A little something awesome.

For those of you who don't have enough on your plate as it is, I highly suggest taking a moment to stop by Turning the Pages a project hosted by the British Library. They've used new software to digitize books and the end result is absolutely stunning. Really, you must take a look for yourself to get the full experience. (Side note: you need to use Internet Explorer, Mozilla doesn't open this application properly.)

A little something to keep in mind, the program is designed to consider the physical aspects of the book (i.e. they film the pages of the book turning to capture the weight of the page and how the light reacts to illuminated elements). They also include supplemental interpretive information such as recordings of a piece of written or printed music, a translation of a text, or a reading of a play found in a book and a magnifying lense to get an up close and personal look. Rather than attempt to merely duplicate various aspects of the book, they utilize new media to further contextualize the book.

A fellow library student told a story of how The Queen of England showed up for the unveiling of this project where the final coding was finished only moments before they were to present the project to her. The on-site TTP books utilize touch screens. Having finally debugged everything right before they Queen's arrival, they were foiled by her silk gloves. Someone else had to turn the pages for her. The screens were not glove-accessible.

Also, you might want to take a look at University of Illinois equivalent of TTP. I met the two people who are responsible for making all those images available to you. They are very nice and diligent folks and deserve a little pat on the back for all their hard work.

No love for Jane Austen these days

I'm a pretty big Jane Austen fan. Well, pretty much just Pride&Prejudice, which is one of my favorites. But you know who doesn't love her books? Publishers. David Lassman, the director of the Jane Austen Festival in Bath, has been unable to find a publisher for his novel. Which I am sure he thinks is brilliant. Curious to find out how difficult it is to find a literary agent today, he took three of Austen's novels, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion and Pride&Prejudice, changed names and locations and whatnot, and sent them out to 18 of the U.K.'s biggest publishing house.
They were all rejected. What is amazing is that Lassman did not even change or take out the first line of P&P, one of the most famous and quoted opening lines in literary history. Only one response from the publishers noticed any connection to any Austen (and it wasn't the opening line). For shame.

Keep on Readin'

Luminous is at a point of transition, if you haven't already noticed. It's not that I haven't been reading, because believe me, I have. I am just hesitant to swamp you with more information than you want, or not even more information per se but information that you might not be interested in. Information about the Federal Depository Library Program maybe (did you know you can access any "public" govt doc via your FD Library, find your library here)? Or how about Copyrighting and Fair Use? Which would of course lead me to talking about Creative Commons, for you artistic types looking for the balance between copyrighting and fair use. No? Well then, how about this...I finished my school reading this weekend and now I have my head in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. Has anyone read it? "They" say its the greatest mystery novel ever written. And while I have just started the novel and am usually hesitant to rave about a book before I finish it (lest it take a nose dive at end) I really am enjoying it thus far. It is a very cinematic novel, I can literally see Sam Spade's cigarette smoke rising from his dimly lit office as I delve into the pages. And no, I have not see the movie...yet. But here is a pretty kick ass poster for the movie to peak your interests.
Also, as I don't have the time for those great big and often slow reads, (think the Russian's) I am looking for books that I can really get into but won't keep me from school work. Hence the mystery novel. Please let me know if you have any book recommendations that I just must read.

Muir in Alaska 'preaching glacial gospel in a rambling way'

So. I'm reading Travels in Alaska by John Muir, which I expected to be good. But I honestly didn't expect him to be such a beautiful writer. For being one of the great ecologists and environmentalists (not a word in his day, but oh well) of U.S. history, he sure can also use words. I wanted to share some of his odd mix of Thoreauishness mixed with actual interaction with nature. Here are two parts I like:
After a fellow climber had both his arms dislocated and Muir brought him down a glacier on the side of a mountain, foot by foot for about a half a day: "Here I took off one of my boots, tied a handkerchief around his wrist for a good hold, placed my heel in his arm pit, and succeeded in getting one of his arms into place." Jesus.

