Book Calendar

Daily Thoughts 7/16/2009

2009-07-16T03:28:00.000-07:00

Sebi Ryffel from Los Angeles took this picture under a creative commons share alike license on July 17, 2008 Entrance pathway to the Rose Garden, Temple of Love, at Huntington Library ( a botanical garden, art museum, and library).

Daily Thoughts 7/16/2009

This morning I read some more of Say Everything. I just finished reading a section on the founding of the company Blogger by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan. At one point, Blogger almost shutdown, it was being run out of Evan Williams's living room. It is very much a story of audacious risk and success. It shows how it is possible to start a company with very little, run it out of ones basement and then turn it into a successful web business. It is a very good example of "bootstrapping."

I have been thinking of switching this blog to wordpress.org. However, I am following my ideal of not spending money to blog. I found out that Wordpress charges to have the ability to post videos. Wordpress considers this a value added service. I don't, I like posting videos. This leaves me with sticking with Blogger. If I wanted to spend money to blog, I would probably be using Movable Type.

I like the new Peace, Love, Books poster for the American Booksellers Association. http://www.redbubble.com/people/indiebound/art/3349361-2-peace-love-books

I am looking through a site called http://www.americareadsspanish.org/ to find titles that are popular in Spanish which have been translated into english. There are two new authors which I have found which look interesting, Don Miguel Ruiz and Rosa-Mendoza Gladys.

On the way home, I read some more of Say Everything. I have hit the halfway mark. At this point Scott Rosenbergy mentions Cory Doctorow and The Clue Train Manifesto obligatory subjects for books on blogging. I think The Clue Train Manifesto is rather silly. I am not a huge fan of Cory Doctorow's blog Boing Boing. I however, am a fan of his novels. My favorite was Eastern Standard Tribe. I also like his essays which appear in Locus Magazine. Say Everything is turning out to be a very entertaining book.

Daily Thoughts 7/15/2009

2009-07-15T03:59:00.000-07:00

John Steinbeck, 1962, Nobel Prize for Literature photograph.

Daily Thoughts 7/15/2009

Today has been another busy day. We finished designing the graphic novels label which looks quite nice. We printed some spine labels to make sure it looked right.

I also spent some time looking at the purchase alerts. We are getting a lot more fiction on our purchase alerts list. I think this is because of the new books display area. We are displaying a lot of new material. The fiction is moving much faster.

The gentleman from Ghana came to take away our deaccessioned books today. He took all of them. He is going to be volunteering to create a high school and they need books. There are very few resources over there.

We had a collection development meeting today. I suggested that we might want to order some more Latin American and Latino authors for our collection. We have a very large Brazilian popularion. I do not know the major authors that well, but I would be looking for authors like Jorge Amado, Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Paulo Coelho, and other Portuguese or Spanish language titles translated into english. I have all my orders pretty much in place right now.

We also have the graphic novels label created which looks quite nice. I hope the ebooks poster will be displayed soon.

I read some more of Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg. The latest chapter is about Dave Winer one of the early programmers of blogging software. He envisioned a world where a billion different web pages could talk to each other. Also people could voice their opinions without interference. He was very much a free speech advocate. The book gives some very interesting history of the internet which you might not see in other titles.

Daily Thoughts 7/14/2009

2009-07-14T04:07:00.001-07:00

Jack Vance, the science fiction writer, with a banjo and a kazoo, photograph taken by Hayford Peirce

Daily Thoughts 7/14/2009

Today was an excellent day. I finished reading The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is an excellent literary novel and a nice train read. I will be writing a review shortly.

I read my usual Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and New York Times Book Review. I am going through and selecting new titles to order. I have been taken off of doing the law collection and am now being asked to focus solely on collection development and management in the main collection. We are discussing the idea of building special collections and doing more bookmarks, flyers, and other promotional material.

We are working on designing a new label for the graphic novels. Pretty soon we will be merchandising the graphic novels collection as well. I am looking forward to seeing this done.

