Lori’s Book Nook

Humans! We all seem to want something for nothing. Maybe because we’re programmed to expect our water and air to be free, and we’re still hardwired for the whole hunting and gathering days (not that that was really free…it was a lot of risky work for both tasks).

Anyway, very often, a person finding this blog is searching for a free online version of a book. Sometimes it’s a book that is out of copyright, and truly free. And sometime, it’s a book that people should know better about — some relatively new publication.

Hell, I’m guilty of it as well. I once had a copy of the 1996 essay by David R. Counts & Dorothy Ayers Counts on RVing — which they’ve since expanded into a book, Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America. I went searching for the article online, hoping to find that someone had posted it for free…

No luck. Oh, it was out there, but at a cost.

I do some marketing on the side — and this is one thing that I recommend for anyone with a business website: Have something of real value on your website for free. People will come for the free stuff, and keep coming back for more. Good examples: Baen’ free books, and the Altoids mint flash game, which is pretty cool.

My hubby sent me a link today that he thought might interest me. It’s a post on James Sherrett’s blog, on his website for his book “Up in Ontario”.  The blog post in question is about Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, and other writing he’s done.

Now, as my loyal reader(s) will know, I’m reading Pollan’s book right now, with the crew at BookTalk.org — and it’s a very readable book.

What you may also know is that I’m currently producing a forum on food security — this book is so damned relevant that I’m going to get a bookstore in town to cross-promote his store with our event, and come to the event with a number of the books to sell.

But what you may not know is that James Sherrett was one of the first presenters at the Shebeen Club in its inaugural first few months (before it had its own name!) — a club that I helped found, and unfortunately, I am no longer close enough to go to every month.

Everything is connected.

Every once in awhile, there’s a truly new, beautiful thing on the Internet. Years ago, I was introduced to the Visual Thesaurus. I would go there periodically to just play, and watch the gorgeous flow of words. Now, you can type one word in, then ya gotta pay! Ah well, everyone needs to make a living. (Would I actually want my own copy on the desktop? Not sure. I have a thesaurus already. I think the visual beauty of the thing would distract me from its intended use…)

Now, the creator of Gnod, an experiment in AI, has a Literature-Map…type in an author, and see a map of his/her connections. Seems to be along the lines of ‘if you like X, you’ll like Y’. Seems to work. I checked out Orson Scott Card, and I like the authors closest to him.

We are amused.

From Laugh Break:

Introducing the new Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge device, trade-named BOOK.

BOOK is a revolutionary breakthrough in technology: no wires, no electric circuits, no batteries, nothing to be connected or switched on.

It’s so easy to use, even a child can operate it. Compact and portable, it can be used anywhere, even sitting in an armchair by the fire, yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc.

Very cute. Follow the link for the whole piece. It’s worth it.

I want to stay at the Library Hotel.

Organized according to the Dewey Decimal System so each floor of the hotel has a different category, and each room a theme on that category. Stay in the Poetry room on the Literature floor (Room number 800.003, with one full-sized bed). Or try Room 1100.002, the Ethics room on the Philosophy floor, which has a queen-sized bed.

Cool.

In the 1800s, people used to sit and listen to much longer lectures than we have the patience for today…the one I’m reading now (in my trusty Harvard Classics), is one by John Ruskin, with the intriguing title above. It’s 42 pages long. (good number, really)

How long is that?

[pause]

I just timed myself reading, nay, emoting, a page, and it took me 2 minutes. Okay, so I lied. It’s an 80+ minute lecture. But it is definitely thicker than what we’re accustomed to today.

Here are some of the more delightful samples (courtesy of this site, which saved me from typing it all in myself!):

Practically, then, at present, “advancement in life” means, becoming conspicuous in life; - obtaining a position which shall be acknowledged by others to be respectable or honorable. We do not understand by this advancement in general, the mere making of money, but the being known to have made it; not the accomplishment of any great aim, but the being seen to have accomplished it. In a word, we mean the gratification of our thirst for applause. That thirst, if the last infirmity of noble minds, is also the first infirmity of weak ones; and, on the whole, the strongest impulsive influence of average humanity: the greatest efforts of the race have always been traceable to the love of praise, as its greatest catastrophes to the love of pleasure.

This brings to mind Alain de Botton’s book, Status Anxiety, which is on my ‘everyone must read’ list.

Another bit from Ruskin’s essay that I liked, more specifically about reading (the main theme of the lecture):

Very ready we are to say of a book, “How good this is - that`s exactly what I think!” But the right feeling is, “How strange that is! I never thought of that before, and yet I see it is true; or if I do not now, I hope I shall, some day.” But whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours. Judge it afterwards, if you think yourself qualified to do so; but ascertain it first. And be sure also, if the author is worth anything, that you will not get at his meaning all at once; - nay, that at his whole meaning you will not for a long time arrive in any wise. Not that he does not say what he means, and in strong words too; but he cannot say it all; and what is more strange, will not, but in a hidden way and in parables, in order that he may be sure you want it. I cannot quite see the reason of this, nor analyze that cruel reticence in the breasts of wise men which makes them always hide their deeper thought. They do not give it to you by way of help, but of reward; and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they allow you to reach it.

