British Literature

I'm taking a class at USF called "British Literature from 1700 to the Present" and am really learning a lot. We're reading through the ages and its been very interesting to see how novelists and poets in Britain reacted to the times the were living in.
One of the first things we read was Alexander Pope's Essay on Man, and while it was very dense and structured, it may be my favorite thing we've read so far. Here are some of my favorite stanzas:

Each beast, each insect, happy in its own:
Is Heaven unkind to man, and man alone?
Shall he alone, whom rational we call,
Be pleased with nothing, if not blest with all?


More rich, more wise: but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.


Condition, circumstance, is not the thing;
Bliss is the same in subject or in king,


Weak, foolish man! will Heaven reward us there
With the same trash mad mortals wish for here?

Pretty cool.

Librarians Rule!

Did you know that the 2009 Annual Meeting for the American Library Association is being held in Chicago today through next Tuesday? I'm headed in to the city on Monday to visit the exhibits and meet up with some classmates and friends and enjoy the experience in general. I thought I would post some quotes in honor of my fellow book lovers and information gatherers.

"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
- Jorge Luis Borges

"In the nonstop tsunami of global information, librarians provide us with floaties and teach us how to swim."
- Linton Weeks

"Our whole American way of life is a great way of ideas, and librarians are the arms dealers selling weapons to both sides."
- James Quinn

Read What You Want

I am such a huge fan of reading lists that I've kind of overwhelmed myself with lists of books that I want to read. I have a "classics" list, and a "new classics" list, and an "ultimate teen" list plus the list that I kept while I was in grad school and had no time to read for fun but wanted to keep track of all the books that my fellow future librarians recommended. Whew! It turns out it takes a whole lot longer to read a list of books than to write or print it out (who knew). I also get frustrated because I'll be following a list and then want to read something off the list that just came out or was just recommended and I have guilt about it. Then I get stuck in indecision. Ugh.
I know it's a very petty problem to have, so I do sometimes have to remind myself that the world will not end because I read a few books "out of order". I recently found a quote by Samuel Johnson that says:
"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."
While I think that assigned reading for a class may be an exception to that, I'm going to try to remember his words when I get caught up in silly fretting over what to read next. I'll read just as I'm inclined. The trick will be to figure out what I'm inclined to read.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret

"A good heavy book holds you down. It's an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic."
- Roy Blount, Jr.

I read a book recently that was huge, but very fun and diverting. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick was the winner of the 2008 Caldecott Medal, which is the award for the year's best American picture book for children. Normally the award is given to a stereotypical book, with big pages and pictures, but this book looks more like a Harry Potter novel.
It's 533 pages, but the fun thing about it is that the story is told with both words and pictures so that when the main character is running through the train station there are pages to illustrate his run. It's great fun.

Lincoln's 200th

Did you know that on February 12th, 2009 it will be the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth? If you answered no it's because you don't live in Illinois.
I'm working on a display about Lincoln for the archives so he's on the brain today. Here are some of his quotes.

"Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."

"If I fail, it will be for lack of ability, and not of purpose."

When someone called him "common looking" he replied:
"The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is the reason he makes so many of them."
oooh. Snap!

Happy New Year!

"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."

-Alfred Tennyson

Yeah Fall!

"The American spring is by no means so agreeable as the American autumn; both move with faltering step, and slow; but this lingering pace, which is delicious in autumn, is most tormenting in the spring."
- Frances Trollope

"There is a harmony
In autumn, and a lustre in its sky,
Which through the summer is not heard or seen,
As if it could not be, as if it had not been!"
- Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Be nice to the archivist or she will erase you from history."

- Anonymous

"Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are."
- Mason Cooley

"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he be."
- C. S. Lewis

Books Live On

"The world of books
Is the most remarkable creation of man
Nothing else that he builds ever lasts
Monuments fall
Nations perish
Civilizations grow old and die out
And after an era of darkness
New races build others
But in the world of books are volumes
That have seen this happen again and again
And yet live on
Still young
Still as fresh as the day they were written
Still telling men's hearts
Of the hearts of men centuries dead"
-Clarence Day

True Calling

"Evelyn: Look, I... I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am.
Rick: And what is that?
Evelyn: I... am a librarian."
-The Mummy
Most Excellent.

Advice

"No, don't. I'm serious - it's a bad idea...really. You'll be sorry in the morning. Take it from me. Oh, me? I'm just setting a bad example for your sake. Seriously. Really. Stop laughing."
-unknown

Disgruntled

This is currently my favorite quote from a disgruntled librarian:

"I did not go to grad school to help you use the photocopier"
-Anonymous blog poster

Oh Florida, My Florida

"Spring-time in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color in nature—glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitor from the north. . . the nights are white nights for the moon shines with dazzling splendor, or in the absence of that goddess, the soft darkness creeps down laden with innumerable scents. The heavy fragrance of magnolias mingled with the delicate sweetness of jasmine and wild roses."
-Zora Neale Hurston

Ain't that the truth

The books we think we ought to read are poky, dull, and dry;
The books that we would like to read we are ashamed to buy;
The books that people talk about we never can recall;
And the books that people give us, oh, they're the worst of all.
-Carolyn Wells