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.

Words, words, words...

I believe Eliza Doolittle said that in My Fair Lady, but she's not the reason I'm thinking about words today. You may have read that William Safire died this past weekend, and Safire cared passionately about words.

I never followed his newspaper column, but I do remember reading a collection of his On Language columns many years ago. Oddly enough one column from that collection still sticks in my mind. It was a column about names and the tendency of the upper classes to give their children first and last names that could be interchangeable--Chase Parker or Grant Clark for example. I tried to find that column in our collection, but couldn't. However, we do have several book by Safire, including some fiction--which I never knew he wrote.

This morning I was listening to an NPR program in his honor. They were asking listeners to call in their pet peeves and favorite new words. I heard lots of peeves, and very few favorite new words. My pet peeve is improperly used apostrophes. I couldn't think of a favorite new word either, which I guess means I'm more aware of what irritates me than what pleases me. At least linguistically.

Help us celebrate the 75th!

This October marks the 75th anniversary of the Main Library building at the corner of Hoyt and Everett avenues. It's amazing how timeless Carl Gould's art deco inspired design has proven to be, and the renovation and addition by Cardwell/Thomas and Dykeman Architects still serves us well.

Although the basic purpose of the library is the much the same, community needs and expectations for the library have changed over its 75 year life. Obvious changes are the ubiquitous computers that are so much a part of the library business today. Less obvious is the need to improve the resources we provide for teens. Teens are in the library--we know this not only because we see them, but also because over 8,000 of them have library cards. We've got a children's room and lots of space for adults. Now we want to create a teen room.

We are hoping to raise money for this project on Saturday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. with a history-oriented fundraiser at the Main Library. Click here to find out more about the event and how to purchase tickets. We hope you will join us for an evening of wine, food, and history--with all proceeds going towards our teen room project. Let's give our teens a great place to go.