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May 30, 2005
Kirsten took it, so I decided that I should too. And like Kirsten, I am not happy with my results.
Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com
FYI - Saw Revenge of the Sith with my mom over the weekend. Oy vey. On one hand it was really nice to sit through a Star Wars movie without someone next to me giggling every time Padme and Anakin are on screen together (no, Jennie and Eric, I didn't miss you guys at all), but on the other hand my mother remembers absolutely nothing about any of the movies. We watched Episodes One and Two again at Christmas time just so I wouldn't have to go through some big, painful explanation of everyone's back story. Fat lot of good that did me. My mom still couldn't believe that little boy grew up to be Darth Vader. Clearly, this was just something her daughter was telling her to screw with her. And at the end of the movie my mom turns to me and says, "That's it? Isn't Vader going to go kill Obi-Wan now?" When I say "Yeah, in the next movie," I am met with a perplexed look. Mental head slap.
Now that I think about it, maybe I am a lot like Darth Vader. I mostly wear the color black, twins run in my family, and I can be all sorts of crabby when I don't get my way. Break out the Death Star kind of crabby. If I ever develop a real bad case of asthma I might be able to pull it off. If I can get back my confiscated light saber that is.
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May 27, 2005
Tonight after work I made the long trek to my mother's house in Iowa. Okay, so it was only a two and a half hour trip, but it felt long sitting in traffic. For the heck of it I put my iPod on shuffle instead of listening to one of my normal driving home playlists. I don't know what was more disturbing: the fact that Debbie Gibson's Shake Your Love was loaded to my iPod or the fact that I could sing the entire song without missing a single lyric. I am positive that retaining the words to Shake Your Love is one of the many reasons I can't remember simple things like Did I brush my teeth this morning?
I don't know if I'll get a chance to blog again, but if I don't have a great weekend! :-)
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May 26, 2005
When I saw the headline "Sith" Fans Maimed in Light Saber Mishap, I couldn't help but read the article. I had a light saber once. Totally true story. It was only a flashlight with a long hollow tube coming out of it that glowed red or blue when you turned it on, but to a little kid it was pretty damn cool. I got it for Christmas right after Return of the Jedi came out, and couldn't wait to play with it. What made everything cooler was Kurt (the neighbor kid) got one too, and we were planning on staging some epic battles with them. As epic as our 8-year-old selves could make them that is.
We had one battle. One. Why you might ask? In all of our planning the one thing we didn't count on was my enthusiasm. As a child (and even now as an adult) there were very few things I was good at. However, I always made up for my lack of ability with enthusiasm. Through the course of my life I have managed to throw bowling balls behind me, wreck several bicycles (not my own of course), and take out an entire tree fort. It's not deliberate, it just happens.
When it came time for our first battle we decided we needed someplace epic. The obvious choice was the big deck on the back of his house. It was huge, it was elevated, and we could jump from it to the backyard (aerial maneuvers are so epic). After much arguing it was decided that I would be the one who got to say you're not my father (I was three months older after all). With all that laid out we proceeded to battle -- for about 30 seconds. It was at that point that I thought I should execute some sort of spinning move. In my mind I could see myself spinning around and bringing my light saber down across Kurt's shoulder. Cool, right? In reality I over spun myself and instead of taking a swipe at his shoulder I ended up cracking him in the head. Hard. And even though the light sabers were plastic, cracking him in the head managed to knocked him on his booty and raise a rather angry looking bump. My light saber didn't come out of the battle unscathed either, as it was sporting a Kurt sized dent right in the middle of the tube. Not good.
Kurt was a trooper so we probably would have still tried to hold other battles (I had injured him only three times at this point, his sister once), but his mom saw me crack him in the head and was not happy. While she didn't hold me totally responsible, she did feel that light sabers (even plastic ones) were too dangerous for 8-year-olds to play with. And since his mom and my mom were friends, both light sabers were promptly confiscated.
