Blurb

What a funny word. Sometimes I just like to say "blurb." Blurb, blurb, blurb...

Booking Through Thursday's question this week is about blurbs you find irresistible. They're talking about certain words or phrases that get you to pick up a book, but for me they don't really work that way. I think I've already picked up the book because I've heard or read about it or am familiar with the author. I think I tend to be ore impressed by the writer of the blurb and even then it would have to be more than one. And it has to be for that book! Many times a writer will get some great blurbs for an earlier book that the publisher keeps slapping on every subsequent book. I hate that.

But if I turn over a book and it has four or five glowing blurbs from authors I respect it definitely adds something.

NOT review blurbs from other media. I don't even glance at those. It always cracks me up that a publisher puts something like three pages of these kind of blurbs in genre paperbacks. "THRILLING!" -Kansas Tribune. Really? The entire staff of the Kansas Trib found this series mystery "thrilling?" It's one word for crying out loud. How do I know it didn't come from a sentence that said "This formulaic nonsense was thrilling in it's ineptitude!"

So no, most blurbs don't work on me and certain words or phrases don't have much impact. Of course, the best one I've read lately is from Phil Plait's new one which is in fact on my To Be Read pile. Daniel H. Wilson said of it:

"Reading this book is like being punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, yet oddly exhilarating."

Now that's a blurb!

Death By Black Hole

I'm reading just as much as I ever have--maybe even more, but not much in the way of books. Many research articles, papers, and web-related reading. Grad school is going to eat up a huge chunk of the next six months, so I don't see it changing much.

So thank goodness for Neil deGrasse Tyson's book of essays! I've been sipping these down for the last few months and it's a delightful collection. If you're a big reader of Natural History, then you've probably already run into a few of these, because this is a collection of his essays for that magazine. I think it lends itself to the occasional dipping in because he does use some of the same examples more than once, but by spreading these out I never felt bothered by this aspect of the collection.

He is a man of far-ranging interests, a clear writer, and entertaining as well. You'll read about what it would feel like to be ripped apart atom by atom by a black hole in a process which has a great technical term: "spaghetti-fication." Nice. But there is much more. The Oort Cloud, extremophiles, and one of my favorites: Lagrangian points. These are perfectly balanced points in space between objects such as the Earth and the Moon in which we could dump tons of building materials for future space stations without worry of their drifting away. Then again, there are plenty of cheery essays about "all of the ways the cosmos wants to kills us" that are fun as well.

Science popularizations are becoming more and more important. I've run into staggering amounts of science illiteracy lately in encounters with allegedly educated adults recently and don't even know how to broach the subject with them. As part of my media committee duties, I was asked to read this early reader chapter book, Andrew Lost #9: In Time because there was a concern. Apparently the concern is that the book reiterates the scientific fact that the universe is billions of years old bothers some. I don't know what else to say other than: Tough.

Invite Me To Google Wave

If you have it: Try this! I'm looking forward to it, but still sitting on my thumbs waiting for an invite...

Thanks.

Update 10/30: The awesome Rob T. over at SCIENCE-BASED PARENTING invited me. I don't know how long this process takes, but as soon as I'm up on the Wave, I'll post about it. Thanks, Rob!

Good Old Times

Tee hee! Found this fun little generator here.

All Praise to the Google!!

Click on image to enlarge.

(via The Skeptical Teacher)

Sendak to worried parents: "Go to hell"

Like I said before, I love this grumpy old man! Here's his parenting advice. Love him! Now I need to see the movie...

One Question

Today's Booking Through Thursday Question is a good one. If you could ask a favorite author, alive or dead, one question...who would you ask and what would it be?

Doesn't that just start the wheels turning? Now I haven't gone looking up anyone else's answers to this question yet but I'll bet the majority are for the deceased. Today's authors do so many interviews and book tours that it's not actually that hard to find information on them. Well, except maybe for Pynchon. And even he's been on the Simpson's for crying out loud.

I also imagine there will be many Shakespeare questions. How many did you write? About those sonnets... That kind of thing.

I've also been lucky to have actually met and talked to some of my favorite authors and illustrators. Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, Gary Paulsen, Lawrence Block, Melissa Bank, Russell Banks, Andrei Codrescu, Tom Wolfe, Lawrence Yep, Joanna Cole, David Sedaris, David Shannon, John Green, Jerry Spinnelli, Frank McCourt, Jerry Pinkney, Steven Kellog, Lloyd Alexander, Mo Willems and more. I worked in bookstores and I'm a big book geek, so what did you expect?

But I guess if I had just one question to ask one favorite author, I'd like to be sitting in a rocking chair next to Samuel Langhorne Clemens around the time he's finishing up The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and I'd like to ask, "Um, why don't you go ahead and take some time to look at that ending one more time?"

I'm just saying.

(image cc wikipedia commons)

Become Change

"What I believe is that all clear-minded people should remain two things throughout their lifetimes: Curious and teachable."

