The Virtual Bookmobile
I’m not much of a reader. Well, I like to read, I enjoy reading… I have an English degree… but I’m still not much of a reader. Maybe that just means that I’m not good at it.
I think my problem is that I’m a slow reader. I read and re-read things; I’m afraid I’m going to miss something. This is much more of an issue if I really respect the author. If I appreciate the writer’s style, their wording, their thought process, I’m afraid I’ll miss something. I’m the same way with music. If I’m listening to an artist, producer, or player I’m particularly impressed with, I’ll listen (and re-listen) very, very closely to make sure I don’t miss anything. And so when I’m reading — even when it’s just whoever — I generally take a long time to get through it.
But enough about the details of my own reading process. I wanted to start a general thread about reading, books, authors, magazines, columns, comic books, etc. Anything you enjoy reading. For a site with a lot of text, we don’t talk about reading much…
And speaking of the Bookmobile… I have fond memories of our local Bookmobile. I don’t know if we were genuinely excited about reading, if it was some infatuation with a specialty vehicle, or if we just wanted to get out of school for a while, but we loved seeing that book-toting bus pull into port (pun?).
And on a related note, the Simpson’s idea of a Book-Burning Mobile is hilarious on a couple levels. Obviously the thought of a van/bus that drives around collecting racy books to burn is funny, but the idea of a flaming, gas-powered vehicle full of old paper is really amusing.
So there you have it. A half-hearted effort to get some book talk started. Actually I just had a couple comments to post but no place to put them…
If anyone has a pic of our old Fairfield County Bookmobile, I’d like a copy to post here. I remember hearing that the Bookmobile was finally laid to rest due to funding (you stupid hick taxpayers), but it looks like it’s back, and in a new skin. I’m interested in a pic of the old one though… Well, I suppose if you Lancaster-bound folk have some extra film, I wouldn’t mind seeing the new one too, but I’m more interested in preserving my childhood memories. Also, pick me up some Mad-Libs.
Here’s a good site for you sci-fi peeps.
And this is kind of old news for any of you who have to listen to me, but I’ve been on a real H.P. Lovecraft kick this year (Happy birthday). If you like turn-of-the-century writing, dark, kind of Poe-esque, but want it more disturbing, you should check him out. He’s one of those guys I kept thinking, oh, I should check him out, and I really wish I’d done so sooner…
I am a HUGE fan of Nicholas Sparks **Best known for his book “The Notebook” being turned into a movie** Yes they are girly books but his descriptions in the book have a way of making you feel like you are there.
What perfect timing for this thread. I just got done taking some vacation days and spent most of my week off reading (eight books, yeah, I’m cool like that).
When I have to pick a book I usually lean towards the genre known as chick lit. But, before I get into my favorite books there, I have to mention probably my favorite book, The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hossenini. It tells the story of a young man growing up in Afganistan before the Taliban, fleeing the country when the Taliban invaded and establishing a new life in America. Extremely powerful.
If I’m in the mood for a classic I tend to gravitate towards Edith Wharton. I love the Age of Innocence and Summer. I also really like The Stranger by Albert Camus and The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
A few other good reads (on the serious side): The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, The Wonder Spot by Melissa Banks (I LOVE this book) and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde (If you like Jane Eyre, you’ll love this as the character time warps into the Jane Eyre story to solve a mystery).
Now time for chick lit…
When it come to serious chick lit, I love Jennifer Weiner(Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, Little Earthquakes and Goodnight Nobody). Right now I’m reading a book of short stories by her called The Guy Not Taken. I’m really enjoying it. Basically it tells various stories about the significant crossroads in womens’ lives.
I recently found a new author, Emily Giffin, that I adore. She only has three books out but her last, Baby Proof, is by far my favorite. It tells the story of a couple who agreed not to have kids then one of them changed their mind. It’s a beautiful love story about their relationship.
And I can’t end this post without mentioned two of my other favorite authors. If you need good light-hearted reading these ladies are for you.
