Prison Library Book Removal

The US Bureau of Prisons has been considering removing all books concerning religion that do not fall onto pre-approved lists from their libraries. Critics of the plan, from both right and left sides of the country are speaking out to try to stop the decision. The Republican Study Committee released this statement: "We must ensure that in America the federal government is not the undue arbiter of what may or may not be read by our citizens.”
The NYTimes article (linked above) on the subject contains links to each religion and their approved reading lists. it's an interesting thing to see. The Philokalia is on the list, which I'm sure makes for common prison reading. Also, "A Muslim Girl's Guide to Life's Big Changes" gets to stay. Huh. Siad one inmate, "I’ve seen the list of approved books, and 99 percent of them, we never had to begin with."
What do you all think about this? Should we take books that might incite violence in people out of the hands' of prisoners? It seems like a hard thing to justify.

OBOC2007

The city of Chicago has made their choice for this fall's One Book, One Chicago: Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Published in 1952, The Crucible, was written as a allegory on the McCarthy era. His depiction of the mass hysteria during the Salem witch trials was meant to show us the way of our errors during "the red scare."

And since the Salem witch trials have come up...I learned, rather interestingly, last night while reading Glut that the witch trails were (on at least one level) a result of the printing press! Today we take printing as a given but when it was first discovered by the masses it caused a whole lot of bloodshed. "The problem?" you ask. A shift in thinking. Everyone was suddenly forced to alter their outlet for expressing themselves; from a oral and image driven culture to a very left brain linear word context. The printing press as a result caused mass hysteria. As the old tradition, one which held women in a almost mystical regard (think virgin Mary) went out the window and mass organizations began to form (again because of the printing press) women started getting burned at the stake. And in Germany, where the press was invented, and most widely used for the first 100 years after its creation, the witch burnings were by far the most severe.

I've gotten off the subject. If you want to join in on the fun of reading The Crucible with the city (you don't have to be in the city itself), take a peak at the official guidebook, which gives you a concise history of the era, CPL resources, additional reading and of course locations of book clubs meeting around the city. Also noteworthy, the Steppenwolf is producing the play and the hubby and I are going to try and go if you are interested in joining us.

And then there were six...

The Man Booker shortlist of six was announced today at a press conference at Man Group plc in London. Following the meeting, Howard Davies, Chair of Judges commented: “Selecting a shortlist this year from what was widely seen as an exciting longlist was a tough challenge. We hope the choices we have made after passionate and careful consideration, will attract wide interest.” Isn't that what they said last year, and the year before that? Ah, well. The novels are (drumroll please!):

Darkmans by Nicola Barker
"Ambitious, linguistically driven, high-octane epic with a metaphysical aspect set around a group of modern-day misfits in Ashford, Kent."

The Gathering by Anne Enright
"The story of the 12-strong Hegarty family, narrated by 39-year-old Veronica as she mourns the suicide of one of her siblings and tries to reconstruct the life of her grandmother."

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
"A young Muslim man's loves and losses, daubed against the tumultuous backdrop of the political unrest that followed the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 9/11."

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
"2007 Commonwealth prize-winner set in a village on the Papua New Guinea island of Bougainville during a brutal civil war there in the 1990s and narrated by a 13-year-old girl who has a love of Dickens instilled in her by an inspired teacher."

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan"Novella about the agonisingly awkward wedding night of a young, innocent, couple in the 60s and how it sets the course of their lives."

Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
"Dark and harrowing but also very humane portrait of a community in contemporary India whose lives were ruined 20 years ago by an American chemical company, and what happens when a young American doctor arrives in their midst."

Wish I was reading...

I am reading more than ever now that I am back in school, but it is by no means the sort of stuff I am usually reading: fiction. So today I post about a book I really want to read, but do not actually have time to read. Which is The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I have been hearing about TTW for a few years now, and everyone who has actually read it either loves it or hates it. Every time someone recommended it another person suggested I stay away. Thus I just could not decide what to do.

Then I started library school and everyone was talking about how wonderful it was (second only to Harry Potter). THEN I found out she is really active in the world of book arts and it all came together. What originally attracted me to the book it self was the pages. They are perfect. The weight it just right, the pages have the perfect amount of gloss to them and they move so freely. All books should be published (physically) as this one. Oh, and don't even get me started on the binding, it's near orgasmic. Last thing, it all takes place in my beautiful city of Chicago, and one block over from my apartment last year. So seriously, what is there not to love?

So, I've picked up a copy. And it sits on my shelf daunting me. I suppose it will be the first book I pick up over Christmas break in December, but damn that seems far away.

And let me not forget to mention, for those of you who are like me and may never have the opportunity to read it, it will be a movie next year...