I am going to be going through the collection tomorrow and checking for books to be mended and those which need covers replaced. We have a man from Ghana who is coming to pick up some of our deaccessioned books to be sent abroad to Ghana. They badly need books. I found this to be very interesting.

I read some more of Say Everything on the way home. It already has a bit of interesting history of the internet, the author is writing about Justin Hall and Wired magazine as part of the founding of the blogging phenomenon.

I also did some floor exercises while watching popeye. It was a nice break from thinking a lot about books.

Daily Thoughts 7/13/2009

2009-07-13T08:03:00.000-07:00

John Muir American Conservationist (1838-1914)

Daily Thoughts 7/13/2009

I wrote my first draft of an ebooks poster in publisher today. It is based on an ebooks flyer which I did earlier. It needs to be edited, then I will put it up next to the computer center.

I also picked up a couple of things to read and watch. There is a dvd, Popeye The Sailor, 1933-1938, 60 Theatrical Shorts on 4 Discs published by Warner Brothers. I rather like the original popeye more than the later cartoons. Most are designed to be shown in the theater as a trailer before films. They are also not just written for children. Many of the episodes are from the early Fleischer studios which did the original Superman and Betty Boop cartoons. This is the original popeye song.

The next book is Give Me Back My Legions by Harry Turtledove. Harry Turtledove is a professor of Byzantine history. He often writes fantasy novels, but this is a historical novel about the Romans in Germany. It covers the Battle of Teutoberg Forest where the Romans were defeated.

The final book I picked up is Say Everything, How Blogging Began What's It's Becoming, And Why It Matters by Scott Rosenberg. Rosenberg is an editor at Salon.com. He also wrote Dreaming in Code. I am hoping it is useful both as a history and as a way to improve the quality of my blog.

Web Bits

American Library Association conference coverage by Library Journal.

http://www.libraryjournal.com/microsite/49047/ALA+Annual+Conference+News.html

Marketing Without Advertising Easy Ways To Build A Business Your Customers Will Love & Recommend by Michael Phillips & Salli Rasberry, 6th Edition

2009-07-12T11:55:00.000-07:00

Marketing Without Advertising Easy Ways To Build A Business Your Customers Will Love & Recommend by Michael Phillips & Salli Rasberry, 6th Edition

This book is how to attract and keep customers without buying advertising. It claims it is better to do your own marketing and create an atmosphere where customers will come back and use your business repeatedly. Advertising is often deceptive and can lead to bad publicity.

The book suggests that you should buy listings in places like the phone book and get your name listed in as many places as possible instead of spending money on advertisements. In addition to buying listings, you should create your own customer lists and market directly to them.

There is a focus on creating customer recommendations and testimonials. Some ways they suggest to do this are to keep a clean site, make your business conform to industry standards, and build a theme which customers can identify with. It is important to be consistent and treat people fairly.

There are tips on how to create an honest, open business which people can trust. This includes descriptions on how to identify the business you are in and make clear statements about your purpose.

A central idea is that more hand holding equals more customers and better information leads to more sales. Several examples of information which can help a business like how to create an informational video, make business labels, and make easy to read signs that explain what you do are given.

The book also covers technology. It reminds you that it is important to have an email account, join listservs, have a newsletter, build a website, and offer marginal additions like bookmarks and fliers to keep people informed.

The book taught me something new there are three types of marketing. Peer to peer marketing is where you market your business to colleagues. Direct marketing is where you market your business directly to customers, and parallel marketing is where you invite similar institutions to work with you.

This books shows how to build a business without using deception and without investing in advertisements. The pattern which is explained here is based on honesty, integrity, personal recommendations, and useful information. The publishers of this book, Nolo very much fit this mold.

There are a number of different ideas like creating a calendar of events, making brochures, and creating displays which are discussed in this book. If you want to get ideas on how to build a business based on building your own client base without outside advertising this book will be very useful. I think I learned a few things from reading it.