Seems a wise approach to any new book.

My other exposure to Ruskin is through one of his books on architecture, The Stones of Venice. That link is its Library Thing page, and the copy of the book I have is pictured on the sidebar, right at the bottom…the Folio Society version. So beautiful.

From Wikipedia:

The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf, was a fifty one volume anthology of works selected by Charles W. Eliot. It was originally published in 1909. Dr. Eliot, then President of Harvard University, had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending fifteen minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf.

Today, my local library was having another ‘Dirty Book Sale’, and on a table was a box of 17 Harvard Classics for $20. How could I resist? Even my husband was positive about it — for the Darwin. And the Cervantes. All of Dante (will I ever read it?). Plato, Homer…

17 of 51…a full third of the titles.

Do I have  20 inches to spare on a shelf?

So we did it. Traveled all the way to Portland, OR, to visit Powell’s City of Books…a mecca of sorts in the book world.

Was it worth it? Well, it was raining in Portland, so it wasn’t like we were going to do any other sightseeing. We’d woken up late in our campground, which was not in itself a bad thing, but instead of breakfast we had brunch…and we ended up driving all the way home that day/night, instead of either camping in the wet or getting across the mountains and setting up camp at night.

But, I’m not answering the question. Yes. It was worth it. It’s a fabulous bookstore. It makes me happy knowing that there exists a place I can get numerous John Fante or Lawrence Ferlinghetti books, should I need to. It had 4 copies of one of the books on my wishlist, Ursula LeGuin’s Dancing on the Edge of the World…now no longer on my wishlist, but in my library.
Another treasure that is now in my library, for a great price, is the New and Collected Poems: 1931 - 2001 of Czeslaw Milosz, Polish poet & Nobel Prize winner. One of the reasons I wanted a book of his poetry was A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry — a collection he edited. The choices he made, and his commentary, put him firmly in the category of Poets I Like.

I will leave you with one of his poems, entitled A Boy.

A Boy

Standing on a boulder you cast a line,
Your bare feet rounded by the flickering water
Of your native river thick with water lilies.
And who are you, staring at the float
While you listen to echoes, the clatter of paddles?
What is the stigma you received, young master,
You who are ill with your apartness
And have one longing: to be just like the others?
I know your story and learned your future.
Dressed as a Gypsy girl I could stop by the river
And tell your fortune: fame and a lot of money,
Without knowledge, though, of the price to be paid
Which one does not admit to the envious.
One thing is certain: in you, there are two natures.
The miserly, the prudent on against the generous.
For many years you will attempt to reconcile them
Till all your works have grown small
And you will prize only uncalculated gifts,
Greatheartedness, self-forgetful giving,
Without monuments, books, and human memory.

Enjoy.

It was on this day in 1847 that Charlotte Brontë published her novel Jane Eyre. (From The Writer’s Almanac)

Isn’t that a fabulous thing? If you haven’t read it, go to your favourite local 2ndhand bookstore and pick up a cheap copy today. If you’re overawed by the concept of reading a book from 1847, watch the very nicely-done movie (with William Hurt as a wonderfully hulking Rochester, and Charlotte Gainsbourg as the quintessential plain Jane) to get yourself in the mood.

Or, if you have read it already, shake up your perceptions a bit by reading Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair, a wonderfully odd book.
I’ve read the classic numerous times. I think I’ll pull it off the shelf today and give it a re-read in honour of its birthday.

Interesting how the genre of SF has changed over the years. No, I’m not going to start a history lesson…go to Wikipedia for that.

But, what do they really stand for, those two letters? Science fiction? Speculative fiction? Science fiction & fantasy? Does it matter?

The point is, the literature of alternate views of reality is a wonderful thing…a laboratory of possible outcomes, a playground for ideas, and a place where absolutely anything goes. In my bookmarks, I’ve been holding on to a useful one, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. The main page has a great list of upcoming releases, in all forms, including audio. [So now I really know what my bookstore isn't stocking!]

While I’m on about releases and new books, have you folks been to Baen’s Free Library? It’s a great marketing ploy (and a transparent one, if you read the first page), but there’s one point that’s not made there:

How many people are really likely to read a book online?

I might read the first chapter, get into it, and decide to buy the book (or find it at the library), but I don’t see myself reading all of it while sitting at my computer.

Questions for the public: Do you read books online? On your computer, your PDA, whatever. If so, why? How? How many? Is it better than a physical book (perish the thought!)?

Obviously, I’m biased to the ‘real thing’. I want to hold a book in my hand, curl up in a comfy chair (or flake out on the sofa, or sit up in bed…), and turn pages. I’ve read a book once on the computer, as an experiment. It was The Voyages of Doctor Doolittle by Hugh Lofting.