Meg Cabot posted an interesting piece to her blog today about not celebrating her birthday.

I'm with you sister. I'm so with you.

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This weekend was kind of an odd one. I got a chance to read Meg Cabot's latest book, Every Boy's Got One. I don't know if anyone else has had the chance to read it yet, but it left me with this strange longing to go to Italy. Not Rome or Venice, which would be kind of understandable. No. Instead I have this intense need to go to Le Marche. Did I know about Le Marche before reading this book? No. But I really, really want to go there.

I then read Katie MacAlister's new book, Hard Day's Knight. And you know what happened? I got this bizarre need to go to a Renaissance Fair. Have I been to one before? No. Have I ever wanted to go to one before? No. But now I'm jonesing to go to one. After I go to Le Marche of course.

I can't decide if I'm just crazy and looking for an excuse to go someplace new/fun, or if the authors did such a kick ass job describing the settings of their stories that I'm compelled to see/visit them.

Maybe it's that I'm still bitter that the only vacation my family took when I was a child was a trip to Dollywood. And no, I'm not making that up. See the Grand Canyon? Nope. How about Mount Rushmore? Never saw it. What about the Statue of Liberty? Ha! That's crazy talk! A trip to rural Tennessee which your 10-year-old daughter fears will become Deliverance: the Sequel? That's family magic waiting to happen my friends.

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I've been reading The Pact by Jennifer Sturman, a chicklit mystery. This is a book that I would normally have finished in one night, but given my schedule lately I've only been able to read in 20-30 minute chunks. For me this is not an ideal reading situation as I really want to get to the end of the book and find out who of all the potential suspects committed murder. And let me just say that pretty much the entire cast of characters could have done it at this point. So I'm a little frustrated that I don't know yet.

To compound the situation, I've been trying to break a bad habit of mine: reading the ending of a book first. I'm a big cheater when it comes to books. I usually only get about two or three chapters in before I flip to the back to assure myself that everything turns out alright in the end. I do this no matter what the book is. I know I shouldn't do it, I realize that I am robbing myself of the full reading experience, but I do it anyway. So I've been trying to break this habit, and I thought I was doing a pretty good job of breaking it. I made it through two books last week and didn't peek at the end even once. But last night I broke down and looked. I'm not proud of myself, but I couldn't take it anymore. I had to know who did it.

I am such a loser. Take my Library Diva privileges away from me.

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You can read the official announcement here, but here are the biggies:

Newbery Medal
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata

Newbery Honor Books
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt
Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko
The Voice that Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights by Russell Freedman

Caldecott Medal
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes

Caldecott Honor Books
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
Coming on Home Soon illustrated by E.B. Lewis and written by Jacqueline Woodson
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale by Mo Willems

Printz Award
how i live now by Meg Rosoff

Printz Honor Books
Airborn by Kenneth Oppel
Chanda's Secrets by Allan Stratton
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

Maybe it's just me, but I was kind of expecting some other titles to be on this list. I'm glad that they now do the Printz Award for young adult literature, but the list always seems to be hit or miss. Not that the winner and honor books aren't perfectly lovely, but there are other titles I would have thought of before them.

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I had to laugh this morning when I saw this article: Speaker Touts Stripping to 8th Graders. I really had to feel for the speaker. We get middle school students in here all the time who love nothing better than to mess with us by asking questions like "Can you help me find the Kama Sutra?" One of my first questions as a reference librarian back in Columbia was "Can you teach me how to French kiss?" And yes, the question came from a giggly teenage girl on the phone.

I may not make as much as a stripper, but my job is much more entertaining. :-)

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I am constantly amazed by what is being released on DVD. One of my friends was talking about how excited she was that they were releasing the first season of One Tree Hill on DVD, and I was kind of surprised that they were releasing it. I don't watch the show (so maybe I'm wrong), but it doesn't seem like the thing people would want to go out and buy just so they could have it forever and ever on DVD. Don't get me wrong. I love the fact that some of my favorite TV shows are now available on DVD, and I own more than I should. But there are some things that are being released that I just don't understand.