Daily Thoughts 7/12/2009

2009-07-12T04:09:00.000-07:00

Vladimir Nabokov's Scrabble Board

Daily Thoughts 7/12/2009

I am still reading Marketing Without Advertising. There is a blog which goes with the book, http://phillips.blogs.com/mwa It gives lots of tips on how to market your business without using advertisements.

I have started reading The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. There is a lot about writing in this novel as well as excellent use of symbolism.

Web Bits

Based on the Book-- Movies based on books.http://www.mcpl.lib.mo.us/readers/movies/

Library Website Hall of Fame from Library Success Wikihttp://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Website_Design

Microbloggers (Twitter) at the American Library Associaton Conference. http://wikis.ala.org/annual2009/index.php/Microblogging_Annual There is a virtual conference for the American Library Association, but it costs money-- $215 to look at the virtual sessions. I think I will stick to looking at blogs on the conference and reading Twitter.

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick

2009-07-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert V.S. Redick

This is a wonderfully written fantasy novel. What sets this novel apart is that it is not just big men with swords and wizards. Everything in it from the pipe smoking woman with a red talking cat to the giant ancient magical sailing ship where most of the story resides is beautifully described. The details of the characters are very well done. For example the villains don't just fight and cast magic; they deceive, poison, bully, steal, and enslave.

The heros are quite intriguing, a tarboy (child which mends sales and ropes on ships) named Pazel with a gift for tongues, an intelligent rat, an ambassadors daughter and her bodyguard, and a wizard in the body of a mink. They face many trials from a villainous conspiracy whch is trying to start a war and disguising it as an attempt at peace.

The writing makes the escape into another world seamless. I especially like the creatures in the story, like the ixchel; tiny men who are treated like rats, and the flickermen; men who light up like fireflies and steal children into slavery.

This is a very entertaining story that is intelligently thought out. I look forward to reading the next book in the trilogy which comes out in 2010. If you want an fantasy novel that will keep you up late at night reading this is one of them.

Daily Thoughts 7/11/2009

2009-07-11T04:48:00.000-07:00

Pearl Buck receiving the Nobel Prize from King Gustavus V in Stockholm

Daily Thoughts 7/11/2009

The book Free by Chris Anderson is generating a lot of controversy. It is something we ordered a while ago. I think the controversy will make more people want to read the book. I read The Long Tail also by Chris Anderson and was not that impressed. It reminded me of a new way to package niche marketing. Thttp://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6670080.html?desc=topstory

I walked up to my local library and dropped off a few books. It was very pleasant outside today. I did not get any more books to read.

I have been reading Marketing Without Advertising. It is a fairly dense text. The premise is that advertising is not the best way for small businesses to get customers. It describes ways to build a client base by having excellent customer service, generating recommendations, using informational products like brochures, and generating goodwill. The book has lots of recommendations in it.

Sometimes when you are looking through the magical land of the internet, you find odd things. Michael Jackson's visit to the Strand Bookstore. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nancy-bass/the-day-i-met-michael-jac_b_225954.html

Daily Thoughts 7/10/2009

2009-07-10T03:05:00.000-07:00

book wall at House of the Book in the city of Leipzig/Buchwand im Haus des Buches in Leipzig

Daily Thoughts 7/10/2009

I spent some time looking at http://www.spdbooks.org/ Small Press Distributors which is a nonprofit organization focused on distributing small press titles. Many of the titles are unique and high quality. There is a lot of poetry here, especially modern fiction and poetry. Some of it is experimental and would never be distributed by large publishing houses or book distributors.

I also spent a little bit of time looking at the New Releases section of the Mysterious Bookshop. They include a few espionage novels which look quite interesting. http://www.mysteriousbookshop.com/?page=shop/browse&category_id=21&CLSN_2723=12472333322723e70ee980e4654b4b63

Today was another fairly busy day. I used the content of my postcard on ebooks to redo it as a flyer which should look very interesting. I also did a display of some of our rare books from storage. Some of them are quite interesting. We have a first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica which is interesting to look at. We also added some more baskets for the nonfiction area of our slat walls. I am still doing some evaluation of the 700s.

