Winter Reading is Coming

A bleak late fall mid-November day at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library

The second week of November looked and felt more like the first week of January. My commute Tuesday morning (the day after Veterans’ Day) involved icy drizzle and in at least one hair-raising incident on an icy untreated bridge (Thanks, Kansas City, Missouri, for being consistent in your street maintenance over the last 25 years). At least the traction control works in my new van. By lunch time, the drizzle had converted to snow blown by a bitter cold north wind (see photo above taken right before I ventured across the circle drive for a cup of soup at the Mixx).

Last week I attended the monthly Hobbit Happy Hour of the Tolkien Society of Kansas City. We returned to City Barrell where our two teams were victorious in LotR trivia back in September. During one of my conversations with friends and new acquaintances, I learned that circulation of print editions was down at the Plaza Branch of KCPL. I am as much to blame as anyone else since I’ve almost completely switched to audiobooks and ebooks over the last decade. Anything I read in print is because it’s out of print and/or only available as a printed edition.

Late Fall / Early Winter Reading
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Let’s Do Lunch at the Library

Most Saturdays you can find me hanging out at my local library over the lunch hour.  While it’s true I do devour books, I curb my appetite so that my favorite hard-working librarians can grab a bite to eat and catch up on their reading.  I’ve been volunteering for four or five years now and I look forward to those two or three hours spent helping patrons find their next great book or movie.

Today, within five minutes of getting started at the circulation desk for the first half of my shift, a mother and a cute girl with a rainbow of flowers in her hair arrived to collect her gift basket.  The girl had won one the baking basket, one of eight gift baskets donated as prizes for the winter reading program.  I overheard one of the librarians mention that collectively adults and children read over two thousand books this winter.  I only contributed twenty-two to that total.

20190105_120433 Continue reading “Let’s Do Lunch at the Library”

Library Version of ‘My Dog Ate My Homework’

I volunteer behind the circulation desk of my local library a few hours a week.  I look forward to my weekly chance to greet and assist our patrons.  Every minute is an opportunity for a new adventure or discovery.  As with most journeys, I experience and savor the high points and persevere through the more challenging bumps.

I empathized with a patron who returned a canine mauled book with a trade paperback edition replacement in hand. Unfortunately, according to our circulation policies specific to lost of damaged items, we can’t accept replacements purchased by patrons, but must charge for the replacement cost, plus a small handling fee. Why not take the replacement from the patron? In the case of print books, it’s usually because the bindings available from retail outlets won’t hold up as well as print editions bound for library circulation.

Continue reading “Library Version of ‘My Dog Ate My Homework’”

A Little Help For My Friends

And by friends, I’m referring to the Friends of the Lansing Community Library (FotLCL for short), a nonprofit organization that is member supported and advocates, fundraises and provides critical support for my local library, the Lansing Community Library (LCL for short).  Their mission, which you can choose to accept as well, is to support LCL in providing free and equal access to information for all citizens through donations of time, talent and resources.

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Banned Book Bonanza

Libraries around the country celebrate “Banned Book” week during the final week of September (or the first full week of Fall). My local library, the Lansing Community Library (LCL), decided to extend this celebration of reading freedom through the end of October, to give patrons a longer window of opportunity to explore this year’s top challenged books.

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Interview with a Librarian

I asked Emily Stratton, one of LCL’s Youth Services Librarians, a few questions that I had about banned or challenged books and with her permission I’m sharing her answers here:

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became a librarian?

I’ve always been a reader. Growing up as a military brat, reading was always something fun to do when we hadn’t made new friends yet or had our house items delivered to our new home. Though I received my bachelor’s degree in photography, I never stopped enjoying reading. I applied for an opening at Lansing Community Library after graduating college and began working there as a Circulation Technician in January of 2015 and fell in love with the job. A year and a half later, I’m now the Youth Services Librarian and plan on starting my Masters in Library Science next year.

What are your hopes for the program?

With our display and Banned Books Week, we’re hoping to get others excited celebrate their freedom to read and access to information. So many are surprised to find that their favorite book or a classic novel they read in high school has been challenged to be removed from an educational environment. Hopefully the displays we’ll keep up will spark conversations about why these are challenged and whether or not they agree. Maybe it will even introduce some new books to someone!

How long will the display remain up at the library?

