• Books

    I heart my library

    June 23, 2007

    Library Love

    On my weekly trip to the library yesterday, I saw and bought this bag which goes to the public library foundation. It’s one of those Bring Your Own Bag iniatives that encourage the use of recyclable and reusable bags in place of plastic bags. I’m really glad to have bought it since the money goes directly to the library and up to this point, I’ve been using one of my purses or a plastic bags (namely the ones I have from the LCBO; the government-controlled alcohol chain in Ontario) to carry my books to and fro every week. I often carry a lot of items from the library and normal plastic bags are ineffective any way.

    I love my public library; I spent summers there as a child, and I have been going every week for years. I often take out way more than I can handle which is sad and rather addictive. Right now, I’m on a particularly lending streak as I have 36 items separated into four piles in my house. The pile above on the right is all twelve of the books for the Book Awards Challenge, some of them are the library’s, a couple are mine and a couple are a friend’s.

    My reading was severely neglected last week because I was reading fanfiction. Sometimes, it comes over me especially now that I’m rereading Harry Potter. Speaking of which, the pile on the left has Books 3 and 4. I’m listening to the audiobook for 3 now, but I’ll mostly read it after I do some knitting and patterns browsing.

    Lots of books must be read this week especially since I start summer school next week.

    Link: Hot Library Smut – Completely and utterly work safe.

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  • Books,  Musings

    Literary Links; Classics Debate

    May 21, 2007

    I’ve been attracting some literary links while surfing lately.

    TwitterLit – Updated twice a day on the various Twitter accounts with the first line of books. A very good way to get book recommendations if you’re a Twitter addict as I’ve recently become. Can be also used via email or a RSS reader.

    Buyafriendabook.com – Buy a friend a book for four designated weeks a year, or just give them a book to share the literary karma. It’s like Bookcrossing (which I seemed to have given up on years ago), but more direct.

    What is Stephen Harper Reading? – Canadians may only get the humor in this. Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi has decided to send a book to the Prime Ministre a book every two weeks with a letter on the choice. The image of PM Harper reading The Death of Ivan Ilych almost discombobulates me. Image does not process.

    Publisher makes lite work of classics – An article from The Times Online about a publisher that is making shortened versions of classics for “convenience”:

    Tolstoy, Dickens and Thackeray would not have agreed with the view that 40 per cent of Anna Karenina, David Copperfield and Vanity Fair are mere “padding”, but Orion Books believes that modern readers will welcome the shorter versions.

    Padding, right. This is not a new concept, and it could be helpful if you’re doing a book report about a book you don’t want to read. Goodness knows I didn’t enjoy every single moment of Vanity Fair. Though, if you want to know what happens or some literary insight, there’s Cliff Notes, Spark Notes, Wikipedia, and a lot of other choices. Someone in the article is quoted as saying that they hadn’t read Anna Karenina because it is long and finds these light versions “a breath of fresh air”.

    I guess this is alright if you just want the plot, but reading has always been more than that for me. Altering or changing the books by 40% is sort of alarming. Sometimes, long books reveal a lot more than “padding”. I also think it’s completely subjective of what should or shouldn’t be taken out from a book based on some unnamed criteria they have. Do I think some of the classic authors padded? By the Dickens, yes. That does not mean it ruins my experience; sometimes there’s a lot of literary brilliance in the padding… if you like that sort of fun wordplay.

    The thing is, no one is forcing you to read these classics. If you don’t like DC, AK, VF, or even Jane Eyre (which they are also book dieting), don’t read. Most of my friends are not bibliophiles, and I know lots of people who don’t like classics. Read what you like. Nick Hornby writes in one of his criticisms that we should all just read what we like and shouldn’t be forced or pressured into liking what we read. All because a book is a classic, a Pulitzer prize winner, or on the New York Times Bestseller’s list does not make it good, fun or even worth your time. Life is too short to read to books you don’t like. I just like spending my ethereal existence with long classics.

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