I guess the moral of this story and the news article is that some things (like light sabers) are better left on the movie screen.
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May 25, 2005
One of my listservs has been discussing this article for the past couple of days. Touching on the economics of book buying, I thought it was interesting to see this article given the feedback I received from reader about my book buying post a few days ago. Comments left for me both on the blog and in email showed that for many of you the decision between buying and borrowing was money driven. Given that the publishing industry is churning out more titles than ever and that publishers will soon be introducing book buyers to a new, up-sized paperback book (with a matching up-sized price), I have to wonder how this will impact the number of people who are regular book buyers. The idea of paying more money for fewer titles is very unappealing. Could this be a possible downfall for the book superstore?
This question reminded me of an article I read during my blogging hiatus in the New York Times called Attention, Shoppers: Sale on Fresh Books in Aisle 3. This article looks at the growth of book selling in grocery stores. Here's an excerpt:
Supermarkets, long the domain of paperback romances, pulp thrillers and astrology guides, are the new frontier of book selling. Chains like Wegmans, Kroger and Albertsons have greatly expanded their book sections, adapting the techniques that move large amounts of Velveeta and Count Chocula and applying them to Nora Roberts and John Grisham.
While their sales can't compete right now with those of Amazon.com or Borders, the number of hardcover and trade paperback books sold in grocery stores is significantly climbing. To coincide with that, grocery stores are giving books some significant shelf space. The article noted that some Kroger book departments can carry up to 2,800 titles (largely bestsellers). And while that is not the 200,000 titles that a Barnes & Noble could house, it sure beats the several hundred that you would find at Target or Wal-Mart.
Which leads me to question what some have already raised as a criticism. With consumers being bombarded with so many new (and sure to be best-selling) titles, how will they discover new authors? Heck, how will they discover mid-list authors?
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May 24, 2005
Tomorrow night will be a sad night. It will be my last official night with my reader advisory class (I don't count next week as they are doing presentations). This past quarter has been so great, I can't even count the number of times I have raved about it to my friends and co-workers. For the past two months I have gotten to have some truly great and thoughtful discussions about a wide variety of reading topics. We've discussed genres, reading preferences, our responsibilities in advising the reader, etc. The discussions we've had in class are the kinds of discussions most people probably think librarians sit around and have, but in reality rarely have the time (and for some the enthusiasm) for.
So tomorrow night's discussion is special, because it is our last chance to debate and dissect. No pressure there or anything. :-) Our topic (Chick Lit) has been on my mind the past few days as I've struggled to come up with an adequate definition for an ever expanding genre, as well as identify appeal factors for readers. We've already touched on this in earlier classes, so I know I'm in for a good discussion. Also, my reading experience over the weekend has raised a lot of questions about this genre that I will be anxious to get my students thoughts on.
In a weird sort of coincidence, I got a chance to surf over to one of my favorite blogs tonight and saw this post from Candy about what she finds unappealing about Chick Lit. I'll be curious to see what side of the fence my students fall on.
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This article about the Gossip Girl series came through on one of my listservs last night. It's a pretty interesting read. If you've ever read or thought about reading the books you should definitely take a look at it. Kind of hard to believe that when it comes to packaged books we've graduated from Sweet Valley High to Gossip Girl, The A-List, etc. I don't know if that can be considered a step up or a step back.
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May 23, 2005
In his presentation last week Michael Cart mentioned this article which has some startling statistics about book publishing and book buying. One particular quotation stood out to me however:
"People are reading less, so what you're seeing is the same phenomenon that has hit magazines and newspapers, a massive shift toward home video, DVD, internet and cable," said Albert N. Greco, an industry consultant and a professor of business at the graduate school of Fordham University.