Before a mountain covered in glacier. "Standing here, with facts so fresh and telling and held up so vividly before us, every seeing observer, not to say geologist, must readily apprehend the earth-sculpturing, landscape-making action of flowing ice. And here too, one learns that the world, though made, is yet being made; that this is still the morning of creation; that mountains long conceived are now being born, channels traced for coming rivers, basins hollowed for lakes."

Tolkien and Rowling.

The last two books I have read are Harry Potter year 1 and 2. Before that I read Lord of the Rings. It's been an interesting back to back series. J.R.R. can write extremely well. He tells a great story and moves me with the words that he uses. J.K. doesn't really know how to write. It's just the case. She tells a good story and creates wonderful characters, but doesn't have any capacity to command the language (for God's sake leave adverbs alone unless you know how to use them!).
But that's no surprise.
Here are some things that I have thought of in these reading experiences:
LOTR is a book about Sam having children. That's really it. Everything in the series is family, but Sam's in particular.
Harry Potter is pretty funny, which I didn't expect. Fred and George are sweet. Does every book make the school hate Harry and think he's bad and then turns out he's actually the good and saving guy?
Do you think that Sam goes to the Grey Havens as it said in the appendix? It leaves it open as a tale of legend, which is definitely a part of LOTR, and I think he does, but I like how it could just be legend.
Everyone says Rowling hits her stride in year 3, which I hope is true. I have enjoyed the first two books, but to be honest, not all that much.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Believe it or not, Luminous has been around for a whole year as of last Saturday, June 30th. Thanks to all of you who have come by and read our ranting and raving and a special thanks to those of you who humor us by posting comments every now and then. The ZF's and Luminous would be nothing without you.

Other notable birthday's on June 30th:

Susan Hayward, Actress in the movie adaptation of "Valley of the Dolls" written by Jacqueline Susann, whose birthday is not June 30th but August 20th and interestingly enough also tried to become an actress after being a successful writer wasn't enough.

Frank Marcus (a.k.a. Frank Ulrich Marcus) playwright/critic, and author of "The Killing of Sister George" which I believe was popular at one time, long before I was born, he has likely written other things as well...look into him if you are interested. (b. 1928)

& "Iron" Mike Tyson, youngest heavyweight boxing champ (b. 1966)--who has no relation to books, as far as I know...

Because People like Potter

A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone sold for 18,000 bucks. That's a lot of money for a book that's, what, 10 years old? If I had a copy, I would sell it. The initial run of Philosopher's Stone produced between 500 and 1000 copies.
I'm getting excited about the new film, and have even been throwing around the idea of reading the books this summer if someone wants to donate the series to me.

Meanwhile, I wonder what I could get for my first edition copy of Seven Story Mountain, by Thomas Merton. Probably 50 dollars. If only millions and millions and millions of adults and children worldwide would go crazy of over a Catholic monk's autobiography written 60 years ago...then I could pay off some credit cards

Rushdie becomes sir Rushdie. This upsets people.

Salman Rushdie has been knighted, and the peeps who wanted him dead before have been reminded why they wanted him dead to begin with (it wasn't the broadway version of Midnight's Children, but according to my Rushdie class Professor, it may as well have been). Protesting has flared up to denounce the Queen's decision, made because of Rushdie's contribution to literature. Three of his books are awesome, so I won't fight it.

Two become One...

Many of you were witnesses, some 15 months ago, to mine and Czf's marriage...thought by all to be the moment in which we joined ourselves together...through thick and thin...till death do us part.

