Garfunkliography

Art Garfunkel has an odd and interesting web site, in which he lists every single book that he has read since June 1968. There are hundreds of books here, mostly fairly high-brow stuff with a sprinkling of popular books. For example, recently Garfunkel has tackled Reinhold Niebuhr, Edmund Burke, Octavio Paz, V.S. Naipaul, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

With all that reading going on, the sound of silence must prevail at his house. (Double apologies for the lame joke and crusty sixties reference.)

The Liberation of Books

From time to time, I come across a web site that makes me think, This is why the Internet was invented.  These are sites that take advantage of a connected world, that are not looking to make a buck, and that contribute something to the common good.  Librivox is such a site.

The full name of the site explains it all — Librivox: Accoustical Liberation of Books in the Public Domain.  It’s goal is to read aloud, record, and make available for free download all books in the public domain.  To date 1,186 titles are available, all read and recorded by volunteer readers.

Want more information?  Take a look at the site’s comprehensive FAQ.

Home For The Holidays

We have changed the loan period for our bestsellers collection. (See post here for information about this collection.) To enable students to bring home books for the whole intersession, we have extended the due date on these books to take you into the first week of the spring semester. Check them out now for the holidays.

A Sampling of What’s in the Bestsellers Collection
(Descriptions from the NYT Bestsellers List)

A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, by Khaled Hosseini.
A friendship between two women in Afghanistan against the backdrop of 30 years of war.

THE CHOICE, by Nicholas Sparks.
How a North Carolina man’s choices play out in his life; from the author of ““At First Sight.”

PLAYING FOR PIZZA, by John Grisham.
An American third-string quarterback joins the Italian National Football League’s Parma Panthers.

I AM AMERICA (AND SO CAN YOU!), by Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Allison Silverman et al.
The wit and wisdom of the mock pundit of Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report.”

BOOM!, by Tom Brokaw.
The retired news anchor and author of “The Greatest Generation” recalls and assesses the 1960s.

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE, by Alan Greenspan.
A memoir by the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

Plus 654 more books!!!! The Bestsellers Collection is located on the 2nd floor of the main library, directly above the main desk.

Worst Book Ever Written

Sorry about the headline; I’ve been watching too much Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

However, a review of the current bestselling novel Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson, makes it sound like this might be, uh, the worst book ever written. Interestingly I am in the midst of reading/listening to this novel. While I did not have the same visceral reaction to the book that B.R. Myers did (read his article in the December issue of The Atlantic), I’ve had a hard time garnering interest in the story or its characters.

What makes this all the more interesting is that, as Myers says, Johnson’s early collection of stories, Jesus’ Son, is widely regarded as “the best American book of the past 25 years.” Given this sort of track record, I will stick out Tree and hope to find some reward by the end.

Anyone out there had their own experience reading Johnson? And please, let us know what you think is the worst book every written…

UPDATE: Tree of Smoke has won the National Book Award for Fiction (11-14-07). Not bad for the worst book ever written!

UPDATE: Tree of  Smoke is listed on the New York Times Best Books of 2007 list.

Booker Prize Awarded

Last night, the 2007 Booker Prize was awarded to Anne Enright for her novel The Gathering.   Every review I have read about this novel describes it as bleak.  Indeed one review calls the book “distinctive” in its “exhilarating bleakness.”

Enright herself acknowledges that the book is the equivalent of a Hollywood weepie.  Nontheless, it is described as powerful novel that is well worth the investment.

•  See the announcement on the Booker Prize site.
• Check out reviews on Amazon.

Encyclopedia Sets

Here is an offer to dedicated readers of this blog.

The library is removing three older encyclopedia sets from its collection. If you would like to purchase a set for $20 free, be the first to contact me at this email address and it will be yours.

Here is what is available:

• Colliers Encyclopedia, 1991 (24 volumes) TAKEN….
  
• Academic American Encyclopedia, 1988 (21 volumes) TAKEN…
  
• Encyclopedia Americana, 1990 (30 volumes, NOTE: volume 13 is missing) TAKEN…
  

Please indicate which set you are interested in. (One set per person.) You must be able to come to the library to pick up the encyclopedias.

Booker Prize Short List

For many years I have monitored the Booker Prize with interest. Each year, one full-length novel, written by a citizen of the British Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland, is awarded the Man Booker Prize. By keeping up on the books that win the Booker or show up on its Short List (the handful of finalists), I have been able to discover many favorite authors who I might otherwise have missed.

Previous winners that I have enjoyed include:

• Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
• Vernon Little God by DBC Pierre
• The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
• Last Orders by Graham Swift

See complete archives of winners…

This year’s short list include novels by Nicola Barker, Anne Enright, Mohsin Hamid, Lloyd Jones, Ian McEwan, and Indira Sinha. This year’s winner will be announced on October 16. More to follow….

Into the Wild

The current Book of the Semester is Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. It is a nonfiction book about a young man with many opportunities, who decides to hitchhike to a remote part of Alaska with a romantic desire to escape civilization. Instead he is found dead of starvation in an abandoned bus. The motivation behind his behavior, the people he meets along the way, his family and friends, all add up to an interesting and thought provoking portrait.

The Library has ordered one copy of the book which will be placed on reserve for Book of the Semester when it arrives. It is also available now at the campus bookstore.

The Library would like to invite all interested students, faculty and staff to join us for one of the following informal discussion groups:

• Wed, Sept 19 at 7pm
• Wed, Oct 24 at 7pm
• Wed, Nov 14 at 7pm

We will meet in the instruction room of the Neil Hellman Library. Be there or be square!

-Posted by Kate Moss, Access Librarian

Bestseller Collection Ready

As noted earlier, the Neil Hellman Library has been preparing for an influx of current, bestselling books  that will be available for checkout. The collection is now on the shelves and ready for you to look at and checkout.  We are using a leasing agent, who will be providing us with a collection of 660 books, from which we will rotate out approximately 30 titles each month. Once a book hits the top 15 of the New York Times bestseller list (both fiction and non-fiction), it is shipped to us immediately and ready for the shelves.

This collection is available in the 2nd floor Reading Room (directly above the Circulation Desk). Books may be checked out for 14 days.

Harry Potter And The Power of Narrative

I confess. I tried the first Harry Potter book when it came out and quit about 100 pages in. Not my cup of tea. I am the strange duck who enjoys the secondary literature more than the novel!

And here is an article I recommend with enthusiasm. From The Common Review (published by The Great Books Foundation) comes an article by Michael Berube, Harry Potter and the Power of Narrative. It depicts how a love of the Harry Potter movies and subsequently the books helps his son, born with Down syndrome, make sense of narrative and by extension his own world.

The most fascinating part of this article is when Berube relates the exchange between him and his son Jamie at a juncture in the book where Harry displays sympathy for orphans. Berube asks Jamie, “Did Harry have a happy childhood when growing up?” This draws out a barrage of responses from his son, making connections with movies he has regularly viewed, like Like Mike, Babe, Free Willy, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Star Wars. As readers we are privileged to share this moment of enlightenment that occurs between father and son.

Along the way Berube throws a barb or two at critics Harold Bloom and A.S. Byatt. The article is well-written and inspiring — so much so that I might give Rowling another shot.

Read the article here.