The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard

And it is complete, let me tell you.  There are 31 stories in here and not al of them are that short.  I didn't realize it went to well over 500 pages when I chose it for this challenge.

But I'm happy I read it.  Not only was it fun to try a genre I'd really only engaged with when it comes to movies, I got to go back to early works of a favorite writer and see how he started off.

They're good but I don't think I would have taken them straight through if it hadn't have been for the challenge.  I would have read one or two at a time spread out, which is how I usually read short story collections.  Straight through the main characters tend to blur together.

But it's definitely Leonard.  Tough, lean and fun.  Actually, they weren't that fun, especially at first.  I've come to expect a certain dark, wry and dry humor from Leonard and that didn't start showing itself until about halfway though (about when you get to the original 3:10 to Yuma).  That's about when he starts experimenting with his now trademark dialog.  Before that point, there's more description and writerly-writing than you see in Leonard today.  of course he was probably writing for a penny a word or something and like a lot of magazine pulp writing, tended to be more verbose.

They're about what you'd expect with Elmore Leonard.  Usually one smart guy leading a bunch of less-smart guys and trying to stay alive while they go up against some baddies.  Sometimes the smart guy is a ranger or tracker, sometimes an Apache.  Sometimes the Apache is the bad guy, sometimes it's a greedy treasure hunter.  Either way, the Apache usually wins or is only headed off because of the smarts of the main character who is the only one who really understands the Apaches and isn't a racist dummy who about gets the rest of them killed.

One thing that struck me, other than the elegant way he dealt with the racism, was the immediacy.  What I mean is, sitting here at my laptop I have plans for the day, for the weekend, for the summer and beyond.  Most of the characters in these stories live much leaner and closer to the earth.  They're living for right now and don't plan on much except the end of the ride or the hunt or whatever.  Lives take twists and turns that happen so quick and end just as fast.  Every story definitely takes place in the here and now.  I wonder if that's typical of the genre?

Of course, I couldn't help seeing most of these in my mind as grainy black and white  films usually starring Glen Ford.  Which was awesome.

Most of them weren't too much of a stretch from what Leonard does now.  Instead of drug dealers or bank heists there are stagecoach robbers and gold digging treasure hunters.  It's all good.

Now that I'm finished with this challenge I'm going to go enjoy my summer.  School is out, man.  I plan on reading a ton including lots of stuff from the TBR pile along with book club books.

I have no clue how much blogging I'll do.  Right now I just want to kick back and enjoy.

Thanks for the challenge, C.B.

The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard

Are School Libraries Obsolete?

"Are school libraries obsolete? 
Sent to the Los Angeles Times (May 24)

Those who think school libraries are obsolete might consider the results of a Scholastic-Gates Foundation poll, given to 40,000 teachers, published in March, 2010. One question was: Where do your students get books for their independent reading most often? Select all that apply.

The winner: School libraries. Teachers reported that 80% of high school students, the group least dependent on school libraries, get reading material from school libraries. In contrast, 35% get books from retailers and 46% from public libraries.

Will e-books take over? To compete with the library as a source of books, e-book readers and e-books need to get cheap enough for everyone to be able to buy, use, and replace. Kindles now cost over $100, e-books about $10, and there are restrictions on sharing. Little wonder that only 7% of adults read e-books (NY Times, 10/14/10) and they are an affluent group (Mediamark, 12/1/2009).

Stephen Krashen"

Sign up for his newsletter here.

Some students at my school asked a teacher about this whole Rapture nonsense...

...the teacher told them they'd talk about it on Monday.

Heh.

Discouraging Read-Alouds

I forgot to post my monthly GLMA blog post, so here it is:


I heard a horrible rumor about a school librarian that was actually discouraging teachers in his/her school from read alouds.  I’m not one to listen to gossip and especially not one to share it but I’ve been thinking about this ever since and so feel compelled to write about it. Now, like most rumors, I doubt this one is true. A librarian?  Discouraging teacher read-alouds?  That would be kind of like a dentist discouraging you to brush your teeth wouldn’t it?

Maybe I misheard.  Maybe the gossiper meant the librarian was encouraging read-alouds.  Yeah, that must have been it.  But then, why would anyone be talking about that?  That’s what we spend a good deal of our time on, isn’t it?  I know not only am I actually reading aloud to classes but I’m often showing teachers new books that would be good read-alouds, suggesting more when they bring one up to check out and updating lists on the wiki of good read-alouds for certain grades and subjects.

