Incoherent Scribblings

Although I work in an academic library, we have a shelf of books near the circulation desk that are “bestsellers.” The bestseller shelf doesn’t contain enough books to encroach on the public library’s territory, but in my opinion, is a little gem because academic libraries typically aren’t known for vast collections of popular fiction. I have come across a number of interesting reads on the bestseller shelf, the latest being entitled The Little Book by Selden Edwards.

The Little Book is rather hard to describe. I have never read a book quite like it, although if I had to make comparisons of something similar it would have to be The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Like The Time Traveler’s Wife, The Little Book is about “time travel.” However, unlike the protagonist in The Time Traveler’s Wife, the protagonist in The Little Book doesn’t keep dropping in and out of time; Instead a cataclysmic event transports him from his time (1988, San Francisco) to another time (1897, Vienna).

The Little Book weaves a complex tale in which Wheeler Burden’s life story is told. The first part of the book is rather disjointed as the reader is taken back and forth between Wheeler’s initial appearance in Vienna and stories of his child and young adulthood. A variety of characters are introduced, including some historical figures, the most significant of which is Dr. Sigmund Freud. As the book progresses, the reader begins to make connections between characters and the stories of Wheeler’s youth.

As with any “time travel” book the issue of how the time traveler is intentionally or unintentionally affecting his future, the future of those he loves, and the entire future of humanity is present, but by the second half of the book the reader realizes that Wheeler’s intrusion into 1897 Vienna was actually predestined and things are unfolding exactly as they are supposed to.

I quite enjoyed this book and would suggest it to those who liked The Time Traveler’s Wife because of its “time travel” premise. In addition, because the setting of the majority of the book is fin de siècle Vienna, I would also recommend The Little Book to those who get pleasure from historical fiction.

Dear Santa,

I know it’s been a long time since I wrote you a letter, but that’s mostly because for the past few years I didn’t need to write. After all, I am an adult with a full-time job and no children. This means that I can pretty much buy myself what I want any time during the year and I don’t have to wait for Christmas anymore. Sure I could write and ask you for world peace, but let’s face it: The reason people write to Santa is to request material things.

So this year I have a materialistic request for you. If you could manage to fit it in your sleigh, could you bring me a bookshelf (or possibly two) for Christmas?

You see, I have a problem. I have books all over the place and I have nowhere to put them. I have books at my mom’s house in boxes, books on the floor of my closet, books piled on the top of my dresser, and books packed away in suitcases. And even though I don’t believe in “collecting” books and have gotten rid of quite a few over the years, I can’t stop myself from buying more… especially when I find them at the thrift shop for a quarter!

Of course Santa you are probably wondering why I haven’t already bought myself a bookshelf or two. After all, I can get one at Wal-Mart and put it together with a minimum amount of cussing on my part for a reasonable price. To this I would respond, “That is true.”

And as a matter of fact, I do have one of those Wal-Mart bookshelves. I even put it together myself and only had to take it apart because I put it together wrong once. But the thing is the Wal-Mart bookshelf is not only full, it is also teetering on the edge of collapse and I don’t want another one like it.

While I buy a healthy number of mass-market paperbacks, I am a reference librarian and as a result I tend to buy a lot of fat reference books in hardcover… and those puppies aren’t especially known for being lightweight.

What I would really like this year Santa is a real bookshelf. One that won’t crumple under the weight of my Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature and my hardcover Allan Lee edition of Lord of the Rings. One that is eight feet tall, made of a solid wood like oak, and pre-assembled by some brawny furniture delivery man.

Hmm… now that I think about it, screw the bookshelf! Just send a brawny furniture delivery man my way and I’ll buy the damn bookshelf myself!

Sending Christmas hugs your way,
Renée, the blondelibrarian

I finished Twilight last weekend. Quickly and easily summed up it is book candy. It is fun to read, but in my opinion there is very little substance. Will I read the other books in the series? Probably. They should be quick reads and I didn’t hate the characters or the premise.

But…

Maybe I have been reading too much literature lately, but I had some problems with Twilight.