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

"This is a wonderful book, brilliant and personal, rich in spiritual insight, filled with sorrow and a great sense of humor. Elizabeth Gilbert is everything you would love in a tour guide, of magical places she has traveled to both deep inside and across the oceans: she's wise, jaunty, human, ethereal, hilarious, heartbreaking, and God, does she pay great attention to the things that really matter."
-Anne Lamott

I admit I was hesitant to read Eat, Pray, Love when I first saw it popping up around town. It seemed overly emotional and girly and honestly too religious for me. But it would not go away, it was everywhere, in everyones hands, I saw people miss their train stops over this book! And so, when I had the opportunity to pick up the book for a bit less than cost I thought, "Why not?" And thank goodness I did. It was so enjoyable.

The book takes place after a very difficult divorce (enter what I thought was going to be the too emotional and girly part) but Gilbert was smart enough not to give us all the nitty-gritty of her divorce and so I didn't feel like I was listening to a stranger complain about how hard life is. It is split into three different sections (corresponding with the title) and takes place in three different countries. Eating in Italy, Praying in India and Loving in Indonesia. I too love to travel and have no money to do so right now which made reading a book about travelling the next best thing after being there myself. Each section was a bit better than the previous and the ending came together quite well. I closed the book and thought, "Look at how far she came over a single year!" It was a nice reminder that you really can turn lifes lemons into lemonade.

Also, it wasn't until after I started Eat, Pray, Love that I realized why the authors name was so familar to me. Elizabeth Gilbert is also the author of The Last American Man, another peice of non-fiction that was exceptionally well written. If Eat, Pray, Love is a woman's novel than The Last American Man is a novel for a man's man. But this is just reinforces how versitile she is. Both of these books seem to be directed for a certian people group but both go far beyond what you expect from them. If you are looking for something to read either of these books will fill a few days of your time in a very pleasent manner.

The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett

Sadly I think my excitement to read Hammett's The Maltese Falcon may have gotten the best of me--and the novel. There I was going around telling everyone..."they say its the best detective novel ever written!!" Well, it is good, of course, but best ever? The real weakness for me was all that convoluted secrecy. I know what you are saying..."Amber, it's a DETECTIVE novel, you aren't supposed to know everything!!" I understand but the whole book I was very patient about waiting to be let in on what was really going on. And then finally everything gets wrapped up in the last 20-30 pages and you realize, you pretty much new everything that was going along already. Yes, there is a bit more information but there wasn't enough for what I had built it up to be.


Now that I am thinking about it, I cannot believe I went around telling everyone it was (supposed to be) the best detective novel...obviously I am going to give that title to Crime and Punishment. My favorite of all the novels ever written (talk about a title that is hard to live up to)!!

After all this negative talk I feel I should say it was a fun book to read. And very cinematic in its nature. The setting was always shrouded by cigarettes and sexy women with bright red lipstick. And then you have the suave and handsome hero who is always just barely escaping the law. It is hard to resist. If you do not go into the book thinking it is going to be one of the greatest novels you will ever read I have no doubt you will really enjoy it.

And for those of you that are interested (and are in the small minority of people who live near by) the movie is now second in our queue, which means we will be watching it sometime next week!

When I was a kid...

Since we are on the topic of Children's book I thought I would take a moment to mention some books I recently came across that I loved as a child. Please, someone else tell me you remember "reading" Frank Asch. I stared at these books for countless hours when I was just a wee thing, totally mesmerized by the pictures, so desperately wanting to eat mooncake!

Other favorite childhood books??

Mrs. and Ms. Bush Write Children's book.

(Author and Bush twin Jenna shows her rawker/edgy side)

This is one of the more interesting book stories I have read lately. As you all follow the story of the Bush twins, I don't need to tell you that Jenna Bush is already a published author of a book called Ana's Hope, about her time with UNICEF. This I gathered from the cover.
Now she's teaming up with her mother to write a picture book (?) about kids that don't like reading. Just what kids not interested in reading books need: a book of pictures about how reading sucks. "It’s a book that I’ve always wanted to write," says Laura Bush. She also said it was going to be difficult writing a book of pictures, because "In a picture book, there are so few words." Got that?

A Man Booker Dozen

The Man Booker announced its long list today, they are:

Darkmans by Nicola Barker

Self Help by Edward Docx

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng

The Gathering by Anne Enright

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

The Welsh Girl by Peter Ho Davies

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan

What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

Consolation by Michael Redhill

Animal's People by Indra Sinha

Winnie & Wolf by A N Wilson

The long list for those of you who (justifiably) don't keep up with Man Booker's inner workings is the first round of finalists for the yearly prize (which I believe comes in October). The long list will soon turn into a short list and then everyone will go mad trying to read all the short list books before a finalist is chosen, right?

My only comment about the list: "Ian McEwan again!"
I've never read him, but doesn't it seem they have their nose up his ass a bit?

Unless. Already. Not Yet.

Back in January, azf read Unless, by Carol Shields. She loved it, started talking about it frequently, recommended it to everyone she talked to, and went online and bought several copies cheap to distribute to people in order to make them read it.
So I read it. Now I'm coming on to Luminous to encourage people to read it. If you didn't take azf's word, you probably won't take czf's word. But I'll add my name to the chorus, and recommend Unless, because it's absolutely brilliant. My Goodness.

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.