouth
on either side of you
but only one leopards your neck.
Take / your make-up / off.
We are in this together. Kind of.
This is a city where you lived.
A girl sits cross-legged with her guitar
beside the last window you will have to yourself,
all is well, all is well then the calm snaps.
A boulder sighs down the stairs.
None of the lights are right
but someone mercurial turns a grin out of the ruckus
and it is enough. Before before
you let your foot push hard against the floor,
the silver-slivered night shivering above you
so you nearly thought it would be beautiful enough
to be enough. This is not hell, the night
laced with neon, neon another version of blood,
this is not the same shirt.
If I started saying Sorry or I love you now
I would never stop.

Tonight if you happen to wake up (or be awake) at 2:41 AM EST, you can witness a total lunar eclipse! NASA advises, however, to wake up and look at 3:17 AM EST, because that's when the moon will be prettiest. I may be a nerd and set my alarm.

It's an awesome way to kick off the winter solstice tomorrow. Happy days-will-finally-get-longer day in advance, all. If only it promised warmer days, too.


While we're on nerdy things, link to Code Geass on crunchyroll for those who were at fandom night and are interested!

So the library is encouraging staff to submit book reviews by hosting a contest. I'm super excited!! I remember the moment I decided to become a librarian was when I was attending a class in the Rare Book Room at Penn, and the librarian was there. He said, "This is the best job in the world, because I can decide what's good, and what's not. I can tell people what to read." And I thought, that really is an awesome job. And now I can do it.

You can submit individual reviews and make up lists. I decided my recommendation list would be "Dystopian Fiction." Because really, that seems to be the sub-genre I know most about. Definitely including 1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, Fahrenheit 451, The Giver, and some more recent, The Hunger Games, Matched, Uglies. I might also sneak the V for Vendetta graphic novel in there. Anyone else know anything good? I think I'm already over the qualifying number by a few...

Otherwise, I really want to go see The Black Swan. But some of the physical stuff I read about made me twist in my chair ("oh. oh. toes crunching. agh."), so I'm not sure what'll happen when I actually see it, but still. It sounds interesting.

ETA: Seen this floating around the internet, so I did it while waiting for the event tonight: My personalDNA Report. Apparently I am a "considerate creator."

"Dear Stores Everywhere,

There's a holiday between Halloween and Christmas. Just letting you know.

Sincerely, Thanksgiving"

From: Dear blank, please blank

I love this site.

YES, THIS, SO MUCH. Holy crap. A whole website devoted to tearing apart Stephanie Meyers's writing in Twilight. I find it endlessly amusing. Mostly because I have to be a grammar nazi in work, anyway.