To begin with, I didn’t feel like the characters had much depth and I saw very little character development. I thought Edward had the potential to be a complex character, but unfortunately he stayed pretty flat throughout the book. He is mysterious, which I think is one of the reasons that Bella is drawn to him, and we do learn something about how he became a vampire, but he doesn’t reveal anything about what it is like to be a vampire. Obviously he is drawn to Bella, but when the reader learns about his attraction it is described in animalistic terms. He claims to love her, but we don’t know why.

The character of Bella bothered me on a number of levels. As I mentioned briefly last week, I was irritated by her whole “damsel in distress” persona. I also didn’t like the way she thinks Edward is so damn perfect. Now, this could be part of his vampire allure or it could just be the fact that she is a teenager with stars in her eyes for the cute brooding guy in the corner, but even after she gets to know him, Bella finds absolutely no flaws in Edward.

Once Bella finds out Edward is a vampire, she isn’t disturbed in the least. Now, I have fallen for a “bad boy” or two in my day and I understand how easy it is to disregard the warnings you get about that “bad boy,” but you still are aware of the risk… that’s what makes the “bad boy” exciting. However, Bella doesn’t even seem to be aware that she is dating a “bad boy”; Even when he tells her.

As far as a “vampire story” goes, it is going to take a lot of convincing to get me to say that this one deserves all the attention that it has received. I love vampire stories and I have read quite a few in my day. I have read ones where the vampires are truly monsters with no conscience, but my favorite ones are about vampires who bemoan the fact that they feed off human blood and are searching for some kind of salvation. Edward is supposed to be this kind of vampire, which is why I was interested in reading the book in the first place, but because his character lacks development I don’t see him searching for any kind of release from what he is… maybe that comes later in the series, I don’t know.

The author also takes a lot of liberties with vampire lore. Of course that is part of the fun writing fantasy: You can disregard convention so, for example, sunlight doesn’t have to be lethal to your vampire. However, if you move too far away from the accepted lore, your reader can find it difficult to identify your character as a vampire and then in some ways your book becomes nothing more than another cheesy teenage love story.

Whew! (Or is it phew?) Actually, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters tonight is that I have officially turned in my term paper!

Although I still have a slight case of the “would’a-should’a-could’as (I should’a worked harder on that transition paragraph and I could’a, if only I would’a had another day!), for the most part I am just happy to have turned the darn thing in. (Big thanks go out to Mr G who graciously helped me edit and revise it last night over a drink… or two).

I am sure everyone is just dying to know what my paper was about, so I will give you the title: “Ideology and The Jungle: A Marxist Reading.” (Note the colon in the title of the paper. As any good grad student will tell you, a colon in the title is a true mark of a serious research paper.) As you can probably guess from the paper’s title, I took one of the works we read this semester (The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair) and applied Marxist literary theory to it.

Before I did this paper I didn’t know a whole lot about Marxist criticism. I remembered the basics of the theory from my undergrad criticism class and that it was something that piqued my interest, but that was about it. So, as you can imagine, I spent a great deal of time learning about Marxist criticism before I even began thinking about how to apply it to The Jungle.

I would go into more detail if (1) I didn’t think it would bore what is left of my audience to death and (2) if I was still able to put together a coherent thought about it right now. However, since I am completely unable to do that I will just end this by saying that it was definitely a learning experience and I enjoyed it… but damn am I thankful it’s over!

(Wow! This post is sure living up to my blog’s name tonight. Sorry… I am just a little brain. dead.)

It’s Saturday night at (approximately) 11:30pm and I am home this evening. Why? Because (1) I have to work tomorrow and (2) I spent most of my Saturday evening working on my term paper. Oh yes, the true mark of a graduate student: I stayed home on Saturday night to do homework.

Beyond the whole homework thing, I didn’t have a very exciting day. I went to bed around 5am this morning (yes, last night’s dinner was very good! ), got up around noon, fiddled around until about 2:30, and then went to the laundromat (by the way, can anyone tell me why my spell check suggests I capitalize laundromat?) before coming home to slave away on my paper about Marxist literary theory. Sounds like fun, no?