I picked up two books to read this weekend, Marketing Without Advertising Easy Ways to Build a Business Your Customers Will Love & Recommend by Michael Phillips & Sally Rasberry and The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Both look like very interesting books.

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

2009-07-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

This book is about how people make decisions. The book cites many scientific studies on decision making and brain science. Jonah Lehrer focuses on emotions and how they affect our decision making. He argues that emotions are the primary source of decision making. The ability to make the simple choice between yes and no is an emotional one.

We learn about the weaknesse in reason which lead to faulty thinking like spending too much with credit cards; why too much information can lead to bad decisions; and when it is best not to analyze and go with your feelings.

There are many examples of high pressure decisionmaking illustrated in this book; crashlanding an airplane, football quarterbacking, and surviving a forest fire are a few of them. A lot of these decisions are intuitive and analysis of the decisions are made afer they are done.

The book also describes decision making in poker and backgammon where there is both an element of feeling and a certain level of logic. Champion poker players know the odds but they also must be able to bluff and gage their opponents reactions.

I found the book useful. It reminded me that sometimes it is a good idea to let a decision wait a while and not think abut it consciously. I waited a couple days before writing this review.

This book challenges the idea of pure Cartesian logic. It argues that we are in a constant dialogue between our reason and our emotions. This is often not at a conscious level. Our emotions are the startng point. It describes a model of decision making centered in emotions and modern brain science. It also cites one of my favorite books, Descartes Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain by Antonio Damasio.

Jonah Lehrer writes for the Mind Mattrs blog for Scientific American. http://www.scientificamerican.com/section.cfm?id=mindmatters

Daily Thoughts 7/9/2009

2009-07-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

Menander, A Painting from Pompeii

Daily Thoughts 7/9/2009

I am off by a little bit today, it really is the ninth, I put the tenth down by mistake and then corrected it. A whole day disappeared. Today was another day. I have been working with the collection. We had a meeting to discuss technical services. I am going to be shifting some books in the 700s pretty soon.

Daily Thoughts 7/8/2009

2009-07-08T04:57:00.000-07:00

Arthur C. Clarke, science fiction writer and scientist.

Daily Thoughts 7/8/2009

This afternoon, I discussed the Official Overstreet Comics Price Guide 2009, 39th Edition in a reference meeting. It is the standard price guide for old comic books in the United States. The major weakness in the guide is that it does not cover underground comics that well. However, I find it to be an excellent place to look not for prices, but to find new titles I have never seen before.

I also have done some more weeding today, mostly in the 700s and the mysteries.

I put another book on hold about blogging, Say Everything How Blogging Began by Scott Rosenberg. Scott Rosenberg is a writer for Salon.com.

Daily Thoughts 7/7/2009

2009-07-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

Arthur Miller, Playwright

Daily Thoughts 7/7/2009

Today has been a quiet steady day. I have been weeding the 700s and mysteries. It is a slow steady process which I am going to be doing every single day. I also am evaluating the law books for weeding.

Right now, I am working on a flyer for ebooks. It is being written in Microsoft Publisher which is becoming more and more understandable for me lately. I am still running through the Professor Teaches program on my computer to learn Publisher. Right now, I am editing it.

In this months Searcher The Magazine For Database Professionals there is an article on Ray Kurzweil called The Future Still Ray Kurzweil's Singularity on Wall Street by Katherine Bertolucci. It is very interesting. Kurzweill has made a lot of predictions about the future. Kurzweil is utterly fascinating and very controversial. http://www.kurzweilai.net/index.html?flash=1 He believes that computers will become smarter than we are. He writes about it in his book The Singularity Is Near. There is something funny about the article when it says we should prepare our businesses for when computers are smarter than we are.

I also have a copy of Report of the New York State Joint Legislative Committee To Study Publication of Comics 1955 sitting on my desk. This report is important in the history of comic books because it is one of the things which led to the Comics Code Authority. The book is very interesting. It has comics like Juvenile Delinquent, My Gun Is The Jury by Melvie Spillane, and excerpts from EC comics. The report is fascinating to look at. It is part of the partial government depository in our library.

