Libraries

Your Library is Your Portrait

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I found this quote on Sputnitsa’s blog; its by Holbrook Johnson.

Coincidentally, a friend of mine posted a meme about fifteen books that have really stuck with you. I decided to participate, so here are my books.

1. Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian:  I read this book and was hooked on the time period; I think I’ve read it five or six times.
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien: I had one of my senior portraits taken with the giant, red bound edition of this book.
3. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: One of my favorites; it makes me happy every time I read it.
4. The War of the Worlds by HG Wells: Finally read it this summer, but I’ve been enthralled with the story for years.
5. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux: Read it before I saw the movie. I adore this book; it is so brilliantly written. I need to get my copy back.
6. Watery Grave by Bruce Alexander: Mystery+Royal Navy=right up my alley.
7. Moon by Tony Fletcher: The best biography I’ve read, hands down. I laughed, I cried, I’ve read the book twice.
8. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose: Just read it this summer, but…ah! It really sticks with you; it has the perfect ending.
9. The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Hawthorne+Italy. Two of my favorite nouns together! Not his best work, but my favorite.
10. Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors: Best love story I have ever read.
11. 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith: The characters are all so wonderfully realized; it feels like I know them personally.
12. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: Not my favorite RLS story (The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde ranks higher) but I’ve always wanted to make a really good movie based on this; I often joke that this is where my first Oscar will come from.
13. Macbeth by William Shakespeare: My favorite Shakespeare play; Julius Caesar oddly comes close.
14. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: I’ve become even more observant, if that’s hard to believe.
15. The Irregulars by Jennet Conant: I’ve become obsessed with Roald Dahl’s early work, and it piqued my interest in Leslie Howard and David Ogilvy.

Strangely, a third of the list are books that I read this summer.

I love booksales!

What's On the Bookshelf?

I think I’ve already said how much I love booksales. I went to another today and picked up Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for fifty cents. You can’t turn that down.

I also got a twenty-eight story omnibus of Roald Dahl’s adult stories…woohoo!

The great thing about booksales (at least in my community) is that they also benefit the library. Old books for cheap, we load up on ’em, and then give them back to be sold once again. I rarely buy new books (stingy poor college student), so fifty cent paperbacks and one dollar hard covers is the way to go.

I worry librarians.

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I dashed to the library today, minutes before they announced that they were closing for the evening. But that’s okay. I was on a mission, questing for research  and a David Ogilvy bio. Alas, I didn’t find the latter.

I can tell the moment I step into a library. The librarians look up from their stocking the shelves, either to say hello (as at my favorite library), or figure out an escape route. Because without a doubt, within an hour I’ll be up at the check out desk with a stack of random books, or at least books on a subject that shouldn’t interest college-aged girls.

Band of Brothers, I could see today’s librarian thinking. Not Twilight? What is wrong with this girl? Oh good, she got a beading magazine and a U2 CD. Maybe these books are for her dad.

Wrong-o.

Libraries are to me as Wikipedia is to XKCD. The random books on the shelves prompt me to grab, open, skim, and either return or continue reading. Thankfully, I’ve stayed away from the foreign language section for the time being.

Libraries: What wonderful way to jumpstart the imagination!

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I love libraries. Books spread as far as the eye can see, the quiet, the hiding amongst the stacks while perusing through an art book…ah! What joy!
To the library I went today, grabbing some fiction (Alexander McCall Smith, of course, along with some classic sci fi) and stumbled through the reference section.
Countless scores of topics live in the reference section, and from them millions of ideas conceived.
Research for The Continent commenced. I picked up a book on The Resistance during WWII, which I’ll attempt to read in the near future.