Things are just hopping at the library! I have a few upcoming activities to tell you about. First is our loosely constructed book club, Humboldt Reads! We meet today, September 23 to discuss Driftless. If you haven’t read it, that’s ok- join us anyway. Rustix at 5:30. If that isn’t enough notice for you, try next month. We are going to discuss To Kill a Mockingbird on October 21, at 5:30 at Rustix.
This is the 50th anniversary of To Kill a Mockingbird. If you haven’t read it since high school, pick up a copy at the library and join us for our book discussion. I always intend to re-read it every five years. I’m several decades behind on that plan. In November we will read and discuss The Book Thief. That one will also be held at Rustix on November 18th.We usually move around town to various restaurants, but right now we owe Rustix a huge favor. In September we hosted a meeting of 15 or so children’s librarians. When Sarah phoned to reserve a table for lunch, she found out that Rustix is closed at lunch time. But, they graciously opened just for our group! Isn’t that a neighborly gesture? We appreciated it!
Something new we have planned for grownups is Thrilling Tales. It’s a storytime for adults. From October through March, we’ll have an exciting story for you to listen to on the 3rd Friday of each month at 12:05pm at the library. If you are on your lunch hour, we promise to have you out in time to get back to work by 1pm. Bring your lunch in with you, if you like. We’ll have the coffee pot on. The Seattle Public Library has offered programs like this for several years. I thought it would be worth trying here, too. If nothing else, the staff is having quite an adventure reading and choosing stories to be read at the sessions. Mark it on your calendar and join us for the first Thrilling Tale on October 15 at noon.
There are two more programs remaining in our travel series. Join us on October 21 for a vicarious visit to Kenya led by John and Denise Hartford and a trip to India led by Susan Tomlinson on November 11. Each program will begin at 7pm. If you are interested in our new BYKI online language learning program, be sure to come early to the November 11 program. Paul Gillespie from Recorded Books will be here at 6pm to help you get signed up for BYKI. You will need to come in and get one of our beautiful new library cards first. The cards have a photo of our lovely old building and its crab apple tree in full bloom, so you’ll want one even if you aren’t a library user! On program nights we’ll leave the north door open for you!
New at your library:
We just received extra copies of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy and extra copies of Hunger Games young adult series. If your name is on the list for one of these books, the wait will be a little shorter now.
New on DVD:
Letters to Juliet
Our Family Wedding
Marmaduke
City Island
Just Wright Prince of Persia
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Never Judge a Book By Its Movie
The book display at the library right now reads “Never Judge a Book By Its Movie.” Of course, it’s a word play on last week’s topic “Never Judge a Book By Its Cover”, but with a twist. Just as an illustrator can never quite accurately convey the tone and feeling of a written work onto its two dimensional book jacket, a script writer can never take a book and adequately turn it into a movie. The finished product may be terrific, but it is a different product, just not the same as the book.
Reading a book and enjoying it requires an imagination. One needs the ability to see the settings and characters in one’s head. An engrossed reader will hear the words spoken. I know this because on occasion I have answered aloud a question posed by a character in a book and I’ve screamed back at a literary villain or two over the years.
My youngest child had an imaginary friend, Cousin Freddy. Years after Cousin Freddy had stopped showing up around the dinner table, the whole family had a conversation about what he might have looked like. We had five different imaginary versions in our heads. None of our‘s even vaguely resembled the vision Cousin Freddy’s creator had in mind. I was rather startled to find that the little boy I had fed and tucked into bed for years wasn’t a redhead in overalls.
Imagine what it must feel like for an author to sit in a theater and see his/her work come to life on the big screen? Will the appearance of the actors in the movie surprise or disturb the author? I’ve read that Meryl Streep has signed on to star in the film version of Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Assuming that she is scheduled to play the librarian (and not the cat), it’s an odd bit of casting. Dewey author and Spencer, Iowa librarian Vicky Myron is about my size, my height, my age. Oh, never mind. I understand. I, too, always wanted to be a tall willowy blonde.
Several movies coming out this fall are based on recent books. Eat, Pray, Love is in theaters right now. I tried unsuccessfully to read the book. I was irritated with the heroine who was attempting to heal a broken heart with exotic travel adventures. I wanted to tell her “Just get over it. Countless generations of us have been able to mend without a trip to Bali.” The book was a bestseller, and now a movie, so perhaps, my opinion is not shared by very many.
Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is the story of two teens that discover the body of a teenage boy. One of the book reviews states that its “part revenge fantasy, part horror story and part police investigation gone wrong.”
The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer is about Laura and Lila, college roommates. One girl, the maid of honor for the other, has long-hidden and complicated feelings for the groom and it seems that the groom may not be ready for the walk down the aisle, either.
The American by Martin Booth. George Clooney stars in this one-need I say more? It was previously published as A Very Private Gentleman.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story o f three English boarding school students now all grown up. This one is by the author of The Remains of the Day.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. Juli first flipped for Bryce in the second grade. Six years later life is slightly more complicated.
Whatever you are in the mood for---movies, books or audio books, you’ll find what you are looking for at your library.
Reading a book and enjoying it requires an imagination. One needs the ability to see the settings and characters in one’s head. An engrossed reader will hear the words spoken. I know this because on occasion I have answered aloud a question posed by a character in a book and I’ve screamed back at a literary villain or two over the years.
My youngest child had an imaginary friend, Cousin Freddy. Years after Cousin Freddy had stopped showing up around the dinner table, the whole family had a conversation about what he might have looked like. We had five different imaginary versions in our heads. None of our‘s even vaguely resembled the vision Cousin Freddy’s creator had in mind. I was rather startled to find that the little boy I had fed and tucked into bed for years wasn’t a redhead in overalls.
Imagine what it must feel like for an author to sit in a theater and see his/her work come to life on the big screen? Will the appearance of the actors in the movie surprise or disturb the author? I’ve read that Meryl Streep has signed on to star in the film version of Dewey: The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. Assuming that she is scheduled to play the librarian (and not the cat), it’s an odd bit of casting. Dewey author and Spencer, Iowa librarian Vicky Myron is about my size, my height, my age. Oh, never mind. I understand. I, too, always wanted to be a tall willowy blonde.
Several movies coming out this fall are based on recent books. Eat, Pray, Love is in theaters right now. I tried unsuccessfully to read the book. I was irritated with the heroine who was attempting to heal a broken heart with exotic travel adventures. I wanted to tell her “Just get over it. Countless generations of us have been able to mend without a trip to Bali.” The book was a bestseller, and now a movie, so perhaps, my opinion is not shared by very many.
Let Me In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is the story of two teens that discover the body of a teenage boy. One of the book reviews states that its “part revenge fantasy, part horror story and part police investigation gone wrong.”
The Romantics by Galt Niederhoffer is about Laura and Lila, college roommates. One girl, the maid of honor for the other, has long-hidden and complicated feelings for the groom and it seems that the groom may not be ready for the walk down the aisle, either.
The American by Martin Booth. George Clooney stars in this one-need I say more? It was previously published as A Very Private Gentleman.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. The story o f three English boarding school students now all grown up. This one is by the author of The Remains of the Day.
Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. Juli first flipped for Bryce in the second grade. Six years later life is slightly more complicated.
Whatever you are in the mood for---movies, books or audio books, you’ll find what you are looking for at your library.
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