I am here to tell you, this past weekend, we officially embarked on our greatest union yet. The bringing together of our libraries! Czf has been pushing this merge for sometime, but clearly his fear of commitment is nowhere near mine. Albeit, through some series of events, which I now recall with only the smallest amount of clarity, I agreed to the merger. Friday night we sought out our V5 ballpoint pens and initialed all of our books in preparation for the great amalgamation. And then, we did it. Thinking it a good idea for me to start the process so that I couldn't blame anyone later for going against my will, I personally took the first step and inter-mixed all four of our copies of Jane Austen’s “Pride & Prejudice.” It was a little daunting but not horrible. Though I admit I left at that point for a bit of “fresh air” and Czf finished the rest of the mingleation. So, it is done. Our two libraries have become one and Czf and I are now officially together no matter what. And you know, it looks pretty good too.

On that note, I will buy anyone a beer who can guess which author we have the most work by.

As of yesterday I am officially a student. Which means a few things for you...

1. Unless some sort of miracle intervenes there will be little to no extra-circular reading taking place for me.

2. The reading that will be taking place will be very specific to libraries, of which I doubt most of you are all that interested in.

3. The combo of 1 & 2 means if I post about anything it will most likely be about libraries.

4. If you don't want this to happen you can choose one of two roads...
--more travelled...stop visiting luminous.

--less travelled but better...send me a little written response to the books you are reading. The "responses" don't have to be up to par with the writing of those you are reading, just a little sometin'-sometin' for your friends to read about and tell you, you are wrong for thinking that way...it's real fun, I promise.

On that note, I've kicked off my school reading with the most recent Library Trends Journal subtitled, "Libraries in Times of War, Revolution, and Social Change." Awesome.

Lastly, I finished "The Name of The Rose." Also awesome.

Harry Potter Casts Money-Losing Spell on Bookstores.

The new Harry Potter book is upsetting bookstore owners. The book is going to sell 9-10billion copies, but according to this article from Reuters the stores won't be making any money. '"Everywhere you go there is huge, ridiculous discounting by the chains," said Graham Marks, children's editor at the British-based trade magazine Publishing News. "They are literally not going to make one penny out of the book. It is stupid -- just throwing money away ... The world has gone mad."'
Apparently Wal-Mart and Amazon, Borders and Barnes&Noble can afford to slash the prices so far that competing bookstores are also forced to cut their prices just to sell their copies. "A lot of independent bookstores won't be selling Potter. They say it would be cheaper to buy it from a supermarket than the publisher."

on a side note, Harry Potter appears to like BlocParty, which is cool.

Puke!

Well, I don't know how to feel about this...Oprah (I cringe to even put her name on here) has picked the next book for her book club, Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides. I suppose this is good for Eugenides, his sales will skyrocket because for some reason people listen to her. I just wish he had pulled Franzen on her...sigh. But, apparently if you delcine an invitation by The "O" you are outcast from society.... Yes people, this is the same "O" who is obsessed with The Secret. If you don't know what the The Secret is consider yourself blessed. The author argues that all you have to do to achieve success is think it. For example, "If you want to be skinner, start thinking skinny. And stop looking at Fat people." I wonder if that was the method Oprah took to lose all her fat?

Either way, Middlesex is a great book and you should read it, if you haven't already.

Assault on Reason

Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason, came out this week. There is an excerpt in Time Magazine if anyone else is interested. The three pages in Time are quite good.
But I wanted to mention a wonderful, wonderful sight from Tuesday. At the large university I attend there was a group of students holding signs, apparently boycotting Al Gore, or his book, or something. I didn't talk to them. But one of the signs being held up read:
"JUST LIKE THE LUDDITES OF THE 19TH CENTURY AL GORE REPRESENTS THE DESTRUCTION OF HUMANITY."
I'm serious. The sign which was boycotting a book called the Assault on Reason made the above argument. It might be one of my all time favorite protest signs. It shows a committment to creativity while extending absolutely no interest in what the Luddites, or Al Gore, represent. Priceless.
waste some time with animated Al Gore:
To see Al Gore argue with Bender about Global Warming, click here.
To see what the world would be like if Al Gore won the 2000 election, click here.