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Discussion Series Invites Adults to Read Children’s Classics

The Lansing Community Library will present a three-part book discussion series beginning in October 2016 on “Childhood Classics.” Members of the community are invited to attend the free programs, which will take place at the Lansing Community Library, 730 1st Terrace, Lansing, Kansas.

The series is sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council (KHC), a nonprofit cultural organization, as part of its Talk About Literature in Kansas (TALK) program. KHC is furnishing the books and discussion leaders for the Lansing TALK series. For more information about KHC, visit www.kansashumanities.org.

Childhood Classics

Remember curling up in a cozy chair as a child with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, or climbing onto the lap of a favorite aunt to read The Jungle Book?  The classic books of our childhood allowed us to travel the world, visiting some of the most famous living rooms, barns, and castles in literature.  As adults, we discover that the books that delighted us as children still have a great deal to say.

“Only the rarest kind of best in anything is good enough for the young,” writes Walter de la Mare.  In Childhood Classics, we encounter literature that not only entertains and educates but also endures, thanks to superb plots, realistic characters, and universal themes.  Any children’s book worth its paper must endure for adults as well, telling our stories of the past as well as our possibilities for the future.  The books in this series, written by authors in Great Britain and the United States, can all be read for pleasure at any age and also for insight into the history of child-rearing, family, and community life from the Victorian area to the present.

These staples of childhood libraries of the 20th century also allow us to examine the very fibers of our culture.  Society’s most cherished values are often reflected most clearly in the books and stories we give to young people.  The importance of family and love, the courage of being true to oneself, the need for friendship and faith – all of these qualities unfold in the books that we continue to pass down from generation to generation.  Most of all, these books honor the power of the imagination to shape and inform our visions of ourselves and our world.

Redeem Your Golden Ticket

The first meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 13, 2013, at 5:30 p.m. Nicolas Shump (pictured at right) will lead discussion of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  The gates of Mr. Willy Wonka’s famous chocolate factory are opening at last, and only five children will be allowed inside: the good-hearted Charlie and a pack of spoiled, destructive brats. Nicolas Shump teaches history and English at the Barstow School in Kansas City, Missouri.  He received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of Kansas. Shump joined the KHC TALK program as a discussion leader in 2012.

The idea of a special literature for children dates only to the nineteenth century, when writers began to produce both fantasy and realistic family stories for young readers. “Childhood Classics” features some of the most enduring books written for children over the past century in the U.S. and Great Britain. Adult readers will discover that the books that entertained and educated them as children have much to say to them now about courage and faith, friendship, character, and the power of love.

Mark Your Calendar

In this series, readers will also discuss A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett on January 12, 2017 and The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame on April 13, 2017.

To check out books and for more information about the reading series, contact the Lansing Community Library at 913-727-2929 or visit their website at http://lansing.mykansaslibrary.org.

Reading List

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

Roald Dahl’s very witty and popular novel tells the story of a good-hearted boy living in the most dire of economic conditions.  Young Charlie is a shining light, especially among four spoiled, misguided, and destructive children who, along with Charlie, find the golden tickets in their candy bars that win them a tour of Willy Wonka’s factory.  This humorous and satirical novel also speaks of how, with enough trust and love, a child can inspire the adults around him and transform his family’s life.  Dahl, often called a literary genius, creates in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a modern-day fairy tale about the evils of greed and corruption and the wonders of honesty.  162 pp.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924)

Burnett’s turn-of-the-century Cinderella story tells of a little girl who goes from riches to rags to riches again, all along maintaining her compassion and love for those around her.  After wealthy Sara Crewe moves into a strict girls’ boarding school, she learns that her father is dead, leaving her both penniless and an orphan.  Her faith in her father and her sense of justice enable her to overcome poverty, hardship, and abuse, and to create her own family and community.  Burnett, a playwright and novelist for adults before she wrote children’s books, never over-simplifies the complexities of a dangerous world; at the same time, she never forgets what it’s like to view that world as a hopeful child.  242 pp.

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

Few children’s books create such memorable characters as The Wind in the Willows, and few appeal as universally to both children and adults.  The struggles of Badger, Mole, Water Rat, and the incorrigible Toad allowed Grahame to imbue his tale with the “deepest sense of the meaning of his own adult life,” says scholar Clifton Fadiman.  The four animal characters, with all their foibles, exhibit many adult characteristics.  They survive each others’ limitations and escapades, face the loss of their home due to corruption, and muster enough loyalty, ingenuity and humor to prevail over evil.  In doing so, they show us how to survive our own personal challenges and limitations at home and at work, as adults.  244 pp.

