My recommendation for an awe-inspiring book: Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. It wasn't my fave after my first read, but after Liz read it, she convinced me of its sheer genius. Heart-wrenchingly good.
The CTA's recommendation: Looking for a book that's fun to read? Well, if you ride the el, you know that you should check out Sine Die by Matthew J. Levin! You can read more at www.matthewjlevin.com! I'm pretty sure this was self-published! What the hell is with that cover illustration! One of the blurbs is from one of Mr. Levin's high school classmates! Oh dear!

Ryan: the rest of Nine Stories is better than "A Perfect Day for Bananafish." That story is just for people who are all into the saga of the Glass family, as set out in Franny and Zooey; Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters; and Seymour: an Introduction. I myself am all into the Glass family saga, but I still think "Bananafish" bites. It's just a piece of dead wood to illustrate the event that all the other books hang on. I think there's another one or two stories in Nine Stories dealing with the Glass family (definitely "Teddy"), but as I recall some of the timelines/identities clash with continuity. Personally, my favorite in the collection is "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor." It might even be Glass-related.
Currently re-reading: All Families are Psychotic, by Douglas Coupland, his next-to-next-to-least worthwhile, but only his next-to-most recent. (Least worthwhile: Polaroids of the Dead and the introduction to the Tomb Raider book.) (Most recent: Hey Nostradamus!, which I look forward to reading on my upcoming vacation.)

hey, is this old news to you librarian types?

Hey i'm not your boyfriend, oops wrong Ryan.

Yesterday while waiting for a friend I read the first short story in Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger, entitled A Perfect Day for Bananafish, and was completely disappointed. I hope that this story is not an indication of how the rest of the stories are going to be. Naturally I assume that this book is going to be great simple because Catcher in the Rye is amazing and one of my favorite books of all time. Let's hope that the rest of the stories don't let me down. Anyone read this and have any insight for me?

Also, I started Flash to the Core by Joshua Davis. He runs a site called Praystation and is one of the foremost Flash designers in the country (does that sounds right?). His book is not only a how to for Flash programming and design but a creative tool as well. As he teaches you code and structure he gives you insight on how to approach and use the skills you've learned. It's somewhat similar to Ray Bradbury's "Zen and the Art of Writing" where he gives you some good pratice skills and ideas to follow but mostly he inspires you to create. I'm actually looking forward to digging into this book more and unleashing the creative beast within (that sounds kinky actually).

This is bizarro, as my boyfriend Ryan is currently reading my copy of the McSweeney's book. Like, parallel universe kinda bizarro. Or perhaps it's just an unremarkable coincidence that people with fabukous taste in books would be somehow connected.

Okay, quick roundup time: recently I read some manga that would only interest you if you liked the anime, another mixed bag from Bruce Sterling (Globalhead, an old collection and maybe the roughest of his I've yet read), my favorite book (magazines), about half of a terrible fantasy book by Barbara Hambly that I got maybe 12 years ago when I belonged to the SF Book Club (rip-off) (quality binding my ass), and this past weekend I flew through a borrowed copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Year 4 at Hogwart's) for the second time.
All so that I could join the throngs of dorks with the big blue books on the el this morning. I could hardly wait for lunch time so I could sit in my cubicle and read some more! I hope the train isn't too crowded for reading tonight. I don't even want to watch TV--move over bacon, here comes something Crispin Glover!

I am sure everybody will be happy to know that the U.S. Supreme Court just reversed an appellate decision that Internet filters are unconstitutional. Upholding the Internet Children's Protection Act, the Supreme Court said it's okay to withhold government funding from libraries that do not use Internet filters.

Thank God we will all be protected from words like breast, penis, vagina and cocksucker. Which I'm sure is fantastic if you're 8 years old, but won't do much for the thousands of people who go to public libraries to find out information about disease, safer sex and good porn. Read all about it and get good links to the history of the case at the American Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union and Wired Magazine online. I'd send you over to the Supreme Court to read the decision, but I don't see it up yet. Ah well, now you all know what side of the bed I'm on.

Alright, you stole what was to be my first post about the McSweeney's book. I've still got something to say about it dammit!