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2009

2009-07-06T04:01:00.000-07:00

Zürich, Wasserkirche (Water Church) : Former 'Bürgerbibliothek' (public library), as of 1719.

Daily Thoughts 7/6/2009

Today has been a steady day. I have spent most of the day weeding more 700s, mostly in the film section. I found a guide to Creature Features the old television show that came on when I was a child and a copy of Chekhov's Enterprise: Personal Journal by Walter Koenig. I also deaccessioned some mysteries.

There are a few other minor activities which I am doing like putting in inserts for the law books and making sure the flyer is out for a financial literacy program. Tomorrow, I am going to do some weeding with the law books. I need to review a visit to the county law library I did earlier.

Another book came in for me to read, The Red Wolf Conspiracy by Robert S. Redick. It is a fantasy novel. I am also looking at J.R.R. Tolkien, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun edited by Christopher Tolkien. The Genteel Arsenal was discussing this epic poem. It intrigued me. We have a copy of it at our library.

I read some of The Red Wolf Conspiracy. The imagery is rich and vibrant. From page one it immediately grabbed my attention. It is already worth reading and telling other people about it after the first chapter. The writing is as good as many of the best fantasy writers like Peter S. Beagle, Tanith Lee, or Michael Moorcock.

Daily Thoughts 7/5/2009

2009-07-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

CowParade Prague 2004. #002 KNIHOMILKA, Artist: Šárka Vokurková. "Book-lover Cow". The design of the cow is a self-parody of its sponsor, Levné knihy (literally: "Cheap Books") bookstore (LEVNÉ KYDY literally: "Cheap Twaddle").

Daily Thoughts July 5, 2009

Yesterday, I watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was a piece of escapism. I liked the space alien archeologist references. They reminded me of Erich Von Donikens Chariots of the Gods books. The movie was fun to watch. Harrison Ford still did most of his own stunts which surprised me.

There was plenty of flim flam in this movie. All of the real crystal skulls which have been looked at indicate they were created in 19th century Europe. They were not Mayan. Indiana Jones was of course seeking El Dorado where the skull and aliens resided. He had to follow the Nazca lines to get there. I was surprised that they did not make reference to the now debunked theory of ancient hot air balloons over Peru.

The villains were cartoonish kgb agents. One of the agents of course was psychic which was quite slly. In many parts of the film, especially the chase scenes it reminded me a bit of a video game. The best part of the film was when Indiana Jones hid in a lead lined refrigerator to survive a nuclear blast. Silliness at its best. A fun afternoon of free entertainment rented on a dvd from the library.

One of the subjects which many people ask about is the paranormal and the occult in the public library. We get a lot of junior high school and high school students coming in with assignments on big foot, Nostradamus, and psychics. There are also a lot of believers in various ideas from various authors like Carlos Castaneda, Sylvia Browne (television psychic), and Edgar Cayce. I try to be as neutral as possible with these questions because you don't know why they are asking for these books.

Watching films like The Da Vinci Code can be useful because many people at least partially believe the stories behind the films. They want to know about The Knights of Malta, Opus Dei, the Masons, and other groups. Often after films like this one we get spikes in requests on occult material. Popular entertainment at least partially drives the purchase of this material. It also often causes controversy which attracts people to reading about it. It is good to remember the public library is supposed to be a neutral institution not supporting specific religious and philosophical viewpoints. The library is a government institution and the separation of church and state can and sometimes does come up as an issue.

Some of this material has made me a fan of James Randi, the author and magician who debunks psychics and mystics. I may believe in certain phenomena, but I also sometimes feel it is necessary to protect yourself from being too gullible. He explains how fakery and flim flam happen. He is also a very entertaining speaker. His book The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer is quite popular.