Anything by Sophia Kinsella is hilarious. My favorites are her Confessions of a Shopaholic series. Maybe because I tend to identify with the main character a little too much. Before this series of books she wrote under the name Madeline Wickham, not nearly as good as her current writing. Maybe that’s why she changed her name??
I also really like Jane Green. My favorite book by her is probably Jemima J. Her books are great beach/vacation reads.
This past week my vacation reads mostly consisted of devouring a mystery series by Janet Evanovich. I think there are 13 or 14 books in the series (I only made it through 6). Every story is basically the same, the writing isn’t that great but for some reason, I’m hooked. I’d recommend the series if you were looking for a fun, easy read.
How could I forget. That is probably one of my all time favorite books. Jane Green rates up there with Nicholas Sparks. Thanks! I will have to break that book back out
Do I even need to ask? I suppose I already know what this is… Would Beverly Cleary fit in that category? I tell ya, that mouse was somethin else…
To sum it up chick lit is basically the book version of chick flicks.
I go through phases with reading. I’d love to be one of those people who is always in the middle of something great… but I rarely am. (Reaing is also the last thing I want to think about when I have a headache…) When I am reading, though, I tend to gravitate toward four different styles.
1) Stuff I know about, but approached from a different angle (I am actually in the middle of “The Female Brain,” Louann Brizendine, M.D. and there was another great one “Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy,” Robert Jourdain)
2) I love Albert Camus. The Stranger, Oh Happy Death and The Plague are definitely favorites
3) Also love F.Scott Fitzgerald. Tender is the Night pulls out just about every emotion each time I read it . Gatsby is ok, but not sure why it’s the best known…
4) I don’t know what to call the genre… something with a somber reflective tone… usually first person or taking place mostly in the character’s thoughts (even when narrated.) The History of Love- Nicole Krauss…. this book is amazing… it’s easy to miss details, but worth going back through. I”m also reading (but have set aside for a few weeks) Veronica Decides to Die- Paulo Coelho… not nearly as tragic as it sounds.. but kind of dark and introspective…
wow.. I”m depressing…
my list of books i’ve read since last christmas
Myths, lies and downright stupidity by John Stossel
Don’t know much about history by Kenneth C. Davis
The lagends, cincinnati bengals, by Chick Ludig
Out of my Mind by Andy Rooney
Give me a Break by John Stossel
Stand for Something by John Kasich
I like my Non fiction books, i like to learn something when i read
Mis favoritas:
The Testament by John Grisham
Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven by James Bryan Smith
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Dave Barry Slept Here by Dave Barry
Luke
James
1 John
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
She Said Yes by Misty Bernall
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
In His Steps by Charles Sheldon
Joshua by Joseph Girzone
Dead Man Walking by Helen Prejean
Living Faith by Jimmy Carter
The Disco Kid by Curtis Gathje
My Faith So Far by Patton Dodd
This is Your Time by Michael W. Smith
Home by Rich Mullins
Anything else by John Grisham
Anything else by Dave Barry
Anything by Don Miller
Anything by Tom Perrotta
Good call Scott- Flowers for Algernon and the Hiding place are both amazing.. I”d kind of forgotten about them, but I’ll have to dig them out again…
for the record i did take a picture of the bookmobile, but it has not been posted yet. Sure it was a cell phone camera picture from 100 feet or so away and i did not leave the comfort of my car, but i did pull over and park in the parking lot adjacent to where the bookmobile was. I had to look ridiculous pointing my cell phone at the bookmobile while people i knew drove by.
There will be a better picture in the future when i actually get a camera
I worked ptime with the bookmobile for almost a year while I was in school — lots of fun.
This made me smile. I’m the same way, Bill.
Terry Brooks is an author who’s works I truly enjoy. His latest book, The Elves of Cintra, comes out today.
A Chance to Die by Elizabeth Elliot. A fantastic book about Amy Carmichael who was a missionary to India in the early 1900’s.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. This was the first classical novel I read and it kind of got me on a kick to read a plethera of them. This one is the best though.