-Roger Ebert

See, first Doug Johnson and Joyce Valenza wrote this amazing article: Things that Keep Us Up at Night.

Then there was some grumbling about those "absent from the debate."

It's an interesting point, but the comments on that thread are what this is all about. Those absent from the debate are clearly choosing to be.

Buffy Hamilton says she is Refuting Inertness. Yes! I especially like her quote from this post by Oliver Blanchard. He's talking about the types of people that can manage things with all the contingent problems:

"It takes a special kind of person to be able to a) do that kind of work well, and b) love every minute of it.

It isn’t for everybody.

Excuses and blame don’t exist in this little world. There’s only what you did and what you didn’t do.

Sometimes, even the best laid plans just go awry.

For most people, that’s not a good thing…

…and for some of us, that’s when the real fun begins."

Yes!

I also liked what Carolyn Foote had to say when it seemed like the debate was between those embracing technology and those not: "I don't think it's an either or" and she's right. It's not an either/or about just the technology tools.

It's about change. That's the real either/or. Either you embrace change or you don't. "Change" should define the library. Change and curiosity.

(image cc flickr)

Weeding

This week's Booking Through Thursday question is about how you get rid of old books when your collection gets out of control.

This is interesting, because I'm sure everyone handles it differently--but also because I'm learning to become a school librarian and it's an issue we've covered there as well.

Personally, I love books, but purposely try not to be a freak about them. I loan them and am happy to trade boxes of them at used book stores and walk out with a shopping bag. I probably have around a thousand books in the house, but it's closer to three or four thousand when you count in my wife's classroom collection, my classroom collection and our daughter's books. So yeah, we get rid of torn up classroom books and sometimes replace them. We take piles of read paperbacks and trade them. It doesn't bother me because I like used books. I also like having about half the books around me be unread so I never have to worry about what I might get to next. I'm also not a big re-reader. I keep favorites around, but when a shelf gets to tight, somethings just gotta give. I have enough bookshelves and only so many more years of reading left in me.

I almost never regret giving away books. Although one time I found myself pull a science fiction paperback from a shelf in a used bookstore and was shocked to see my own name inscribed inside the front cover. I'd traded it long before but must have never read it. Weird.

Weeding the school library is a different matter. It's got to be done, but some people are squeamish about it. Yet it's much better to have a small, vibrant collection than a large, dusty out of date one. I'm currently working with my media specialist and making recommendations for pulling some stuff out of the Dewey 520s (Astronomy). Books like one that tells about the exciting upcoming Hubble space telescope, or that overly mentions Pluto, or there was even one that said Sally Ride was currently living in La Jolla, California. See ya!

And yes, most of these will be thrown away. If they're 20 years out of date and they're not ok for the media center, then they're not ok to donate to a classroom teacher either. They've done their time and need to be let go. It's all right. There are many any more books out there and it's always fun to shop for more.

(image cc flickr)

For Blog Action Day 2009: Nature.org

Nature.org is the main web portal for The Nature Conservancy, one of the best environmental groups out there. Trust me, I did my research and this is the real deal. It's not just a touchy-feely granola group (not that there's anything wrong with that!), but they do so much more. Everything they do is based on science and every researcher I've talked to names them as the number one group doing conservation work.

When you support The Nature Conservancy, you are helping poverty, climate change, the economy, and the quality of life for people all over the planet.

They have a great blog, Cool Green Science that will keep you up to date on climate change news and fill your feed reader with gorgeous nature photos. When you become a member of the conservancy, you'll get a subscription to their lovely Nature Conservancy Magazine which also can't be beat. Even just a dollar will help them plant a tree!

Don't just want to donate? They have volunteer opportunities in your state. Get some fresh air and help conserve the environment for all of us.

We need to get to work here in Georgia, that's for sure. UGA? This behavior is shameful. And our population growth led to our own drought problems last year. I found both of these stories through the conservancy's blog.

C'mon. See what you can do to help protect this pale blue dot we all call home.

Sick? Stay Home

That's what I'm doing today. *coff* *coff*



(via podblack cat)

I'll Fight You for the Library

(via Nina Jackson on LM_Net)

The What Day Is It Roundup...

Teacher furlough days, a random holiday and a sinus infection and lots of grad work have left me keeping odd hours and not really knowing or caring what time or day it is. I'm too loopy to post anything if substance of my own, so here are some random links for you to think about.

Rich guy dislikes poor people, wants local kids to "lose sleep over plan to shut library"

(via boingboing)

Nothing to Fear but the Flu Itself
Dr. Paul Offit is always right.

The Uneducated American
"Education made America great. Neglect of education can reverse the process."

And finally, this is just jaw-droppingly amazing:

The Berlin Reunion

It looks like something illustrated by Shaun Tan, no?

OMGTheSkepticZoneMentionedThisBlog!!!

Kylie Sturgess, the Podblack Cat blogger, Skeptic Zone reporter, and the well-deserved winner of the Team Player of the Year award mentioned my little corner of the blogosphere on the episode #50 of The Skeptic's Zone podcast!