We also get quite a bit of other practical books of psychology which can cross over a little bit into mysticism. One of my favorite books in this category is The Relaxation Response (Paperback) by M.D. Herbert Benson (Author), and Miriam Z. Klipper (Author) which is about meditation from a scientific standpoint. Some people consider this material to be religious which can be surprising. Being polite is very important around other peoples beliefs. Even things like books on yoga floor exercises can be considered religious by people.

I finshed reading How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. It is an intriguing book. This book definitely deserves a review. It says many things which are counterintuitive about how decisions are made. I liked the discussions about poker, strawberry jam, flight simulators, and having too much information in decision making. Right now, I am pondering how I will review the book.

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-04T04:35:00.000-07:00

The Syng inkstand, an inkstand made by Philip Syng with which the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed, on display at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Photograph taken by Dan Smith.

Happy 4th of July

I bought a new keyboard for my computer. Things were getting a little sticky. I also got a memory stick today and went through my email looking for documents to put on it. It gave me a chance to review my old email and collect old documents from email. I found a few things which may be useful like a review from visiting the county court library, a link to the New York Council For The Humanities Program for libraries. This is a link if you are in New York http://www.nyhumanities.org/speakers/adult_audiences/eligibility.php . There was also a flyer for a Home Health Aide training program.

I will also probably be reviewing a few other places where I kept my documents.

Daily Thoughts 7/3/2009

2009-07-03T04:41:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait of William Hogarth with A Pug Dog

Daily Thoughts 7/3/2009

Librarian temporary tattoos. http://www.epartyunlimited.com/the-illustrated-librarian-temporary-tattoos.html

I am off today because July 4,2009 falls on a Saturday. It has been very relaxing so far. I watched The Librarian Curse of the Judas Chalice on dvd. The Librarian is a hero who works in a secret repository of mystical objects. He must retrieve mystic objects and prevent them from falling into the hands of evil.

This film was appropriately silly. The hero goes on vacation and gets pulled into a romantic interlude in New Orleans, Virginia. At the same time, he must recover the Judas Chalice which will resurrect dead vampires.

There are numerous historical references to Vlad Tepes and various cryptic gimmicks like a coin with a secret code on it to keep the story going. The Librarian makes references to things in books when he needs to show how he succeeds in a specific piece of knowledge. He even makes a reference to Houdini when he escapes being tied up.

This is an afternoons escape. It is a mix of adventure, heroism, and romance with vampires. There is no swearing, no explicit content, the romantic lead is well done and appropriate.

I am about half way through reading How We Decide. It is the brain science of decisions. Concepts like loss aversion, short term versus long term thinking, and high stress decision making are explained in terms of brain science. The book explains a lot about how decisions are made. I can understand exactly why I don't have a credit card now.

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2009

2009-07-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

Walter Crane a book illustrator.

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2009

Today was a pleasant day. I spent more time weeding the 700s, the oversize 700s, and the mystery. I also took some time to look through Library Journal online at their review section. I am pretty much caught up with my ordering for this month. There should be some interesting titles coming in.

Tomorrow is vacation time. I picked up a few books to read as well as some dvds. I am looking forward to reading Mucho Mojo by Joe Lansdale. I also plan on watching The Librarian 3: Curse of the Judas Chalice on dvd over the weekend.

I started reading How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer. It is about the decision process. The book reminds me a little bit of Descartes Error by Antonio Damasio. It posits that emotions are extremely important in decision making, and that we are more of an emotional being than a rational one. I know this is true of myself.

Web Bits

Barbara Genco has joined Library Journal as its editor of collection development. I think this will be a big improvement in their coverage of selecting materials. http://www.lisnews.org/barbara_genco_joins_library_journal_editor_collection_management

Daily Thoughts 7/1/2009

2009-07-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

Daily Thoughts July 1, 2009

Today has been another quiet day. I spent some time ordering a few fiction titles. I still have to check through a couple of different sites for African American, inspirational, mystery and suspense titles. While I was looking at Locus Magazine online, I noticed that The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon was on the bestseller list. I put it on hold. I am going to look at http://www.indiebound.org for fiction titles tomorrow.