A few nights before I began reading it I had an odd dream. I was in a boat off the coast of a city that looked like Hong Kong (at least the pictures i've seen).
There were floating boat houses everywhere and an enormous city hugging the coast. That night I was on patrol looking for a giant shark when all of a sudden something grabbed my line. My boat was being pulled hard by the giant shark I had caught and I moved to the aft to look at the beast. In the water, caught on my line, was an enormous shark. As a peered into the water I noticed an even larger shark approaching quickly for an easy snack. This shark was bigger than a house and it grabbed the smaller one and sent my boat sailing hundred of yards. The boat landed upside down and I was able to quickly turn it over as I watched from a distance as several houses exploded from the giant shark attack. I began to pilot my boat towards the explosions when...I woke up...

Fast forward to the next night when I sat down with McSweeney's to read the first story. A thrilling story about a man on a search for an enormous shark, only to be led to his death. Honestly, the whole dream to short story coincidence freaked me out. So yes robot, I am reading this book but i've only made it through the second story which I must say greatly disappointed me, I will forge ahead though

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I just read the first of McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales. It's about a giant shark!!

Aren't you reading this, too, Ryan? And didn't you read this, Cindy? Has anybody read this?? If the first story is any indication of what's to come, I am in bookworm heaven. This is the kind of book that you crawl into bed with on a rainy night. This is for uninterrupted, unadulterated, reading pleasure.*

Every story has an illustration to accompany it, just like the Doctor Doolittles of my childhood. Thrilling Tales has totally transported me back to hiding out with a flashlight fivehours after my mom put me to bed, and sneaking into the bathroom without turning on the light so she wouldn't know I was still awake at 1 in the morning. Oh boy. Gotta get back to my book.

**I don't know what unadulterated means, but it sounded good in the previous sentence.

I must be letting off some sort of pheremone. For as I was innocently browing through the shelves of the Schaumburg Library for a copy of Flinch, two high school boys stopped me, asking, "Do you work here?"

How do they know? Exactly what sets me off as a librarian?? I'm dressed like a goddamn rockstar. I even have on my sparkly bracelet. Dammit. Anyhow, when I told them I didn't, they said, "You should." Tell me about it. I'm gearing up for an interview as a candy girl if I don't pull in any freelance work this month (yeah, those people who run around concerts and sporting events with a box of candy hanging from their shoulders). Why, oh why, can't I find a library job?

In other news, I just finished my book club's book of the month, ShutterBabe: Adventures in Love and War about a 22-year-old photojournalist who confronts sexism, war, rape in her first few years on the job, while also having a lot of sex. Very well-written and engaging. I recommend it.

I am currently reading Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. You may know him as the guy who wrote All The Pretty Horses....Matt Damon was in the movie I think......anyway.......This book is like Faulkner meets Nightmare On Elm Street, it's so gory....for the first time since my O.G. fear of horror movies (I was twelve), I'm worried about what effect outside media will have on my dream state. Scalping for the love of God......the man did such a great job describing scalping......

Happy Belated Birthday, Rachel! I love the personal library kit. I'll be online sporadically in the next month or so until I get settled in Tokyo, but I'll definitely be checking in on wrybrarian and letting you know of any literary gems I find out in those parts.

Hehehe. You're an official wry-BRAIN.

uh.... did i break it?

the home library kit is here.

i've been keeping myself busy with technical papers such as Choosing and Using MRL Calibration Tapes for Audio Recorder Standardization and TL07x Low Noise J-Fet Operational Amplifier Datasheets.

I will collect the uber-geek award for the wrybrairian crew now.

I would have something to blog about if it weren't for my super cool new birthday present, which has been keeping me occupied all weekend. I also got a new book from Hipsmart Erik, which is in third position in the to-be-read cue (and which I shall blog about after reading), as well as a home library kit! I wish I could link to the home library kit, as it is the coolest thing I have ever seen. Ever. I can't wait to catalog my collection! It even comes with reference stickers and a checkout stamp! Thanks to everybody who came. It was seriously my best birthday ever.

Good lord. I didn't find much creepiness at all while reading the Dictionary of Literary Biography's entry on Hawthorne, which is extensive indeed. Still, I'm having a hard time believing these tales of happy Hawthorne.

Well, according to these UIC lecture notes, Hawthorne was known to be well-adjusted, and we have no reason (other than his creepy stories) to think otherwise.