I'm not sure if I agree with Professor Greco on this. I don't think you can equate book buying with book reading. What about library patrons? Just because they don't buy doesn't mean they aren't reading. With the rising cost of books and the decreasing amount of disposable income, I think more and more libraries are seeing an influx of patrons who previously purchased books and now have to borrow them. Which leads me to this question: when it comes to a book, how important is ownership?
For me it is very important. I like having that nice, clean copy in my hand. I don't want a book with a cracked binding marring it. Immediacy is also an issue with me. I like getting a book the first week it comes out. I may not read it right away, but it is a comfort to have it sitting on the TBR shelf of my bookcase just in case. I'm a freak, I know. But what about other people?
Awhile back I read a great post about Readers vs. readers (and no, I will not link to the post in order to protect the identity of the blogger). The basic gist of the post was that there are two classes: Readers and readers. Both groups enjoy reading. Both groups have people that would be considered voracious readers. The distinguishing factor between a Reader and reader? Passion. Passion about discussing books, passion about the book as a format, and passion about understanding readers (what they read and why they read it).
And now I'm wondering if I've accidentally discovered another distinction between the two groups: ownership. Could it be that the need to own a book vs. borrowing it depend on whether you are a Reader or a reader? Not to say that readers don't buy books. I just don't think that a reader buys as many books or places as much importance on owning a book as a Reader does.
What about you? How important to you is it to own the book?
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May 22, 2005
I mentioned last month that friend of mine had gotten tickets to go see Eminem. While I am excited that I get to go have fun and hang out with one of my best friends who I rarely see now that she has moved to Tampa, I'm feeling a little unsure about something she is planning for the concert: Operation Big Panties.
OBP involves getting a pair of really big undies, writing all sorts of fun messages on them, and then chucking them at the stage. And no, I can't take credit for thinking up this plan. The blame lies solely at the feet of a certain Sportslady who successfully completed the original OBP at an REO Speedwagon concert back in my college days. I didn't give it too much thought when she originally mentioned, but earlier today when on the phone she brought OBP up again and I felt the need to point out the difficulties we would face that the original OBP was not hampered by. The biggest problem being location, location, location. Then my friend dropped the bomb. We are sitting close to the stage. Very close. Throwing distance close. Which leaves me with several concerns:
1) What exactly did my friend do to get such good tickets? Did it involve giving up my first born child?
2) Would a crowd of Eminem and 50 Cent fans beat the living tar out of a girl who chucks really big panties at the stage? And if so, what is my responsibility
3) How much bail money will I need to get something out of the pokey for chucking big panties at Eminem?
Is it just me, or does this whole scheme sound like something Georgia Nicolson would do?
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May 21, 2005
I went in with the best intentions, but once I saw a couple of books that got released early my book buying plan got shot to hell. Sigh. I hate when that happens.
To make me feel even worse, I ended up setting aside the book I was going to read for this week's class in favor of one of the new books I got today. The book I'm reading now fits the theme, but I still feel pangs of guilty. Don't worry, I'll get over them. :-)
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May 20, 2005
I'm planning a trip to the bookstore tomorrow, so naturally I was thinking about what I needed to get. From past ugly experiences I know I need to go in with a plan of action that places a lot of limits on what I buy. So I do what I always: I sit down and write out everything that I want that is currently available and start voting titles of the island until I hit my preset spending limit. It's mean, it's ugly, it's ruthless... But it has to be done.
While making my list I couldn't help but think about books that are coming out during the summer that I am anxiously anticipating. I was kind of hoping to tackle my TBR pile over the summer, but I don't know how big of a dent I'll be able to put in it. Off the top of my head
Confessions of a Wicked Woman by Susanna Carr
Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington
Undead and Unappreciated by MaryJanice Davidson
Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich
Oceans of Fire by Christine Feehan
Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom by Julie Kenner
Larger Than Life by Alison Kent
Sins of the Night by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Dirty Little Secrets by Julie Leto
Hot Number by Carly Phillips
Summer Lovin' by Carly Phillips
Enchanted Inc. by Shanna Swendson
And this is just what my muddled brain can remember at the moment. And it's only adult titles. I'm not even mentioning the YA titles I've mentally earmarked. I didn't even put the new Harry Potter on the list! The truly sad thing is that this list should be longer. I left some off because I was lucky enough to get advance reading copies of them. I'm doomed!