As one of my favorite children’s lit. professors used to constantly reiterate: “Read aloud every day in every subject.”

My art teacher was delighted when I shared Chalk and Pete the Cat with her this year.  I’ve done much the same for many of the teachers in the building in a variety of subjects.  Yes, there are great non-fiction red-alouds!  Yes, you can turn that into an easy and fun reader’s theater! Yes, yes, yes!

The only problem I’ve ever heard with read-alouds is when someone doesn’t correctly match up their students and the book being read.  Often this comes from inexperienced or lazy teachers who haven’t read the book.  At one school I worked in, a fourth grade teacher picked up The Giver.  Maybe because it had an award on it, I don’t know.  It was a little much for that class and one student, upset at the ending, complained to parents.  The media committee in that school decided that the book was not appropriate for elementary and pulled it form the shelves, sending the copies to the middle school.

Maybe something like that happened with the school librarian in question.  Even so, that’s a dramatic and rare example that just reinforces the importance of the librarian’s job in helping find the right read-alouds for the right teachers and grade levels.  You can’t have people just pulling any old book off the shelf and reading it.  (Yes, I’ve seen this done, usually with bad results.)

So we need to encourage read-alouds and help teachers find the right books so they can…

Read aloud every day in every subject!

I'm 4

Happy belated blog birthday to me.  The guy who is supposed to be posting this started me on 5/14/07.  I notice he hasn't been posting much so I don't know if I'll make it to Kindergarten, but it's been lots of fun.

Lately he's been busy winding down the school year, reading a western for some book challenge, and re-arranging and piling books around the house muttering something about tackling his "TBR" list whatever the heck that is.

Anyway, if Blogger doesn't unplug me today, I'm going to go find me some online cupcakes...

Help Science! Preserve the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed!

Help us to preserve the Sharktooth Hill Bonebed

This is a special request from Donald Prothero and Teresa LeVelle,


We have learned that the world-famous Sharktooth Hill Bonebed fossil locality northwest of Bakersfield, one of the richest and most important sites in the world, is in danger of being sold off to commercial collectors. If this happens, the dealers will excavate it for only the commercially valuable fossils and destroy all the scientific information from the hundreds of sharks, as well as whales and seals and other marine mammals that come from these deposits.
The owner of this land, Bob Ernst (who was a good friend of ours), passed away several years ago suddenly without leaving a will, and his widow is now selling off the fossil-rich property to the highest bidder. Already a lot of important specimens have been sold in auction (including some that were already in a museum collection), and now the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is trying to buy one of the most important parcels of Ernst’s property to hold as a scientific preserve (imagine the Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits, but for marine life). If the museum can raise another $25,000–30,000, they will buy the land. If we collect more than what they need for the land purchase, it will be applied to Phase II of the project, building a visitor’s center. The goal is to preserve the site, while allowing access to schools and non-profit educational groups to help collect the less scientifically significant shark teeth and whale bones. Just imagine that you had been one of the donors who assisted with the acquisition of the La Brea Tar Pits. This is just that type of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution toward the cause of preserving this legendary locality, please let us know. We must move quickly before the land is sold off and locked away from the public. Dr. John Long of the Natural History Museum has pledged to give a personal tour of the locality, after its purchase, to anyone who donates $2000 or more. You can contact Donald Prothero (Prothero@oxy.edu) or John Long (jlong@nhm.org) for more information. Don’t let this opportunity to preserve such an important place for science pass you by. Please help!

Thank you,
Donald Prothero and Teresa LeVelle

Books by Dr. Prothero

Virus!

I had a great post I wanted to do for Sunday, but my computer is infected.  I sent it off with my local geek to have it cleaned up and I just don't have time at work to properly blog.

But it has been kinda nice not having a laptop for a couple of days.  Then that blog post seemed silly.  I spend way too much time reposting.  If you're interested in that stuff, then just follow my shared items feed.

This space is for original content.  But I may not have any for a spell.

In the meantime, let me know your summer reading plans in the comments below.  I plan on hitting my TBR pile hard, other than book club books.  I need to clean out physical books so I don't feel any guilt about buying stuff for the Kindle!

What's your plan for the summer?

It's not often an ad makes me cry

But this one did:




(via TED)

Nature's Fury - Text 90999 to Help

click image to help

Photos from The Big Picture

Photos from the AJC (I was just boating on Lake Burton a couple weeks ago!)

Text 90999 to give $10 to the Red Cross.