The other day, a mom was looking for the Beverly Cleary book Henry and Beezus. I went to the shelf, and looky at what I found:
Some little kid had checked the book out and replaced the original jacket with her own hand drawn version! Even the plastic book jacket cover had been put back on! Now, obviously vandalizing library books is not ok, but this copy, in my opinion, has been transformed into sort of a one-of-a-kind treasure.
This has been part one of "Awesome Stuff I've Found at the Library" in a possible continuing series, if I keep finding neat bits like this (as opposed to awful things, like books returned with a banana peel being used as a bookmark).
The community of Sarasota is voting on its "One Book" selections, and this year, the candidates were a nice mix of young adult and adult works, such as The Hunger Games, In Defense of Food, Fahrenheit 451, Nickeled and Dimed, and more. For those of you that are unaware, the "One Book, One City" concept, which started in Seattle and has since spread worldwide (and has also spawned mutant offspring on Twitter), essentially turns the town into one giant book club.
It's nice to see that in a community so heavily skewed towards the retirement demographic, there are so many choices that are accessible to a younger audience. In fact, if I had my druthers, Persepolis, the acclaimed graphic novel,would be in the running next year. This is not so far-fetched: aside from being an intimately-told and elegant personal history, Marjane Satrapi's book is timely, relevant, and grants an insider's view into the troubling recent history of Iran. Among its zillion other accolades, Persepolis has won the Printz Award, an honor given to books that are written for adults but that also appeal to young adults. And the chances for Persepolis as a potential Sarasota One Book are bolstered by the fact that there is a precedent: this graphic novel has already been the choice of a major metropolitan library system.
So yeah, I love Persepolis, I love the movie it was turned into, and I'd love to see my town adopt it for it's big book club.
Last month, an examination of historical ledgers revealed that George Washington, this country's first president, had checked out a copy of The Law of Nations from the New York Society Library, and the scofflaw NEVER RETURNED IT. According to the ledger, which also showed the borrowing records for Aaron Burr, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton and others, borrowed the work on international law on October 5, 1789.
Well, good news, friends! After being delinquent for a mere 221 years, the staff of Washington's home in Mount Vernon have replaced the missing volume, bringing the Founding Father's library fine up to... $300,000!
This is a bit of good news. LeVar Burton has announced on Twitter that he is working on resurrecting his classic children's literature show, Reading Rainbow:
In February 2009, Burton wrote, “Want y’all to know that I’m seriously moving forward with an idea for a new version of a Reading Rainbow like show. Webisodes for adults.”
Many have forgotten his tease but this week, Burton wrote about reviving the show again, saying, “You heard it here first… Reading Rainbow 2.0 is in the works! Stay tuned for more info. But, you don’t have to…”
Webisodes for adults? Sounds interesting. Thank to Ryan Sawyer (of Tasty Bacon fame) for the heads up on this!
On my Boston vacation last year, I missed my chance to see one of the weirder artifacts on display in an an American library: The Athenæum's Narrative of the Life of James Allen, The Highway Man, the autobiography of a robber, written in prison and bound in the author's own skin!!!
This book was penned by James Allen (alias George Walton), "a most thoroughgoing scoundrel" who was sentenced to prison for robbing a man at gunpoint. The victim, John Fenno, courageously fought back and was shot by the criminal, who ran off, leaving Fenno for dead. The victim survived and the highwayman was captured, and was to spend the rest of his days behind bars. From the Athenæum's website:
The odd part of it was that, during his last confinement, the unusual courage of Mr. Fenno seems to have struck firmly in his mind. So great was his admiration for the man who had worsted him, that Walton directed that a copy of his "memoirs" be bound in his own skin and presented to Mr. Fenno as a token of esteem.
That's right, he bequeathed his grisly book to the man he had robbed. Super-creepy.
Rick Dakan, famed indie author of the G33k Mafia series, is dipping his toe into the slimy waters of the Lovecraft mythos with his new novel The Cthulhu Cult. Set in Sarasota, Rick tells the creepy tale of a friend who returns to town, transformed into the guru of his own bizarro religion. In his retirement community on Siesta Key, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming! Seriously, though, Rick is gonna mess your world up when he shows you the secret non-Euclidean architecture of this sleepy little tourist burg.
On a related note, the props department of Cthulhu Lives! is offering a free downloadable library card for the Arkham Public Library. Their special collections are guaranteed to drive you insane.