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May 19, 2005
Earlier today I received the list of the 2006 nominees for the Abraham Lincoln Illinois High School Book Award. As with any awards list, there are titles I'm excited to see and others that leave me scratching my head. I am particularly surprised to see Stargirl on the list, considering that it was nominated for the 2003 Rebecca Caudill Award (which is geared towards student grade 4-8). Go figure. Anyway, for those who might be curious the 2006 nominees are:
Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
You Remind Me of You: A Poetry Memoir by Eireann Corrigan
King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen
The Battle of Jericho by Sharon Draper
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
The Children of Willesden Lane by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Sweetblood by Peter Hautman
Mother, Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The First Part Last by Angela Johnson
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler
The Usual Rules by Joyce Maynard
My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian
Inside Out by Terry Trueman
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May 18, 2005
Since I had spent the day with Michael Cart, tonight's topic for class was YA literature. As 6:30 rolled around I noticed that about half the class was missing. I waited a few minutes in case traffic was bad, but only a few more trickled in. Thinking it a bit odd, I worried to myself that I had infected my students with my plague during last week's class. At break several students came up to ask if they could leave early. It was then that I discovered what I believe to be the cause of my low turn out for tonight's class: Star Wars-itis. Several students were leaving class and going directly to the theater to stand in line to see the final Star Wars flick.
I feel so loved right now.
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Today was unusual. I spent the entire day out of the building so that I could attend a presentation by Michael Cart, Young Adult literature expert extraordinaire. It was so good I can't even put it into words. You always go to different meeting, seminars, conferences, etc. to learn and be inspired. Michael manages to do that and then some. I challenge anyone who is apathetic about YA literature to attend one of his sessions. I guarantee you won't feel the same way after hearing him speak.
One question still remains though: how does he manage to accomplish everything he does? He's a writer, an editor of his own literature journal, a reviewer, a columnist, a teacher, and kick ass speaker. How does he manage to do all of these things and still find time to read all the books he reads? I wish I had even a tenth of his energy.
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May 17, 2005
Sorry for the delay. My ISP kept booting me off and Blogger is giving me fits.
Before I begin, let me just say that I love Britney. I unashamedly admit that I have several Britney albums loaded to my iPod, and that a good friend and I forced her husband to take us to see Britney a couple of years ago. With that said, I cannot pass up an opportunity to mock something like this if given the chance. And since I don't know anyone else who was going to watch this that I could then discuss with at a later date, I'm going to subject you poor readers to my thoughts. I strongly suggest you stop reading now. This could get ugly.
Credits. They're chaotic! Wow. Is it a good thing or a bad thing that I'm already scared by this twosome?
And the show kicks off with snippets of Mrs. Federline performing Toxic. Appropriate, right? Yeah, I thought so too. The concert footage is interspliced with weird low light shots of Britney making bizarre faces. A shout out to Paris Hilton? Maybe.
London, UK
Rain. Britney is fascinated by how her knees look like boobs. Seriously. Her words, not mine. Now she is giving us the tour of her super cool hotel room. She's got a little hand held camera, so it is Brit acting as camera girl, narrator, and director. Quentin Tarantino has nothing to worry about. Britney is now explaining in an interview that she was on tour, missing her family, and feeling a void so she did what any girl does when they are missing mom and dad. She busted out her camera. Okay Brit, I'm with you so far.
Now she's talking to her hair guy about marriage and commitment (as one does). Hair guy's into commitment, but not so much marriage. Unless it means free health care. I'm with you dude. Now Britney says that honestly, she doesn't believe in marriage either. She's done it once already you know. Brit also pop quizzes her friend/assistant Felicia about marriage, commitment, and the perfect guy.
