12.02.08

Border’s Educator Savings Day - an extra one

Posted in Specials and opportunities, Books at 10:24 am by Meg

It looks like Borders is having an one day Educator Savings Day on Thursday, Dec. 4.

25% off nearly everything in the store.

Only in stores!
Current and retired educators save on purchases for personal or classroom use.

*Certain exclusions apply. Cannot be combined with any other offer, including but not limited to “3 for 2,” “Buy 3, Get 4th Free,” “Buy 4, Get 5th Free,” or “Buy 1, Get 1 Half Price” offers. Excludes previous and online purchases, gift cards, periodicals, comics, non-stock special orders, coupon books, eBooks, digital downloads, Rosetta Stone® software, shipping, and all electronics, including but not limited to the Sony® Reader and the Zune^TM. Also excludes all Dean & DeLuca® and Starbucks® cafe items and products. May not be combined with coupons, sale pricing, or corporate, classroom, or other group discounts.

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10.23.08

Does this fit you?

Posted in Books at 10:00 am by Meg

“You’ve got too many books.

They crowd the shelves two or three deep, sideways or stacked any way they’ll fit; they pile on tables waiting to be read, re-read, or simply kept forever.

It’s gotten to the point where they’ve started to multiply when you’re not watching — there’s definitely more today than yesterday. And it’ll keep on like this, until there’s nothing at all left but books, books, and more books. How glorious.

Others don’t understand, but you — you breathe the stuff. You inhale paper and exhale ink; you live between pages, and your habitat is the written word. For you are a…”

Okay, now I have a new explanation for our house.

Hubby’s

Girl’s

Mine…

And still on the floor.

And that’s with buying a new full sized bookcase last year!!

edited later for Kim - here’s the books I recently removed from my shelves. If you look at my picture you can still see them piled on the floor next to the bookcases.

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09.30.08

Who is John Galt?

Posted in Books at 10:22 am by Meg

”I hate it! I hate the doom you’re all waiting for, the giving up, and that senseless question that always sounds like a cry for help. I’m sick of hearing pleas for John Galt.”

Dagny Taggart

It’s very interesting with today’s economic issues to be rereading Atlas Shrugged for my book group. Hard to believe that we had picked the book back in May.

I’ve read the book about 4 or 5 times since I found it on my dad’s bookshelves as a teenager. Yeah, it had that much of an impact on me. In fact, I know quite a few people that the book has had a profound impact on. It makes you think about your place in the world and the value of personal responsibility.

This time I started the book by listening to the abridged version on CD. I’m going back to reread it instead.

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09.27.08

Banning Books

Posted in Books at 12:02 am by Meg

It’s a hot topic this fall because of a certain person’s track record of not only trying to ban some books in her town’s library, but also because it appears that she then tried to get the librarian fired for refusing ‘her lordship.’

With that in mind, it’s important to realize that there is much more to the story behind banning books than the ones that hit the national news with a thud.

It is an issue that can come along and sneak into libraries and mindsets by a back door. And I can say that because my library is working it’s way along that road.

The ALA not only sponsors Banned Book Week they also support free access to the library for all minors. Now you may be thinking that means of course they can get a library card, there’s no charge for it….

But that’s not what they mean by Free Access. No, Free Access means the freedom to use/check out any material that the library stocks and an adult could check out. And that’s where my local library is failing, and that failing is the start down the road to banning books.

How do I know? Well, Girl has been on a music kick lately (surprise, surprise) and well, as you can guess, the music in the kid’s section of the library is not what she wants to listen to. So, she’s been checking out as much as a dozen CDs a week from the general circulation music….

But she can’t do that with her card. Nope as a minor, she is restricted. She has to use my adult card to get access to the music. - and I’ve checked (seeing that she is a teenager) - I can’t get her an adult library card, even if I wanted to.

Now, it may seem like that’s a good idea -

‘Would you want your little child checking out something without a parent being aware?’

- but it isn’t. Once you cross the line of restricting access, it’s only shades of gray until you restict it more. And then out-right banning of some books is acceptable and ‘needed’.

NO - I don’t care how much a book bothers me and my views, it has as much right to be on a shelf in a library as any other. There are books out there that I totally disagree with, ones that I think push behaviors that are dangerous to the individuals that read them and the people that individual comes in contact with. - But I will not support the idea of removing that book from a shelf just because of my views.

September 27 to October 4 is:

The ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom received a total of 420 challenges last year. A challenge is defined as a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. According to Judith F. Krug, director of the Office for Intellectual Freedom, the number of challenges reflects only incidents reported, and for each reported, four or five remain unreported.

The “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007” reflect a range of themes, and consist of the following titles:

1. “And Tango Makes Three,” by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
Reasons: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
2. The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence
3. “Olive’s Ocean,” by Kevin Henkes
Reasons: Sexually Explicit and Offensive Language
4. “The Golden Compass,” by Philip Pullman
Reasons: Religious Viewpoint
5. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain
Reasons: Racism
6. “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,
7. “TTYL,” by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
8. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” by Maya Angelou
Reasons: Sexually Explicit
9. “It’s Perfectly Normal,” by Robie Harris
Reasons: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit
10. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg of what people try to get banned.

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09.24.08

I figured out how Eragon will defeat Galbatorix

Posted in Books at 8:54 am by Meg

I’m so psyched. I’m not quite finished with Brisingr (about 130 pages left) and Paolini just revealed something that I had suspected since the first book.

With that and some other hints in this book, I think I figured out the way for Eragon to win.

Now, I’ll stop here, but below the fold, I’ll talk about it because I want to put it down so I can see later if I’m basically correct. Read on, but be aware there will be spoilers from Brinsingr. Read the rest of this entry »

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09.21.08

Brisingr

Posted in Books at 12:49 am by Meg

My sweet Hubby picked up the book for me this afternoon and brought it home about 30 mins before Girl and I were heading out to a birthday party - where she got to play with airsoft guns and I got to sit and chat with friends. (BTW, she LOVES the airsoft guns.)

We’ve been home for about 3 hours during which I dealt with laundry, IM’d with Boy about the Secular Community Service Group’s bonding experience - they camped out and went kayaking - he had fun, and lo and behold, the sleeping bag that I tried to discourage him from taking, did come in handy - and bopped around a few websites.

I’m now 111 pages (out of about 750) through it and I can say that I’m enjoying it. I didn’t reread the last book, so I was little lost starting (he gave a short review at the beginning - but I only skimmed it), but I’m getting into the story.

I am staying up late tonight because Dater has a field trip on Sunday (today, I guess) and needs to be at the high school at 3:30 AM. It just seems easier to stay up and it’s not like I don’t have a book to occupy myself.

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