Since Kate D. tagged me here, I’ll do a geeky library-themed “6 Things You May Not Know About Me”:
1. When I was a kid, I used to dog-ear corners in books because I didn’t like messing with bookmarks. Yes, even library books. I know!
2. Even more shamefully: I had an obsession with Absolut ads in high school. I wallpapered my bedroom with them. When this obsession exceeded what my mom’s Newsweeks could provide, I tore out ads from old magazines in my school library. (I made sure they had ads, not articles, on the back.)
3. To balance the shame with some pride: my friend Dave F. and I are thanked in Anita Silvey’s fabulous book 500 Great Books for Teens, for helping her with the graphic novel section. (We were in grad school at the time, in her class.) I never get tired of seeing my name in print in a Real Book, so graciously thanked by someone I admire so much.
4. My favorite reading snack is whatever I happen to be eating at the moment. The time of the snack is happy.
5. I own very little non-fiction, and what I have is organized into bizarre categories of my own devising. “Stuff I’d Actually Read Cover-to-Cover for Fun” is one; “Geek Books I Can’t Bear to Give Away (Because They’re Signed by Gates McFadden and/or Have Maps of the Home Planets of All the Aliens Mentioned in Star Trek)” is another.
6. I have started, but not finished, The Fellowship of the Ring and Snow Crash, and I have no desire to ever play D&D. The Spirit of Gary Gygax is taking away my geek credentials as I type this.
I tag anyone who wants to play! No pressure.
0 responses so far ↓
1 dpg178 // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I never messed with bookmarks either. I’d just remember the page number. Unfortunately, this is much like my organization system as an adult — it’s on my desk, and I know exactly where it is, but woe to anyone else who may need to find it. I’m trying to get better at work, but it’s only marginal.
On a side note, did you see the article in today’s Globe West section about the YA book they want to ban from a middle school library in Waltham. I naturally thought of you when I saw the article, wondering whether you had read the book and thought it was appropriate for middle schoolers.
Here’s a link to the article, in case you didn’t see it: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/09/parent_wants_book_out_of_library/
2 Sam // Mar 9, 2008 at 7:35 pm
DPG -
Thanks for the link! I hadn’t heard about this. I checked, and McDevitt MS is 6-8, the same as the middle school part of my school. I have read Lovely Bones, and it’s creepy as hell. I felt like I wanted to talk to my mommy after I read it! It’s appropriate for some 8th graders, but certainly not all, and probably not even most.
If this were a combined middle and high school library, it would be much trickier, but as it is, I think the parent’s concern is well-founded.
That said, I think the library’s solution (move it to the faculty section and require students to get a librarian’s permission to check it out) is reasonable.
3 Miriam // Mar 10, 2008 at 9:38 am
On this topic, I cannot make the San Diego library understand that Laurell K. Hamilton books do not belong in the YA section. The delicate distinction of “OK for the adult section, not OK for the YA section even if there are vampires” completely escapes them. I even shocked the old ladies at the checkout desk with a vivid description of the books’ contents, but to no avail.
4 Siggy // Mar 11, 2008 at 11:42 am
I feel so happy to find another somewhat geeky reader who hasn’t finished Fellowship of the Ring. I love (good) fantasy books, and I know Tolkein was foundational–but it is SOOO BORING! And where are the ladies?! I am currently trying AGAIN to slog through, but that’s more so I can justify my not liking them too much.
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