Cut back to the interview: Britney says she doesn't know why she was talking about commitment and marriage, but she hypothesizes that maybe it was because she hadn't had that in so long. Wow. Insert your own joke in here. Britney thinks she was giving a shout out to the universe saying, "Come to me." And Kevin Federline is how the universe responds? Talk about a universe that is hating you.
Cut back to Britney talking about her ideal. On the wish list:
1) He's cool.
2) He isn't fazed by that much stuff.
3) He hasn't really seen the much, because she has and wants to see through him all over again.
4) He has to be sweet and nice and love her a lot.
5) She doesn't care what he looks like. Oh, wait. She does care a little bit what he looks like. No uglies please.
In case you're wondering, the hair guy is just looking for a rich guy. I hear you dude.
They are now heading to TRL, but they are in London. Color me confused. Now Britney is filming herself singing along to D12's My Band. Say it with me people: oh the pain. Stop it Brit, no one's amused. Hey they really are at TRL. TRL UK that is. And the British TRL audience looks much more reserved than the American audience. Figures. And she is debuting her Everytime video. And there is Stephen Dorff ignoring her in the video. Poor Britney. She really needs a nice boyfriend, not just that fake mean one the video director hooked her up with. Now Britney is talking about her portrayal in the media. Really, she's just like anyone else. She longs for love, companionship, and friends. Now we are treated to a retrospective of Britney alone, sad music in the background, waiting for love. Aw. You gotta feel for the girl.
Now Britney is pop quizzing her female dancers about love and commitment. She declares in her interview that she was a Bitter Betty because she hadn't had a relationship in a long time. But talking about it with her girlfriends allowed her to justify and create what she wanted for the future. And for some reason Brit couldn't get this one guy out of her head. Gah! Our first shot of Mr. Federline. Are we suppose to find him cute? Because he isn't.
And now we've hit the first commercial break. Oh my God. It's only 8:16. This is taking for freaking ever.
Britney is back in her limo. Britney is talking about a cute guy on the tour named Miguel (Michelle, you didn't tell me you let your husband go out on tour with Britney!). And then Britney says something about hooking Felicia up with the dude, but it is hard to understand what she is saying as she is trying to say it Snoop Dogg style. And that's just wrong.
Oh! Great quotation here. Britney is now interviewing that, "There is a time in every woman's life, if you haven't had companionship, where you should let go and be your hot mama self and do your thing." Words to live by. We all need to be our hot mama selves. I knew if I watched this I'd walk away with a little wisdom.
Britney is getting ready to go on stage. We are treated to I'm A Slave For You, sans snake of course. If the snake was there, I would have run screaming from the room by now. Wow. That's a really ugly costume. I don't think I can even properly describe its fugliness. How did the back up dancers get better costumes?
Now Britney is showing us her bus. It's way nicer than any speech team bus I've ever been on, but does Britney get Kirsten as her driver? No. Take that Britney. Score one for me.
Manchester, UK
Britney is being harassed by paparazzi. Okay, she isn't really being harassed. There's like one person standing by a swing set taking a picture. The rest of the people below her window? Moms and toddlers. I think Britney's getting paranoid.
Britney is now inspired to offer some words of wisdom: People can take away everything from you, but they can never take away your truth. Okay. But the question is, can you handle my truth? Now I'm trying to figure out what my truth is.
Britney has moved from asking people about love and commitment and is now asking about favorite sex positions. Why do I get the feeling I'm going to learn something truly frightening about Britney here? She asks a whole bunch of people this question, and then all of sudden she is asking JC Chasez it to. What's he doing there? I'm telling Justin! Oh wait. He's opening up for her on tour. Wow. That's kind of sad. He refuses to answer. You go JC.