I just about wet myself and wrecked my car this morning. It took mighty ninja control to continue my commute and safely arrive at work so I could ignore my work-related duties and blog about it.

Kylie was reporting from last month's Dragon*Con skeptic track here in Atlanta and talking about educators who promote science and critical thinking. She interviewed Barbara Drescher from the wonderfully named ICBS Everywhere blog and Jason Bilotta from the new Skeptikids project among others. I haven't finished listening to it yet.

Do her and I a favor. If you use iTunes, download it and give any episode a listen and if you dig it, give them a rating on iTunes--help get the word out. Another thing I've learned from MotherReader and Lee Wind is the importance of comments, so if you like The Skeptic Zone, be sure to comment! For some reason, people don't seem to comment on podcast blogs as much--me included--and it's a shame because they put so much work into them it shouldn't go unnoticed.

Thanks, Kylie!

How to Teach a Sense of Wonder

From a wonderful Independent interview with professor Richard Dawkins:

He has a clear sense of his debt to a series of inspiring mentors. An old headmaster at his school, called Sanderson, had been enormously enthusiastic about natural history. "And his spirit lived on there. My old biology teacher Ioan Thomas had come to the school specifically because of it. There was one time he came into class and asked: 'What animal feeds on hydra?' We didn't know. He went right around the whole class asking. Everybody was guessing, and then, finally, we said, 'Sir, Sir, what animal does?' And he waited and waited, and then he said, 'I don't know. And I don't think Mr Coulson does either.' He burst into the next room, got Mr Coulson and dragged him out by the arm, and he didn't know either! It was a wonderful lesson, I never forgot it and neither did anyone else: it's OK to not know the answer."

(image cc flickr)

Book Lies

This week's Booking Through Thursday asks if you've ever lied about reading a book.

I have my B.A. in British and American Literature! Of course I've lied about reading a book! Actually, I probably just lied about reading all the words in every book. But I remember Dr. Robert Knox asking me after his "Art of the Novel" course if I'd read them all and I admitted I wasn't finished with the Pynchon. But I did finish it over the summer.

No, the best book lie I told was in eighth grade. I already considered myself a reader, but was not much of a student. I was not impressed with my Language Arts teacher and did only the bare minimum for her. The one thing I remember enjoying about the class was that she showed us these videos of dramatic re-creations of famous short stories. They were probably from PBS--I don't know.

One time she gave us an assignment to read a biography. Apparently we were to have been working on this for some time because on this particular day she said that it was the day we were to do our reports. Now to her, a report meant handing us a stack of dittos with questions about our biography to fill out.

I had flaked out and not been working on this assignment at all. I stared at the pages for some time. Then I furiously filled out every question and turned it in. I thought to myself now this--this will tell me if she is a good Language Arts teacher or not. Because I made the whole thing up. I didn't make up the subject--Albert Einstein. But I made up a title and an author and while I knew some details of Einstein's life, I think I merged them with details from Thomas Edison's life as well. I talked about what I'd liked and didn't like about the book and even discussed some of the illustrations. Would she figure it out?

Nope. I got an "A+" and never told her the truth.

But trust me, that was the only book I lied about. I remember being in high school and berating a friend who bought those damned Cliff's Notes for everything. "It's faster and more entertaining to just read the books, for crying out loud!" He told me I was an idiot and showed me the questions at the end. Sure enough, on the test that Friday the questions the teacher gave us were the very same ones. Looking back on it, I'm surprised I went into literature with such bad role models.

No, I'm glad I did. I'm glad I went somewhere in which reading the book meant something and all the Cliff's Notes in the world wouldn't have helped you really understand what was going on.

No lie.

Friday Roundup

Here are a few links to some great things from this week's surfing. Have a good weekend everybody!

Boy Lifts Book; Librarian Changes Boys Life

"I credit Mrs. Grady for getting me in the habit of reading, so that I was able to go to law school and survive."

Where the Riled Things Are

Great use of critical thinking and use of information technology to debunk spurious claims in a Daily Show bit! (via onegoodmove)

The Anger of the Festering Fringe

"What is the benefit of this hate? What good can come of it? Where might it lead us?"

Blog Action Day 2009

October 15 is Blog Action Day for 2009. Have you heard of it? It's this yearly thing in which you sign your blog up to post on one issue (usually environmental-related) on that given day. It's been around a couple of years but has really grown. Their claiming over 2600 blogs so far.

Now I have no idea how much real impact it has, but it certainly does little harm to have more eyeballs on such an important topic. This year it's climate change. It's a good one because there are so many different angles to take. You could review a book related to climate change, write a poem, or promote a website, an event or the effects of climate change on, well, anywhere.

It's hardly controversial that climate change is happening or even that humans are contributing to it. Even the military considers it a national security issue these days. But there is a whole bunch of yapping about what to do about it. No one has all the answers, but it's worth considering and throwing out your two cents.

Looking forward to see what comes of it in a couple of weeks.