In the motive of selling his correspondence school literature lessons, I believe Mr. Cody had a vested interest in presenting the authors of The Nutshell Library as upstanding Americans. He certainly prattles on about Hawthorne and how much Hawthorne certainly wasn't a weirdo, no-sir-ee. Me doth think he protests too much:

We usually think of Hawthorne as a small, awkward, painfully shy young man, fond of mooning about alone, and making up for his lack of sociability by the brilliancy of his genius. The fact is, he was tall, with a strikingly fine figure, black hair, even features, and a fascinating personality. A gypsy woman who once met him in the woods stopped short and exclaimed, "Do I see a man or angel?" He was a daring skater on Lake Sebago, in the woods of Maine, beside which he lived for several years of his boyhood, with his mother and sisters; and once he followed a black bear far into the woods with a gun, though he failed to get a shot at the creature. His letters to his sisters are bubbling over with fun and boyishness, and his love-letters to his wife are entrancingly ardent and human, though, unlike those of many great men, never for a moment silly. Hawthorne did not like strangers, and had a peculiar trait, characteristic of the whole family, of affecting secluded habits. But for those who succeeded in getting behind the curtain that he was forever holding up to shut out the public gaze, he was a splendid specimen of a man, both as a warm friend, a genial companion, and a stanch, honest defender of truth. He had an eerie fancy, and a strange, wild imagination, which give an almost supernatural tinge to all his writings; but he, of all men, was not morbid, and his genius had not the least kinship to insanity.

Damn gypsies, wandering through the woods, shouting all the time.

Handsome, healthy, kind-hearted and honest?

Who knew???

I always thought more along the lines of self-flagellating, ashamed, perverse and misogynistic about old Nathaniel. I'll have to research this and get back to you, my fellow bookworms.

Huzzah for Quimby's!

To cleanse my palate after The Best American Short Stories 2003, I read Isaac Asimov's Foundation for the umpteenth time. It's just about the best science fiction novel ever, even considering it's less a novel than a collected serialized story. As long as we're serenading a charmingly flat style (and I sure am; screw the fancy lads and give me a terse verse any day), I should note that Asimov is famous for his no-nonsense writing. I've been rereading Foundation for the past fifteen or twenty years.

After polishing that off, I found myself with a limited choice of books to carry on the commute--I'm running out of new books at home. I had to pass on A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram, given that its 1200 pages weigh too much to carry. Instead, I've headed in the opposite direction: my current read is 125 pages and measures 3-1/2" by 5-1/2".

When my wife's grandfather died two years ago, I was given a couple of little items of interest (like a pitch whistle). One of these was a collection of The Nutshell Library, from the Sherwin Cody School of English of Rochester, N.Y., published in 1927. There are nine or ten of these diminutive volumes, each in a thin cardboard binding, and each being a short introduction to an author of the old canon. They all open with a little biography/literary critique by Mr. Cody, followed by some shorter works by the featured author. My first Nutshell selection is An Evening with Hawthorne (they're all an evening with someone--what a quaint, oppressive picture to imagine of a reader sitting on the veranda and being introduced to literature some dusty night in 1930), with five short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mr. Cody has an odd, didactic style to his biographies, with such ear-benders as this:

We must learn to think of the handsome, healthy, kind-hearted, honest Hawthorne, the real Hawthorne, before we can comprehend the meaning of his imaginative flights, which have quite a different significance when we are assured of the clear-headed purpose behind them.

As for Hawthorne, I'm finding that his stories can be engaging, but let's face it, 150 years later we've seen all these tricks in horror movies. You can spot the twists a mile ahead, and he's pulling his punches anyway: by the end of the story he provides a plausible explanation or the narrator steps out of the spooky house and everything is back to normal and maybe it was all just a trick of the light. On the other hand, I'm really enjoying the mood of misty old New England much along the lines of Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow. It's decent, but I'll stick to my guns and continue saying that nothing really great was written prior to 1920. I suspect I won't enjoy as much the other Nutshell Library authors, which start to drag down into the fluffery of the 19th century with Thackery and Dickens and, dang it, poets (oh, dear lord, Longfellow). Then again, what do I know from Thackery? I guess I shall further my education with the help of the Sherwin Cody School of English.

Today I'm reading Found Magazine, a collection of notes, poems, drawings and papers people have picked up off the ground and sent in from all over the world. I love it! Although I'm sorry to say that this is the only zine purchased during last week's visit to Quimby's, the best small-press bookstore I've ever visited. If anybody is hiring, I need a job so I can buy more stuff.