I also spent some more time weeding the music section. I have to be very careful. It is one of those subjects like history, biography, and art where books can remain quite relevant for a very long time. I spent some time looking at a book on the discography of Sun records.

I am looking at weeding the mysteries and suspense also. Mysteries and suspense are our most popular fiction titles. Ruth Rendell, Hugh Holton, Stuart Woods, John Sanford, and James Patterson are extremely popular. My current favorite mystery author is Joe Lansdale. I also like Sparkle Hayter, Andrew Vachss, Max Allan Collins, and Sharyn McCrumb. Zombies of the Gene Pool by Sharyn McCrumb is one of my favorite mysteries; it lampoons science fiction conventions. Max Allan Collins also writes comics in addition to novels as well as television shows.

On the train home, I read some more of Building A Special Collection of Children's Literature in Your Library.

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2009

2009-06-30T03:52:00.000-07:00

Napoleon Hill, American self-help writer, attorney and journalist, seated in a chair holding his book "Think and Grow Rich". (three-quarter length portrait) c1937 from Wikimedia

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2009

Today was another steady day. We spent some time discussing moving books around. I also did some shifting and relocating books in the mystery section and did some weeding of books in the music section.

Some of the older books in the music section are being moved to storage. We have some old very beautiful books in our collection. I was looking at a few opera books on the New York Metropolitan Opera and Wagner. Sometimes it is interesting looking at the older books.

Today was a solid pleasant day.

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2009

2009-06-29T04:07:00.001-07:00

Self-portrait of Stanley Kubrick.This is a photo taken by a staff photographer of LOOK Magazine, and is part of the LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress. Their former owner, Cowles Communications, Inc, dedicated to the public all rights it owned to these images as an instrument of gift.

Daily Thoughts 6/29/2009

I finished reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. It was odd reading this book. For some reason it read like the end of a trilogy, but it was a standalone book. There were references in the book to ancient history which made me think that there were books written before this one when there weren't.

I liked the premise that "breath" can be passed from one person to another much like karma or luck. Breath is represented by color. Those who accumulate the breath of others gain advantages like perfect pitch, agelessness, and the ability to use these breaths to animate non-living things.

There are those who have returned from the grave having received a special breath making them unique. In the kingdom of Hallendran, these people are worshipped as gods and people sacrifice their breath to them to make them stronger and more filled with destiny. Those without breath are called "drabs."

This is the fantasy story of a young princess being sent to marry the god king of Hallendran from a neighboring kingdom. She must stop a war between her kingdom and the Hallendran's. An army of lifeless troops waits to destroy her kingdom. There is intrigue, magic, and politics in a unique setting.

The book was very compelling and hard to put down. If you like fantasy, this is an excellent book. There are unexpected twists and turns. People are not always as they seem. What is bad in one persons eyes is good in anothers.

I started reading Building A Special Collection of Children's Literature In Your Library on the train home. It gives me some ideas on how special collections are created.

Today went well. I weeded some more in the 700s. I also selected some African American romance paperbacks to be added and had an order sent in for inspirational fiction. It was a fairly straightforward day.

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2009 (Ebooks)

2009-06-28T07:46:00.000-07:00

Springtime or La liseuse (the reader) Claude Monet 1872

Daily Thoughts 6/28/2009 (Ebooks)

I am thinking about free ebook sites. I have put together a short list of a few places which I think are entertainig or useful. Most sites are very cluttered and hard to us. These seem to be the best I have found so far.