Go Tell It On The Mountain

I recently read Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin for One Book, One Chicago. I haven't actually meet anyone else in the city who read or is reading the book, not even so much as a passer-by on the train, which is a shame. Because it's a brilliant novel. The heart of the story takes place on the main character, John Grime's, 14th birthday. Each section flashes back to an earlier time in the life of John's elders, the very people who are shaping his own life. The stories are heartbreaking, particularly when you know that Baldwin admitted to the book being a sort of biography of his own life. Langston Hughes summed the novel and Baldwin's writing perfectly when he said, Baldwin "is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves, to flow and beat, advance and retreat, rise and take a bow in disappearing...the thought becomes poetry and the poetry illuminates the thought." Damn. I would love to read another one of his books, but he has quite a few, does anyone have any recommendations for me?

One last piece of good news, Go Tell It On The Mountain was Baldwin's first novel, published at the age of 30. This means all you slacker's out there who didn't live up to Keats still have a chance of writing the great American novel.

Encyclopedia of Life

An initiative to create a multi-media Encyclopedia of every living species was announced today. Right now that means 1.8 million animals, plants, and other forms of life. But the number of living species grows daily, for example we currently know of 4-5 thousand different species of Beetles but it is suspected that there could be up to a million more out there that we don't know about. Needless to say, nothing like this has ever been done before and it will take a massive global effort to even come close to achieving the reality. Dr. James Edwards who today was officially named Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Life backs me up on my last statement, “[Amber is right,] through collaboration, we all can increase our appreciation of the immense variety of life, the challenges to it, and ways to conserve biodiversity. The Encyclopedia of Life will ultimately make high-quality, well-organized information available on an unprecedented level. Even five years ago, we could not create such a resource, but advances in technology for searching, annotating, and visualizing information now permit us, indeed mandate us to build the Encyclopedia of Life.” You can watch a video about the project at their official webpage.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union

I did not know until today that Micahel Chabon had a new book, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, and it's even out in paperback! How sad. Some of you, I know, met Chabon a few years back, I know this because I was there with you. But if you weren't so lucky, Borders has a online book club thingy, of which their latest pick was The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Mr. Chabon, and you can watch the whole event unravel right at your desk while at the same time getting all the Chabon you ever wanted. (Side note: His facial expressions are much more notable when you can actually see his face.) Still, the new book sounds dramatic and steamy and very Chabonish. It takes place in Alaska during and following WWII. The questions he is asking, "How different would the world be today if we had allowed all those persecuted Jews populate Alaska until the war was over?" So, read it and report back already would ya? Or maybe you have already read it, it has been out for a while after all.

Oh and thanks to the internet I found Chabon's personal calender, it turns out he is going to be doing a reading in Chicago soon. That is Mon May 21 6pm @ the Chicago Public Library, 400 S State St, Chicago, IL . Be there, or else.

Okay fine, if you live in Minnesota and you do not want to drive down and attend the event with the ZF's you can still see Chabon. He will be at the Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange Street, St. Paul on Tue May 22 @ 7pm.

**Chabon on the mind** Terry Gross interviews Michael Chabon today on Fresh Air. You can stream the episode at the shows website.

What are you eating?

AZF and I made a recent book purchase that I have been reading in free moments throughout the past four days. It's called What To Eat. It cuts through all the fat and tells you what's what (cuts the fat, come on). I've been thinking more and more about what we eat and what the consequences of those decisions are. It's not as much a hippification of dietary habits so much as, seriously, is it really hard to just be healthier and more aware? It's like the environment. Even if the world will not be destroyed by global warming, what's the big deal with treating the earth better? Same with food. There is no negative impact in learning a little more and doing things a little better. The opposite, however, we know has such negative impacts. And the 35 billions pounds of chicken breasts this country eats annually can't be helping our hearts.
(this is probably the most political I will ever be able to get on Luminous, so I'm taking it.)