 

Lansing Community Library Snack & Chat Tonight

http://www.lansing.ks.us/CivicAlerts/#1331_SingleEntryView

The Lansing Community Library is hosting its first “Snack and Chat” on Tues., Nov.3 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Library, 730 1st Terr. This new quarterly event gives community members an opportunity to meet with the Library Board and Director. Patrons can share thoughts, suggestions and ideas.

For more information, contact Lansing Community Library Director Terri Wojtalewicz at 913-727-2929 or by email at twojo@lansing.ks.us.

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I made chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread.

Hope to see you there.

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Big Read Coming to Lansing

BigReadLogoWhat is the Big Read?

Simply put, it’s a program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture.

I’ve participated in many Big Reads through the Kansas City Public Library, most recently their Great War | Great Read on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of World War I.  But the next Big Read I’m diving into will be much closer to home (about a block away and up a hill).   My home town library, the Lansing Community Library, is reading The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien along with five other Kansas libraries this fall and winter.

When does it start?

The Big Read kicks off this Saturday, November 8, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. at the Lansing Community Library, 703 1st Terrace, Lansing, KS  66043.  913-727-2929

LansingCommunityLibraryMap

“The kickoff event will occur on November 8th at 10:30am with a viewing of a video documentary produced by students at Lansing High School. They interviewed and recorded oral histories of veterans from World War II through Afghanistan Wars. The community will also receive an overview of the upcoming events and have the opportunity to register for them.”

Terri Wojtalewicz, Youth Services Librarian at Lansing Community Library, interviewed by Rimsie McConiga for the Leavenworth Times Read more here: http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/article/20141101/News/141109978#ixzz3IDKOObsN

Not Just Reading

Yes, we’ll be reading a book and there will be book discussions hosted by college professors.  But there will also be multimedia, a panel discussion with Vietnam veterans, a workshop on memoir writing, and an opportunity to send cards and letters to service members currently serving overseas.   Oh, and free books to the first fifty people who sign up for the book discussions.

The Things They Carried

The Vietnam War still has the power to divide Americans between those for it and those against. Today it also divides us, just as surely, between those who remember its era firsthand and those not yet born when the troops came home. There may be no better bridge across these twin divides than Tim O’Brien’s novel in stories The Things They Carried. The details of warfare may have changed since Vietnam, but O’Brien’s semi-autobiographical account of a young platoon on a battlefield without a front, dodging sniper fire and their own misgivings, continues to win legions of dedicated readers, both in uniform and out.

Introduction to the Book

Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried (1990) is considered one of the finest books about the Vietnam War. Far from a combat story of pride and glory, it is a compassionate tale of the American soldier, brimming with raw honesty and thoughtful reflection.

The book’s narrator follows a platoon of infantrymen through the jungles of Vietnam. We see them trudge through the muck of a constant downpour, get hit by sniper fire, pull body parts out of a tree, laugh while they tell their stories to each other, and fall silent when faced with making sense of it all—both in the moment and twenty years later.

What Are You Waiting For?

I hope to see you Saturday morning or at one of the other Big Read events planned for the coming months in the Lansing/Leavenworth area.

 

The 12 Weirdest Reasons For Banning Science Fiction and Fantasy Books

http://io9.com/the-12-weirdest-reasons-for-banning-science-fiction-and-1639136022

The Wizard of Oz? Really?  I’m shocked … not.  Some of the other ones listed are equally silly.  I’ve read most of these  and I turned out just fine.  😉

Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon

Ups and Downs of Reading Habits

I remembered to export my GoodReads book catalog earlier this week.  I’ve been forgetful for several months and the hot topic at work lately has been DR (disaster recovery).  So, practicing what I preach, I ‘backed up’ my book catalog to my computer.  I began reviewing the data downloaded and a thought (almost a question) popped into my head.  For the last five years, I’ve been averaging 100 books per year read.  I pushed myself this year to reach that goal early, before my birthday in early October.  My curious mind wanted to know how my reading format habits have changed over these last five years.

Reading-one-book-is-likeWhy just five years?  Continue reading “Ups and Downs of Reading Habits”