|
|
Have you ever added a quote to the quotation field in [Library Thing’s] common knowledge? What’s a quote you particularly like from a book, one that you know by heart?
Since I didn’t know what “common knowledge” was until seeing this, no. It may, though, come in as a handy resource.
Although I put quotes at the end of each post, I’m not a big one for memorizing them. Probably an issue of too few brain cells. That said, I have always remembered this quote from Hugh Prather’s Notes to Myself: “If the desire to write is not accompanied by actual writing then the desire is not to write.” Although I first read the book more than 30 years ago, that still is a perfect summary of my approach toward writing.
He who trains his tongue to quote the learned sages will be known far and wide as a smart ass.
Howard Kandel
Here is the third of the book-related memes in which I will occasionally participate:
Do you treat books carefully, or do you just treat them as any other object? Do you have certain things you refuse to do with books (write in them, etc)? If so, what are they?
I am almost obsessive about the treatment of books. I even hate it if the dust jacket gets bent or scuffed or develops a small tear.
Because I consider them friends, I treat books like I treat my human friends and you certainly don’t fold, bend, spindle or mutilate your friends. (Although I’m guessing the term “spindle” is as outdated as the punch cards with which it was associated.) To me, laying a book face down with the pages open is the visual equivalent of fingernails on a chalk board. If I see a book at the office or at home like that (which is almost unheard of for the latter), I will put something in to mark the place and close the book. Not only will I grab anything usable at hand to place in the page I’m at, I often refrain from using the flaps you see in some paperbacks these days that can be used to mark your page. Why? I don’t want to deform the flap.
I do break the rule in one respect. In books I am reviewing, I dog ear pages I particularly want to come back to for the review. I do this to avoid writing in the book, figuring it is the lesser of two evils. I also figure you can (and I do) smooth out the dog ears once they’ve served their purpose. f there are particular passages I want to mark permanently, I use book darts, which remain in the book once it goes on the shelves. I keep one of the containers holding the darts on the bookshelf on the bed so they’re handy if I need one.
Idiosyncrasy or obsession? Six of one, half dozen of the other.
Don’t use books as coasters. Insult people who do.
Book Care for Bibliophiles
It took a while (and more work than I can probably imagine) but Unplanned Democracy, the documentary about South Dakota’s 2006 abortion ban vote written and directed by Denise Ross, has its world premiere Saturday at the South Dakota Film Festival. Given that South Dakotans face another abortion vote in November, the premiere is timely.
If, like me, you’re not going to make it to Aberdeen for the premiere Denise says DVDs of the documentary are now available for sale. And you’ll get a discount if you follow instructions and order before Sept. 22.
Go order one and support a South Dakota documentary filmmaker.
To prepare for what’s coming next, you need to understand what happened in South Dakota in 2006.
Unplanned Democracy website
Here’s the first installment in another of the book memes I will be using as motivation/inspiration for writing more about books and the reading life.
Today is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.
So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.
And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?
I don’t know that I read a lot of books involving villains, other than some of the SF I read. To the extent 9/11 and the Madrid and Tube bombings, etc., affect my reading selections I am one of those sort of looking for the great post-9/11 novel. I know using the term 9/11 is too nation-centric but it is the easiest short hand for the central conflict most perceive today.
I can’t say I’ve found that novel yet but the best two I’ve read thus far are Ian McEwan’s Saturday and Dorothea Dieckmann’s Guantanamo. While Guantanamo deals more with America’s political response to 9/11 than the impact of 9/11 and terrorism on society as a whole, Saturday fairly oozes the unease and angst of the last seven years. And while they are two of the best books I’ve read over the last couple years, I would be remiss not to mention Laila Halaby’s Once in a Promised Land, which explores the impact of 9/11 on Middle Eastern immigrants to the U.S.
From my perspective, these books succeed because they are not “we the victims” tales. Rather, they take a broader view of what these events mean for the world and society as a whole. With that as perhaps my standard for post-9/11 literature, we may be looking too early. As with history, perspective requires time. With troops still in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ongoing debate over whether this is a clash of civilizations or something else, and 9/11 still being too often used as political fodder, the novels so far probably are the first drafts of any true post-9/11 literature. The pursuit of and search for that literature will affect countless readers for years to come.
It’s never the changes we want that change everything.
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
It should come as no surprise but, at least according to Amazon, South Dakota reads red. Not red as in my younger days (you know, them Commies). No, red as in the red state-blue state divide.
Amazon has an Election 2008 map tracking political book buying. According to it, during the last 60 days a “red” book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, is besting the best-selling “blue” book, U.S. Versus Them: How a Half-Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America’s Security, 69 percent to 31 percent. Indicating this is neither unexpected nor an aberration, during the same period of the 2004 election the “red book” (Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush is Winning the War on Terror was outselling the “blue book” (Homegrown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts from the Heart of America) 62 percent to 38 percent.
Amazon does have a page explaining how it comes up with the map, which it intends to update daily.
People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.
Abraham Lincoln, quoted in Collections and Recollections
|
Disclaimer 
Additionally, some links on this blog go to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you. Contact me You can e-mail me at prairieprogressive at gmaildotcom.
|
