The morning after...

The morning after Christmas finds me working the reference desk, and reflecting on one of my Christmas presents: 1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die. I immediately started paging through to check off the ones I'd already seen, and although I thought I'd seen a lot of gardens in my time, I still have 970+ left to go. A few of them are even in the area, and I have resolved to visit both the Bloedel Reserve and the Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden before the end of 2010.

This kind of book has become ubiquitous in the last few years, maybe because they make such easy gifts for people who are gardeners, travelers, music lovers, etc. I did a quick catalog search to see how many of these books we have in our collection. I found books for baseball fans, divers, history buffs, and art enthusiasts. If you'd like to check out the possibilites or just see how your life experiences stack up, click here.

Drop off some diapers with those books...

Inspired by an article in the Herald on the need for diapers at the Everett Gospel Mission's Women and Children's Shelter, library staff decided to collect disposable diapers this month. Last year we collected hats, mittens, and gloves, and encouraged library patrons to donate to the cause as well. Your response was extremely gratifying.

Now we're hoping for more diapers to add to those staff have donated. Diapers are not as fun to pick out as cozy knitted things, but for a mother with a small child they are an absolute necessity. If you're a baby, dry and clean are good things to be.

You can drop off diapers (large sizes are in particular demand) at either location until December 28, and we'll take them to the shelter. And you could even check out Super Diaper Baby by Dav Pilkey, the author of the Captain Underpants books.

The Holiday Season

I'm back from a long Thanksgiving weekend, which I spent reading and watching a few not very good movies. My family has a long tradition of watching action movies when we're together, and even though there were just a few of us, we still watched the new Star Trek and Crank 2. I thought Star Trek was a bit confusing, especially when my nephew sat on the remote and plunged us back in time--leaving us all thoroughly confused about whether this was yet another plot twist or deju vu. Crank 2 may be the worst movie I have ever seen, and I'm pleased to say the the library does not own it.

I also finished Frank Bruni's Born Round. Bruni was the restaurant critic for the New York Times until just recently, and his book chronicles his almost life-long struggle with overeating. Maybe not the best book to read during a holiday that celebrates eating to excess?

National Book Awards

Colum McCann has won the National Book Award for his novel, Let the Great World Spin. I haven't read it yet, but was interested to learn that the events in the book occur as Philippe Petit is walking on a tightrope strung between the towers of the World Trade Center. The library has the documentary DVD about Petit's daring stunt, Man on Wire, and I can recommend the film to documentary fans. Now I need to add McCann's book to my reading list.

It's Election Day

Today is Election Day, or as the Seattle Times referred to it today, ballot counting day. I've been thinking about the implications of all mail elections because I've been observing candidates waving signs at street corners for the last few days, recycling lots of flyers and postcards from various candidates, and hanging up on lots of robo-calls. I didn't vote as soon as I got my ballot in the mail, but I voted almost a week ago--and I bet many people have sent in their ballots in advance of the actual deadline.

So does this mean that traditional campaign strategies such as standing on street corners and last minute mailings and robo-calls don't work anymore? I suspect that might be true. Still, I hope you voted. And I'll leave you with a quote from Walter H. Judd, a doctor and American politician.

"People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote--a very different thing."

We love our Friends...

It's National Friends of the Library Week, so I wanted to let our members know how thankful we are every day of the year for your support. Our Friends group supports the Summer Reading Program by buying books for those who finish their reading goal. They purchase book group kits for local book clubs. They fund programs for adults and children. They've purchased new toys for the Children's Rooms at both libraries. They supported the Family Reading Area, and are contributing to the teen room project. They are endowing a Collection for Excellence for the library through the Greater Everett Community Foundation. They volunteer time during the Mayor's Award, National Library Week, and other special events. I love our Friends, and if you're not a Friend now, please consider joining. We'll take your time or your money, or both. It's easy--just click here.

Librarians in fiction and film

Jo Dereske, author of the Miss Zukas mysteries will be at the Main Library on October 10 at 2 p.m. Miss Zukas is a librarian, as is Dereske--as am I. So that got me thinking about other books with librarians as characters. I've read a few, which I'll get to, but I looked first in Novelist, one of our online databases (and a great source for reading ideas) just to get a sense of how ubiquitous we librarians are in fiction. It turns out that librarians are well represented in fiction.

Although I don't ever expect anyone to come up to the reference desk and say "can you recommend a good book with a librarian as a character?" here's a list of books you might enjoy even if one of the characters wasn't a librarian:
Elizabeth McCracken's The Giant's House, Allen Kurzweil's The Grand Complication, Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, Ian Sansom's The Case of the Missing Books, and Richard Powers' The Gold Bug Variations.

When not on the reference desk or between the pages of a book, librarians can also be found in film. But I think that will be another post because this one is getting a bit long.