Dracula by Bram Stoker. I was so surprised that this book was as spiritual as it was. A lot of Scripture and goodness in this book. The imagery is amazing. No movie remake of this can compare to the actual literature. This is a must read.
Case For Faith by Lee Strobel. Very informative with a lot of common sense.
Passion & Purity by Elizabeth Elliot. I love her writing, and probably because I love her life story. Her husband was Jim Elliot, the missionary who died in the field. Watch the documentary “Beyond The Gates Of Splendor”. I cried the majority of the film.
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. A novel similar to the book of Hosea. This author became a Christian later in her life and decided to devote her time to writing Christian literature. This is the only book of her’s that I’ve read (mainly because the others seem to be set in time periods that don’t interest me) but it is definitely list-worthy.
The Zion Chronicles/The Zion Covenant by Brock & Bodie Theone. I’m fairly certain that this is a brother/sister team writing historical fiction set during the early 1900’s. I was addicted to these series in high school and could read them all over again in a heartbeat.
I can sit and read just about anything by Lori Wick or Gilbert Morris as well.
This is my list to far. More to come…
I just read this over vacation and it was quite probably the best book I’ve read in years. I have also read The Last Sin Eater (so-so), The Shofar Blew (very good), and The Atonement Child (good). Francine Rivers was a surprise to me, but I’ve devoured 4 books in as many weeks from her.
Interesting. This is how I read too, Bill.
So, I don’t know how many of you read comic books, but I feel everyone should read The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. It’s easily my favourite.
He’s written a bunch of books too – these are the ones I’ve read:
American Gods
Good Omens
Neverwhere
I also really enjoy reading anything by C.S. Lewis. I started reading the Space Trilogy a while back, but haven’t finished the third book yet. It progresses slowly, so my mind wandered to the other books I’ve been reading. Also, it had no pictures.
Scott was kind enough to send me the following pic of the Fairfield Co. Bookmobile:
I should also mention that Kevin was kind too, but his photography wasn’t as good.
I just read Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse. So should everyone else.
I just read Dave Barry’s Holiday Guide 2007.
In other news, the Ten Plague Bowling Set is incredibly awesome (for something artistically represented in the “bowling pin” medium).
I started reading a book last fall that I mentioned above- Veronica Decides to Die.. I kept reading a chapter here and there, but just started it over this past week and read it cover to cover in a day and a half. It was really good. It discusses individual expression in the context of social expectation and highlights the irony of envying the characters in a mental hospital. It starts off a little dark, but definitely didn’t end up where I expected.
Also, a few great lines from Death In Venice (Thomas Mann) which I also revisited. (Yay for time to read on vacation!) It isn’t one of my favorite books, but I couldn’t remember if there was a thread on quotations- so here they are…
“… he had curbed and chilled his emotions, because he knew that emotions tend to be satisfied with a happy approximation and with less than perfection.”
“For one person loves and honors another only as long a he is unable to assess him, and yearning is a result of a lack of knowledge.”
A co-worker gave me a money-back guarantee that I would like this book called The Road by Cormac McCarthy, also wrote No Country For Old Men. I’ve been into the post-apocalyptic/nuclear war genre thanks to a video game. The book is a quick read, a couple days maybe. Set in some country, I assumed U.S. in the beginning but not certain now. A man and his son struggling to survive in the wasteland. I cried in the end. I also saw a trailer for a movie of this coming in Fall 09. The author is good at provoking emotions in its readers and has excellent descriptions/imagery, so much so that I could never see this film because it would freak me out too much.
And in case you haven’t heard, Ohio public libraries are in serious trouble. Strickland’s proposing a total of 50% library budget cuts (30% on top of the existing 20%), which will result in library branches closing. More info here and here.
OK, so I’m a big fan of libraries. I love books, I love reading, and I love how purely libraries function as public education (you know, no school boards or teachers, just books and interlibrary loan systems to let anyone get any book and, you know, LEARN).