White Noise

I finally finished my first Don Delillo novel! I say finished, instead of read, because I've picked up most of his novels at least once, so I've read plenty of his novels, but I never seem to finish them. White Noise I had picked up at least twice before I was finally able to get all the way through. That said, I am aware that most of you have strong feelings about White Noise, strong positive feelings, so I want to clarify that this isn't a book bash. I am going to blame my unlove on a few things and well see if we can meet in the middle somewhere.

1. I'm told old, I don't have that dreamy college student thing going for me anymore. Point being, it just not as easy to get wrapped up in the world of White Noise, or the fame that DeLillo has.
2. Americana Literature: in general I find it "obvious". Please don't shoot! Maybe it's that it so NOT obvious I can't even being to grasp it.
3. Too many years of too much hype. Lets face it, people have been talking about how great White Noise (and Delillo in general) is for so long that it would just be impossible for me to find it as great as the build up.

So here's the thing, I didn't hate White Noise, but I definitely didn't love it. There were parts that were rather humors and I did actually laugh out loud on the train (you can imagine how embarrassing that is) and of course the writing is obviously the product of someone who is very talented.

That's not enough to make you love a book though. I was left wondering what the point was. Maybe it's that Delillo is trying to make us really look at our American way and all our White Noise, well I get that, I mean I am actually a part of this society, but then what? What does he want us to do besides admit we are so distracted we don't even know ourselves? This is how I usually feel about Americana lit (see point 2)(not that I have read a ton of it.) I spend 300 or so pages with your book but its all just to point out the obvious. I don't need a book to be reminded that I spend 9 hours a day on a computer, I read books to get away from that.

As contrived as the ending was, I did kind of like it, but it came long after I assumed there would be nothing redemptive about Jack's character. I am sure someone wants to fight me on that comment, and I wholly welcome it, please tell me why I'm so so wrong. And what does Wilder's tricycle ride across the interstate signify?

Erik Larson in the White City Tonight.

For those of you who live in Chicago, Erik Larson will be sharing anecdotes and 'war stories' derived from his books Devil in the White City and Thunderstruck tonight at the Crown Auditorium Theater. Admission is free and it should be a good time. Personally, I found Devil in the White City to be one of the more gripping stories I have read in the past few years. His writing brings alive that feeling of excitement that surly came with building a new city--making you feel like you just stumbled across some previously inconceivable technology. While at the same time being let in on the twisted events of one of the country's scariest mass murderers. The best part about it, it's non-fiction. And if you are fortunate enough to live in the White City while reading it, you can spend your lunch breaks looking for old Daniel Burnham buildings--and you probably aren't alone.

And speaking of going to readings, I am wondering what authors all our Luminous readers have been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have heard speak. I have not been to too many readings myself but I think Dave Eggars (the first time) is still my favorite.

UPDATE: For a man who has proven himself to be a master in writing about murders Erik Larson was surprisingly (and welcoming) socially adept, not to mention very funny and horrifyingly intelligent albeit not in that cocky way some people are. I had a great time, and no, not just because he called George Bush, Julius Ceaser.

Cormac McCarthy wins Pulitzer

The 2007 Pulitzer prizes were anounced, and the winner for fiction is The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. I am surprised to see our beloved WH has not posted upon this over at pandas, but seeing as he has gone AWOL from the blogosphere, here it is.
From what I understand The Road is a dark, violent book, scathing at times, horrible, yet you know hopeful (some say). For example, here is a quote lifted from the review by Publisher's Weekly: "Beyond the ever-present possibility of starvation lies the threat of roving bands of cannibalistic thugs." I guess it only seems appropriate to see The Road end up on Oprah's Book List, then. If you have read The Road and want to discuss the deeper messages McCarthy finds within this dark and troubling story, please direct your comments here.


Here is a complete list of the Pulitzer Winners. (I had my money on Debbie Cenziper from the Miami Herald to win best local reporting. It was Debbie's year).