I went browsing on Amazon during my lunch break, and I was completely befuddled when I saw listings for the first seasons of Doogie Howser M.D., Full House, Hunter, and Night Court. Now I watched these shows when I was growing up, but I don't sit around my apartment at night wishing someone would put them on DVD so I could watch them again. The most bizarre DVD release however, has to be the release of the first season of Renegade. Who on earth (other than August Benassi* who wanted to be Reno Raines when he grew up) would want to add the first season of Renegade to their DVD collection? I just don't get it.

I do think it is kind of cool, however, that the first season of Degrassi Junior High is going to be released. Not the Degrassi they show on The N. The old Degrassi. The Degrassi with Joey, Snake, Wheels, Spike, Lucy, BLT, the whole gang. I remember the teacher in my health class showing us the episode where Spike had sex and got pregnant as sort of a warning/explanation of teenage sexuality. And the only reason we got to see it was because my school was progressive. Scary, I know.

*Note to Kirsten, Amy, and Melina: The look August has on his face in that picture is the same look I got during my semi-final with him at nationals. How I made it through the whole speech without soiling myself is a complete mystery.

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Last night was a great night of television. I normally don't devote an entire Sunday night to TV, but last night was the season premier of 24 so I made an exception. I must have done something right to get two hours of 24 last night and two hours of it again tonight. My mind is still trying to figure out where this season is going to take us (you can't really tell two hours in), but so far it looks promising:

1) Chloe is back, and her people skills are still missing. Chloe is the comic relief on the show. I don't know if the writers intend her to be, but she has me giggling like a crazy woman every time she opens her mouth.

2) No more Tony Almeida. Woo hoo! He was completely useless and I am soooooo happy he is gone.

3) In stead of lame-o Tony, we get Alberta Watson as the new head of CTU. She may be Erin Driscoll on 24, but she will always be Madeline from La Femme Nikita to me. The only thing that makes me a little sad is that I would love to see her go head to head with Sherry Palmer, but obviously that isn't possible.

4) Chloe has a friend, and it's Lukas Haas. How cool is that? Maybe if I lost my personality Lukas would be my friend too.

5) No one listens to Jack, and he has to make up for their incompetence. Business as usual.

There was so much Jack Bauer goodness last night, I can't wait to see what happens tonight. I do expect the early demise of Audrey, either half or three-fourths of the way through the season. As my friend Mike said. "Once Jack says I love you, you're marked by the Angel of Death." Sorry Audrey. You've got to go.

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Really, really mad. Furious beyond belief. What has me so upset? Probably not what you're thinking. It's a student. A really, really stupid student. I normally don't talk about the stuff that goes on in my classroom as I know I have former students who read this blog, and I think it's rude to bash one of their potential classmates. But, since I don't know the identity of this student and will be addressing this topic in class on Tuesday, I'm going to rant about it here. Here's some background so you can understand my anger:

Last night I gave my students their first assignment: answer 15 ready reference questions. Before the assignment was handed out we talked about sources that would be helpful in completing this assignment. I didn't get a chance to give them lab time to work on the assignment like I normally do (we had a lot to cover), but I am going to give them lab time on Tuesday. They know this. Lab time allows them to pick my brain if they are having problems, and it allows them to access resources that they might not necessarily have at their home libraries. I understand that not every library can buy every book I cover, but I know that the resources they need to use to complete their homework can be found at the college's library. And since my classroom is located inside the library, the resources are literally only a few yards away. If a student is missing an answer but knows where it should be found, they can quite easily come to class a few minutes early, locate the book on the shelf, and write down the answer and source citation. Does that sound hard?