But this whole library thing has made me REALLY suspicious. Does anyone else see the possibility that this funding cut is a ploy to get the state of Ohio into a position to raise our taxes for non-library things that we don’t want? I see the plot going down something like this:
The Governor proposes to cut fundings, swearing that he supports education, job growth, and economic recovery
Libraries say “hey, don’t cut our funding, we support the kids / jobs / education”
These emotional pleas position Ohioans to be lied to about how much taxes will HAVE to go up, and we end up approving more taxation than is necessary, allowing them to expand services that line their pockets
Is this paranoia? General governmental business process, to which I’m overreacting? I don’t know, but any time I hear “Think of the children!!” my radar goes up. Note that in the Governor’s “Library Letter“, he says:
“The framework reduces the size of government in line with the shrinking economy, and keeps our commitment to the classroom reforms that will better prepare Ohio students for jobs. All this will position Ohio for job growth and economic recovery.”
At the same time, I’ve heard from some teachers that the latest House-Senate Conference Committee report on the budget was talking about cutting funding to the Adult Education programs in the state. So if our factories are closing, our libraries are cutting back on programs and hours, and our workforce needs to be retrained, why isn’t the Governor who is interested in the economy funding these things? Isn’t the economy (of which a percentage becomes the tax-based budget for the state) the right thing to focus on during economic downturn? Libraries and Adult Education are resources that we need right now.
So either we’re about to get the tax stick upside the head, or our Governor is NOT thinking through what things are in the best interest for our ongoing success as a State. Or both. I don’t really get what’s going on here, but it smells fishy. And Strickland doesn’t seem to be talking straight to us about anything.
Going before your state, cackling and twirling your long, curly black mustache while explaining your plans to cut library funds in half (and then tie a damsel to the tracks) doesn’t seem like a good political move by itself. So if there’s more to it then that would make some sort of logical sense, although still diabolical. I’m sure there are also proposed cuts that affect people who don’t have the kind of support and voice that the libraries do, but proposing such a large cut against such a beloved public service seems like a dumb move to make so publicly. But it also seems like we’re at the point where if there’s going to be a last minute save it isn’t going to come from the governor. His recent letter seems to indicate that his mind is made up, and time is running out.
When I heard about this earlier in the week there was a very easy email form on saveohiolibraries.com that you could use to quickly email your state government officials. All you had to do was fill in who it was from and click submit and off it went. This appears to have been removed. Now they just give you some sample letters that you can use, and you need to copy and paste and do the emailing yourself. The Worthington library has a similar setup, and still with a form. So you can just paste their suggested text into the form, check the boxes beside who you want it sent to and it’ll go from there.
But I would suggest everybody take a minute and pop off an email. I used one of my junk email addresses and received a couple canned responses, but nothing more in the way of junk mail. I wouldn’t think you’d need to use a real address anyway though.
Will be doing this!
Amazon reserves the right to buy your books back at any time.
And ironically enough they were George Orwell books.
The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare (G. K Chesterton)
Allegorical Fiction dealing with anarchy vs order, criminals vs detectives, secrecy vs overtness, human vs supernatural….
Really good stuff.
The Devil and Miss Prym (Paulo Coelho)
“a timeless conflict between right and wrong when a stranger bearing 11 bars of gold and accompanied by the devil arrives in a small village prepared to challenge the citizens with an intriguing moral dilemma. Will the townsfolk succumb to temptation, confirming that man is inherently evil; or will goodness triumph over evil, proving that every human being has the capacity to make his own choices and decide his or her own destiny?”
I already loved this author anyway, but this book was excellent. There was this underwritten theme of spiritual warfare being played out among within individuals and communities… (ok, I’m not saying it was theologically accurate, but it was thought provoking).
Ray Bradbury still wants to go to Mars, thinks we have too many internets, hates democrats, and says Yahoo! can go to hell.
Too many internets would be a good team name.