America.gov -- Publications About American Life
http://www.america.gov/publications/books.html

The Baen Free Library of Science Fictionhttp://www.baen.com/library/

Bartleby Great Books Online http://www.bartleby.com/index.html

Creative Common Books are licensed to read but not
resell. http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Books

Drew's Script-O-Rama (free scripts for movies and television http://www.script-o-rama.com/oldindex.shtml

Free Public Domain Audiobooks. http://librivox.org/

Great Book Index http://www.mirror.org/books/gb.home.html

Proect Gutenberg http://gutenberg.org/

Gutenberg Emerging http://www.gutenberg-e.org/

International Children's Digital Library http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

The Internet Archive Texts Collection http://www.archive.org/details/texts

OpenCRS-- Open Congressional Research Service http://opencrs.com/

Poets' Corner http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/

University of Pennsylvania Guide to Free Ebook
Downloads . http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/

Yale University Books Unbound http://yupnet.org/home/

If you can suggest some more free ebook sites that combine quality with ease of use please let m know.

Ad Nauseam A Survivor's Guide To American Consumer Culture Edited by Carrie Mclaren and Jason Torchinsky

2009-06-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Ad Nauseam A Survivor's Guide To American Consumer Culture Edited by Carrie Mclaren and Jason Torchinsky

This book is a compilation of essays from the magazine Stay Free. These essays are critiques of American consumer cultue. They focus on various subjects in advertising covering such topics as the history of medical quackery in advertising, corporate culture, advertising techniques, and other anti-consumerist topics. Many of the essays are quite funny. There is a mix of history, criticism, surveys, interviews, photographs, and pranks.

There is quite a bit on how advertising effects our daily lives. For example the reason we cannot get free glasses of water at restaurants without asking is because of the recent trend selling bottled water. Also, advertising has moved into our schools with pictures of candy in our textbooks and jury selection being effected by television shows like Miami Vice and L.A. Law.

The book is helpful if you want to immunize yourself from impulse buying. The advertising tactics of raw emotional appeal, pictures instead of words, and convincing people consumption is automatically good are critiqued. We learn how advertisers created an emphasis halitosis and dry skin as well as many other modern maladies.

The best thing about this book is the humor. There is a very funny article on the history of "Subliminal Seduction" debunking it. The article makes reference to the book, The Clam Bake Orgy by Wilson Brian Key one of the silliest books I have ever read.

There are black and white pictures throughout the book. Some of the better ones are the Marlboro baby and a tattoo of the Nikes logo on a persons ankle. In addition to pictures there are quizzes at the end of some chapters.

This was an entertaining and informative book to read. It might turn off some people with its anti-suv, prank lovng, privacy oriented, remove all ads from school political correctness, but if you want to convince your dog to love your ipod this is the book for you.

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2009

2009-06-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

Cobbe portrait, claimed to be a portrait of William Shakespeare done while he was alive .

Daily Thoughts 6/27/2009

I have started reading Warbeaker by Brandon Sanderson. Brandon Sanderson is the author of Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians. His fantasy writing is very creative.

I picke up two books from my local library, Building A Special Collection of Children's Literature In Your Library Identifying, Maintaining, and Sharing Rare or Collectible Items by Dolores Blythe Jones. This was the only book I could find on creating a special collection in my local library. I also picked up Local History Collections In Libraries by Faye Phillips.

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2009

2009-06-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

Portrait of a Man of Noble Birth With a Book by Hokusai

Daily Thoughts 6/26/2009

Today has been a pleasant day. I read some more of Ad Nauseam on the subway to work. It is a rather entertaining critique of advertising. A lot of it is very funny. I especially liked an interview on an extreme fan of the Little Mermaid. People are devoted to commercial products in extreme ways.

This morning, I have been organizing things a bit to prepare for next week.

I also learned that the American Library Association has a Wiki. There is a section on it for graphic novels which is something I enjoy a lot. http://wikis.ala.org/professionaltips/index.php/Graphic_novels

Today was a rather quiet day. We are labeling in the sorting area for books. We are also rearranging the shelving. I pulled some more gift books to be added. We are creating another bookmark this time for books on autism.

I took a break this evening and watched some of the Max Fleischer Betty Boop cartoons on dvd. I checked it out from the library. Fleischer Studios has some fantastic old fashioned cartoons. I find the music and artistic quality to be better than many of the more modern cartoons. Small Fry by Fleischer Studios is one of my favorite cartoons.