The Berkeley Heights Public Library made its filmmaking debut last night with Enchanted Summer, a two minute video that highlights the renovations of the children's room with clips of this past summer's children's programs. You will also see what really happens after the library closes and a Certain Butterfly takes charge of the Children's Department. Just as we suspected, enchanted critters come in the off hours and check out books with their wands, move books around and try out all the bean bag chairs. It explains a lot, doesn't it?
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
Reading Agatha Christie: the Theme Book Group
At September's meeting, the library's Tuesday night book group decided to become a themed book group, which means that instead of choosing one book per month for everyone to read together,
the group will decide on a topic or author each month and each reader can choose her own title within those parameters. The idea is to maintain the structure and social aspects of a book group, but to allow more freedom in the selection of materials read. Theme book groups also rely on each member to talk about their reading that month, with a moderator sometimes giving an overview of the topic. In principle, this format enables the group to be more balanced in terms of participation and less reliant on a moderator to lead the discussion. It also addresses the problem of finding a popular title which everyone agrees on, but which no one in the group has read and which is old and currently unpopular enough to be available in multiple copies by interlibrary loan. No mean feat, as any librarian/book groupie can attest.
Tomorrow night at 7:30 pm the book group will be discussing Agatha Christie, the best-selling author of all time. Each book group participant will talk about the book she has read and the librarian will give a brief presentation about Agatha Christie and the development of the mystery novel. We'll let you know how the new format worked for us. Meanwhile, here are some links to past posts on Dame Agatha :
Best Agatha Christie Mysteries to Read
If You Like Agatha Christie, Try These Authors
Best Mysteries
Related websites:
http://www.agathachristie.com/
http://www.christie.mysterynet.com/
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/
the group will decide on a topic or author each month and each reader can choose her own title within those parameters. The idea is to maintain the structure and social aspects of a book group, but to allow more freedom in the selection of materials read. Theme book groups also rely on each member to talk about their reading that month, with a moderator sometimes giving an overview of the topic. In principle, this format enables the group to be more balanced in terms of participation and less reliant on a moderator to lead the discussion. It also addresses the problem of finding a popular title which everyone agrees on, but which no one in the group has read and which is old and currently unpopular enough to be available in multiple copies by interlibrary loan. No mean feat, as any librarian/book groupie can attest.Tomorrow night at 7:30 pm the book group will be discussing Agatha Christie, the best-selling author of all time. Each book group participant will talk about the book she has read and the librarian will give a brief presentation about Agatha Christie and the development of the mystery novel. We'll let you know how the new format worked for us. Meanwhile, here are some links to past posts on Dame Agatha :
Best Agatha Christie Mysteries to Read
If You Like Agatha Christie, Try These Authors
Best Mysteries
Related websites:
http://www.agathachristie.com/
http://www.christie.mysterynet.com/
http://www.cozy-mystery.com/
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard
"I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so." -Oscar Wilde; from the epigraph of How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read
In the spirit of How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read, I'm going to write about it before I've finished it. Reading a book like this is a bit like reading Lemony Snicket's exhortations to put his books down, except that with Bayard's book you actually will be tempted to "not read" the book. Ways of "not reading" include skimming a book, forgetting a book once you've read it, and hearing about a book, which means you, m'dear, are a fellow non-reader of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.
Beyond all the satire, Bayard points out that "not reading" books frees up time to learn about a little about all the important books out there that you don't have time to read. Having some idea of how works of literature relate to each other could be more valuable than having read some works of literature completely. (Now I understand how grad students get through those massive reading lists.) Personally, I think this means librarians can stop feeling guilty recommending books they haven't read to readers who like books about women who drive space barges.
I enjoyed looking for Bayard's citations of books that he talks about or quotes. He tells you whether he's read the book; skimmed the book; or heard of the book, and gives you a few plus or minus signs to indicate his impression of the book. Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly recommended that you "skim his wittily annotated table of contents instead"; and this is good advice, too. In fact, I might finish this book because I want to read that story about Graham Greene in chapter 5.
In the spirit of How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read, I'm going to write about it before I've finished it. Reading a book like this is a bit like reading Lemony Snicket's exhortations to put his books down, except that with Bayard's book you actually will be tempted to "not read" the book. Ways of "not reading" include skimming a book, forgetting a book once you've read it, and hearing about a book, which means you, m'dear, are a fellow non-reader of How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read.
Beyond all the satire, Bayard points out that "not reading" books frees up time to learn about a little about all the important books out there that you don't have time to read. Having some idea of how works of literature relate to each other could be more valuable than having read some works of literature completely. (Now I understand how grad students get through those massive reading lists.) Personally, I think this means librarians can stop feeling guilty recommending books they haven't read to readers who like books about women who drive space barges.
I enjoyed looking for Bayard's citations of books that he talks about or quotes. He tells you whether he's read the book; skimmed the book; or heard of the book, and gives you a few plus or minus signs to indicate his impression of the book. Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly recommended that you "skim his wittily annotated table of contents instead"; and this is good advice, too. In fact, I might finish this book because I want to read that story about Graham Greene in chapter 5.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
The Shadow Knows
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows. . . ."
Old radio shows like The Shadow are one of those things that makes me wish I had lived through more of the 20th century (right up there with the Apollo 11 moon landing, phone numbers that began with words, and cars from the 50s).
Tonight (Oct. 6) at 7 PM at the library, Old-Time Radio Man Henry Morse is going to speak about The Shadow and play a complete episode of The Shadow.
If you're interested in looking at the radio shows of yesteryear, check out this site. (I wish I could have listened to Mayor Laguardia reading "the funnies" in 1945!)
Old radio shows like The Shadow are one of those things that makes me wish I had lived through more of the 20th century (right up there with the Apollo 11 moon landing, phone numbers that began with words, and cars from the 50s).
Tonight (Oct. 6) at 7 PM at the library, Old-Time Radio Man Henry Morse is going to speak about The Shadow and play a complete episode of The Shadow.
If you're interested in looking at the radio shows of yesteryear, check out this site. (I wish I could have listened to Mayor Laguardia reading "the funnies" in 1945!)
Friday, October 2, 2009
A Bit of Peace and Quiet
The Internet went down this afternoon at the library due to a regional outage, and after the initial frenzy of seeing what the problem was and putting up signs, there was more peace and silence than usual for a Friday afternoon. It made me think of
1. working with my hands (instead of on a computer)
2. listening to the cavernous silence of an empty church (preferably in Italy)
3. going to another country to learn a language
4. stretching out all the muscles that get crunched up when I'm stressed (like when 6 middleschoolers, 3 adults and all of your colleagues want to know why the Internet isn't working.)
5. poetry
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