I'm All About That Bass

How cute is Meghan Trainor's "All About that Bass"?  VERY cute.  SUPER cute.  (I think I can even legitimately say "wicked cute" because she's from Massachusetts.) 

And hey, we bootylicious girls appreciate the, um, appreciation ;-)

If you like books, and students being super creative, what's even cuter?  Mount Desert Island High School's "All About Those Books".... feast your eyes....


 Right on, kids! I can't wait to see your next video!

Quitter

It's rare for me to quit a book.  My dear husband notes this with a certain amount of awe and puzzlement.  I will hate and gripe my way through a book for weeks (or put it down for a year, only to pick it up again) out of a compulsion to finish.  Maybe it's guilt. Maybe it's that I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt.

But recently, I've become less patient.  I've become.... a quitter.

You may already know I own too many books.  Too many?  How is that possible?  

Because they are threatening to crush us.

This doesn't even account for all the books in the house.
Yikes.

I need to read my way down.

So I am hereby announcing that I have renounced two books: S. Shoenbaum's Shakespeare: His Life, His Language, His Theater, and Bill Bryson's The Lost Continent.

Book People Unite!

I stumbled across this WONDERFUL music video.  Recognize any of your favorite characters?

Brought to you by the good people at Reading is Fundamental and BookPeopleUnite.org

NOT TO BE MISSED: The Behind the Scenes making of Book People Unite.  OMG, I don't know what's funnier, Raggedy Andy talking about Raggedy Ann, or LeVar Burton discussing the tension on set between the Three Little Pigs and the Three Blind Mice.

Visit your local library!  Here's a link to information about public libraries in every corner of Maine.  (Don't forget to check out their summer reading programs - many libraries have programs for kids AND adults.  You win twice - read awesome books, and get cool swag!)  Best of all, if your local library doesn't have the book you want in their collection, you can access MINERVA and get the book via Interlibrary Loan - also FREE.

My own assignment

If nothing has clued you in yet, I'm a book fiend.  I read about fifty books each year.  I've challenged myself to read this:

Yep, all these books (well, except for the dictionary and thesaurus on top - that would be silly ;-).  For the element of surprise, I've asked my husband to select (assign?) the books to me.  (I don't think there'll be any science to it, probably something like the first one he grabs.)

None of these are brand new.  In fact, none of them were even purchased new.  ALL of them were gotten "frugally," at GoodWill (the GoodWill on the South Portland/Scarborough line has a CRAZY good book section) or at used book stores or library sales.  My financial investment is minimal, my emotional investment is significant.

So don't expect any hot-off-the-presses reviews, but I'll post about each one as I finish.  It'll keep me on task.  And it's good for me to write about literature.  I used to do it well; maybe I can still muster up mediocre.

Book #1: Andre Dubus III's House of Sand and Fog.  I've had this copy for some time, and I've NOT watched the film (because I also have a personal rule that I need to read the book FIRST).  But when the film was in theatres, my parents saw it, and Dad remarked, "What a sad, sad movie."  Very uncharacteristic for him to be emotional about a film.

At the end of House of Sand and Fog I'll let you know if I'm drenched in tears.  It could happen.

Book Lovers Unite!

I might have missed out on the last gasp of summer weather, but my geeky self had a ball on Saturday as I helped sort and organize The Glacier, the fond term for the more than 20,000 donated books stored over the course of each year for the Annual Friends of the South Portland Public Library Used Book Sale.

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool book lover, and a sucker for used books.  Maybe it's my Yankee frugality, or my tree-hugging spirit of reduce-reuse-recycle, but I just can't bring myself to spend $25 on a retail book, when I know if I wait a couple of years I can scoop up the same book for two bucks at a sale that benefits a good cause.  How do I wait it out?  By browsing through the hundreds of books (maybe a thousand?) awaiting me at home (I know, there's probably a diagnosis here, but it's not Hoarders or anything.  Really, it's not).  My dear husband insists we could insulate our house with our books, and I think top of his list of "Why I Never Want to Move to a New House" is the spectre of hauling all my beloved books (and probably risking a back injury in the process).  Was I sad when Borders went belly up?  Of course, but mostly because it was the demise of the last retail location in Greater Portland where you could hang around well past 9pm, coffee in hand, and browse through.... books!  Nirvana!

This ugly duckling found her swans on Saturday.  Not just one, but a whole room of busy, book-loving people just like me.  Whee!

Dave on the move.  The children's books are still being arranged.

And I met Dave Kirkwood, the Angel of The Glacier.  Several times a week, ALL through the year, Dave processes the books donated at the South Portland Library into categories, which he then carefully boxes up and adds to The Glacier, a veritable pyramid of boxes the size of a small warehouse.  It's astonishing.  Dave quietly devotes this care and time, and then is the cheerful commandant of Sorting Day, hauling trolley after trolley of boxed books, patiently directly volunteers as we ask him, for the umpteenth time, "Um, Dave, what do you want me to work on next?"  He's amazing.

At the end of the day, I was tired, but excited.  I managed to hold down my purchases to a mere two full cardboard boxes of books.  Dave loaded the boxes onto a dolly and wheeled them out to my car (awww).  As we chatted on the way, I said I looked forward to seeing him next weekend for Cleanup Day.  He replied, "Oh, well, I won't be there this year for Cleanup.  I feel bad about it, but after a lot of thought, I've decided to go to my 60th high school reunion."  60 years!  Dave, you rock.

Can't find anything here?  Try the fiction room across the hall.

The book sale starts today and lasts til Saturday.  You can come in today if you are a "Friend" of the South Portland Library (a small donation, and well worth it, IMHO.)  And I promise I won't shop from your stash.