Summer Reading: The Chronicles of Harris Burdick

I didn't know anything about Harris Burdick, his illustrations, or their strange captions until Valerie told me about them and this book. The book has the illustrations along with stories by different authors to match each illustration.This weekend I read five of the stories aloud to Ross. We definitely have our favorite. There was only one story that we really didn't like at all.

I have been doing quite a bit of reading lately. I have started a novel by a Russian author, I have been reading a book of Russian gothic tales, and then this book of short stories. I need to keep at it. I want to finish all 3 books, and I have another book on hold at the library. I guess I'm having my own little Summer reading program.

Fascination: Loss of Knowledge

I'm fascinated by the idea of a massive world-wide loss of knowledge.  I been rereading some of my favorite childhood books--The Tripod series John Christopher. In the books watches and clocks are rare, train cars are pulled by horses, and large cities are completely abandoned. In The Gunslinger the characters also come across abandoned cities, are baffled by the cars they find, and have somehow lost all technology.

I wonder if this could really happen to us. In some ways, it already has. We have lost musical instruments. We have lost the knowledge of medicine men. Heck, we speculate how the pyramids were built. Will people one day come across our old cell phones and mp3 players and wonder what they were?

Reading

On Tuesday I signed up for the library's winter reading program. When I signed up I asked the lady if I had to read adult books. I don't think she knew what to say.

After reading so much for school, children's books are just right for me. They are uncomplicated, nontechnical, and short. I'm talking picture books here. No chapter books for me. Ross and I read the books as bedtime stories. My favorite is still Skippyjon Jones by Judy Schachner.

I did check out some adult books. Maybe I'll finish the Steven King book I started a few months ago. It was checked out when we were at the library. The reason I didn't finish it wasn't because it wasn't good--it was because I already read that part in the graphic novel series, so I already know what is going to happen--it kind of wrecks it. Five books in two months really isn't that much to read. We'll see.

Gripe

Our library here is kind of cool. It has that self check out machine, wii games, is very large and looks great from the outside (and the inside too I guess). I do have gripes about a few things:

1. They have 4-5 copies of each book in the children's story (easy) book section. I'd rather they had 2 of each book and had more selection.

2. They are on the Dewey Decimal system.

3. They have way too many different sections of books. They have a section for easy books, cardboard books, concept books, youth books, young adult books, and adult books (and there are more). These sections are even further broken down. Then they have different sections for all different kinds of new books. Graphic novels can be found in 4 different sections of the library! It is annoying! This is why I read Maus II before Maus I--I couldn't find Maus I. I must admit that one of the librarians was very helpful today and helped Ross find a book. It is just frustrating that they don't have all the books on one topic in one section. 

4. Their definition of non-fiction is interesting. I spotted Star Wars books in the youth non-fiction section. I've always found it interesting that some story books and fairy tale books are in the non-fiction section.  What makes one book about Baba Yaga a fiction/easy/picture book and one non-fiction? It's the same freaking story!

That's So Cool!

Yesterday we went to the library because I wanted more children's books, a new graphic novel, and maybe a cookbook or two.  I picked out some stories about chickens.  I seem to like those.  I picked up Maus II, which probably wasn't a good idea, but I've already finished it.  I also threw Nigella Bites onto my pile of books.  I've always been attracted to the book.  Maybe it is because Nigella Lawson is hot. Okay, now I'm getting off track.

When we went to check out the books they had a self-service check out that Ross wanted to try.  It looked like the self check out at a grocery store.  There was a bar code reader, a space that said read area, and a huge touch screen.  All fun stuff for my engineer husband.  We scanned our library card with the bar code reader, then the touch screen asked for how many books we had.  We had 8 and it only went up to 5.  I was confused (as usual).  Ross took three books off of the stack and then pressed 5.  The screen showed which books were left and that we had checked them out.  We put the last 3 books on the counter and then it checked those out.  Just like that!  We didn't scan each book individually.  I guess the books all have RFID tags, so it just read them and checked them out to us!  It was super cool!

Books

Ross and Joey went to Half Price Books yesterday to sell 3 boxes of books we were ready to get rid of. Two of the boxes were FULL of medical textbooks. I figured we would get 20 dollars tops for the whole lot, but---we got $81.25!!!!! Yipeee!