More concert footage. The Onyx Hotel Tour was just weird. It's like Britney watched lots of Madonna footage (who puts on phenomenal concerts) and is trying to emulate her, but she doesn't really know how to go about doing it. The costumes she and her dancers are wearing are total rip offs from Madonna's Blonde Ambition Tour. If you're going to pay homage, do it right. I'm just saying.
Now Britney tells us that she was feeling a void while on tour. But she met this guy in LA and thought, "Why not bring him to London with me?" Uh, because he's icky and has a girlfriend/babymama?
Commercial break. Half way through. Okay, I can do this.
Now we get to hear from Kevin. This should be good. Kevin says he was living with his best friend from back home when he met Britney at one of his usual hangouts. A couple of her dancers introduced them. You know if I was her mama I'd be firing those dancers right about now. Kevin struck Britney as very mysterious. Okay, I don't see but I'll go with that. Kevin says he doesn't know how, but magic happened. Ew.
Britney told Kevin she wouldn't go on tour unless he went with her. Now there's lots of awkward You're cute... No, you're cute. Oy. Oh! Brit just asked him an important question: how do you feel about marriage and commitment? His response:
I feel that... (big pause) I feel that love is love. Love has... Love is a commitment. I don't believe in marriage. I believe you can get married. Ha ha ha.
What a tool. Britney says she asked him this as a sort of reverse psychology. Because if she asked him then that meant she didn't like him, which ended up screwing her as she ended up falling for him even more. Her words, not mine. But I agree on the screwing part.
Now they are talking to Mo the security guard. Surprisingly, Mo didn't like Kevin at first. He thought he was there for a free ride. Word Mo. Word. He didn't like the way he looked, the way he walked, wore his hair, etc. He didn't like anything about him.
Cut to Britney and Kevin talking about Eminem. I quote:
Britney: What do you think about Eminem?
Kevin: I think he is a genius.
Britney: He's a genius. But he complains a lot. But that's cool.
Hee hee. I can barely type I'm laughing so hard. Commercial break. Thank God, only 15 more minutes.
Rainy day in London. Kevin's in the shower (so didn't want to know that). Another tour of a hotel room. Britney doesn't understand the artwork. Yeah, I feel for you Britney. Gah! Kevin just came out of the shower. I think I'm blind now. Britney wants to leave, but is waiting for Kevin to get ready. He's such a girl.
Driving through London. Driving, driving, driving. Britney is doing the sound check thing at Wembley Arena. Now she's back at the hotel running on her treadmill. And telling her friend Felicia about how much her and Kevin are doing it. I feel your pain Felicia. Now she's talking about it with her hair guy. There hair guy says he approves, but you so know he doesn't. Britney is nervous about performing her show in front of Kevin. Don't worry. He'll still love you.
Britney ended by saying that anything she has ever wanted she put her mind to and got. But with Kevin she didn't know and that made her scared. I'm scared too Brit, but for entirely different reasons.
Next week's episode: Gross close up shots of them kissing. Tension between Mo and Kevin. Ooh! It looks like Mo is roughing Kevin up. That might be worth tuning in for.
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Tonight marks the debut of probably the most painful, mind numbing television viewing experience ever. That's right folks, Britney and Kevin: Chaotic is finally here. Can you handle their truth? Seriously. They want to know.
To spare you all the agony, I'm going to take one for the team and watch it tonight. I'll blog as I'm watching it and post my recap after it ends. Unless I'm beating my head against a wall. Then you'll have to wait about half an hour. :-)
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Yes, I know it has been a long, long time since I posted. But I have a good excuse. I've had the plague. Okay, maybe it wasn't the plague, and just a really heinous cold. But it felt like the plague, so that's the story I'm sticking with.
To compound the plague and make it stretch on even longer than it should have, my mother came to visit. In the aftermath, I have not had a chance to blog. To make up for it, I declare this week (beginning today and continuing on through next Tuesday) Blogapalooza. Because everything sounds better with apalooza after it.
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