Apparently it is. Earlier this afternoon my boss Bill came to me with a reference question he had just been asked (on the phone) and wanted to know if it was from one of my assignments. The reason he even thought to ask me was because:

1) the person told them they were a student
2) the person told them the answer they needed was for an assignment
3) the person told them the exact source to consult

It seems that the student had answered 14 of the 15 questions, but their library didn't have the source that was needed for the 15th question. So the student called my library for the answer. Bill wasn't sure how I would feel about a student handling their homework this way, which prompted him to come to me and ask, "How do you want me to handle this?" I told him not to give the student the answer, to point out to the student that I work here, that I am not comfortable with this situation, and that I would be addressing this issue in class on Tuesday. The student acknowledged that I worked here ("my instructor's name is Watson something") and didn't really seem bothered by being denied the information.

I don't know what bothers me the most: that a student would have a librarian doing their homework for them, that a student was too lazy or impatient to look the answer up on Tuesday, or that the student was stupid enough to call my library for the answer. Actually, now that I just typed that, it's their stupidity that bothers me the most. What would they have done if they had gotten me on the phone? I only missed this question by about 30 minutes, that's all.

Maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe it's not as stupid of a move as I think it is. Fortunately I have four days to think about it before I address it in class. One thing's for sure though. I am not looking forward to class on Tuesday.

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Looking to waste a little time or give your brain a rest? Visit 20Q.net and play a game of 20 questions (you can login anonymously). This is the virtual version of the handheld game 20Q. The really cool thing about 20Q is that it learns as it goes, so it incorporates the game it played with you into its store of knowledge to use in future games with other people. Like a child, it gets smarter with every experience.

During my lunch break I gave it a whirl and was impressed with how the game managed to finally guess the correct item. The game figured out in less than 20 questions when I tried snow and feather boa (which totally stunned me). I managed to take it past 20 questions with dvd player and cheese, but it did eventually get it. I finally won the game with blog. Let me know if you manage to stump it! :-)

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Two posts in one day? Wow. What's up with that? Give me until later this afternoon and I might make it three! :-)

Even though we are only four days into the new year (and despite the looming ugliness of February), 2005 is already shaping up to be a pretty good year. First, my friend The Krafty Librarian got a new job. And her new job is not just any old job. She's now the director of her very own library. I can't tell you how excited I am for her. And now that I have two friends who are running their own libraries, I'm going to get double the administrative horror stories. Fun, fun, fun!

To keep the good news rolling, The Sports Lady got engaged on New Year's Eve. Kirsten has yet to give us the details, but I noticed that Cory has them up on his blog. A big congratulations to the future Mr. and Mrs. Cory O'Donnell!

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Over on my mirror blog Lara left a comment about yesterday's post that I am now stealing and using here. And yes, I expect her at any moment to show up and beat the living snot out of me for continuously pilfering her posts.

Lara sometimes hands out a list to her class of the 20 books everybody should read before the age of 20. And since it is such a great list, I wanted to share it with you all:

Lara's Bookshelf: 20 Contemporary YA Novels Everyone Should Read before the Age of 20
1. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
2. Burger Wuss by M.T. Anderson
3. Dangerous Angels by Francesca Lia Block
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
5. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman
6. This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen
7. Breathing Underwater by Alex Flinn
8. Life Is Funny by E.R. Frank
9. Sweetblood by Pete Hautman
10. Damage by A.M. Jenkins
11. The Giver by Lois Lowry
12. Hidden Talents by David Lubar
13. Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
14. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty
15. Girl: A Novel by Blake Nelson
16. Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
17. Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas
18. Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger
19. Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
20. The Pigman by Paul Zindel

Now this is a YA list I can get behind. Lara has definitely inspired me, so I think I am going to have to start working on a list of my own. I can't imagine paring it down to only 20 novels (Lara likened it to Sophie's Choice), but I'm going to try my hardest to limit myself to only 20.

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I'm pilfering Lara's post from this morning (shameless, I know). The Young Adult Librarians and Specialists at the Seattle Public Library selected their Top 20 YA Books of the 20th Century. The list looks good, but I'm not sure I agree with all the choices. Any thoughts on what you would have included? I'll start: I definitely would have to have Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas and Chris Crutcher's Stotan on my list.

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