By the number of books I have been checking out from the library of late you’d think that I had vast expanses of time, that I didn’t have to work, and library school was done. All evidence to the contrary, however, I am showing a great deal of restraint. The books I check out from work are mine for two to three months. I have several times stopped myself from requesting books be sent over from the undergrad library or one of the other libraries in our consortium (we share a catalog and collections with about eight other private metro-area universities, a glorious, glorious thing). Friday I brought home The Three Theban Plays, Robert Fagles’ translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. I have already read Seamus Heaney’s version of Antigone and don’t plan to read it again, but I will read the two Oedipus plays.
I also brought home Friday a book I have been longing to read for ages, Space Between Words: The Origins of Silent Reading by Paul Saenger. Eagerly I began reading the introduction. It all began well enough but soon deteriorated into scholarly jargon and technical language that I have no desire to struggle with. Too bad too because Saenger’s thesis, that silent reading became possible when written words were separated on the page, is an interesting one. I was disappointed that the book turned out to be something different than I expected. It goes back to the library tomorrow.
Saturday, I picked up a book at the public library. The Post-Office Girl by Stefan Zweig is the next Slaves of Golconda read (March 31st!). I will have another book to pick up at the public library sometime this week, Alex Beam’s A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books.
After coming this close to returning The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans to the library I started reading it yesterday and am so glad I did. I was going to send it back because I got it along with all my letter writing books and I didn’t see how it was really relevant. But I happened to look at the table of contents and changed my mind when I saw the first chapter was about how to read letters. For the first chapter alone, it is turning out to be a really good book. I will elaborate on that further soon.
A book that I actually own but is making me want to borrow trailer loads of books from the library is Michael Dirda’s Classics for Pleasure. Some of the books he mentions I can get free on my Kindle. Do you know how fun it is to turn on the Kindle and instantly “own” the book mentioned? It makes me giddy. Not everything is available in the world of free online books, however, even when the book is in the public domain, so only some of my excitement for the books Dirda writes about can be immediately satisfied. It is probably just as well.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love the library and how much I love working in a library?
You sound extremely happy! I have been having a love affair with the library lately too — I had to totally restrain myself yesterday when I went, but still came home with too many to read in the allotted 3 weeks! I’m so envious!
You and libraries are a match made in heaven!
That is very interesting about the spaces between words enabling silent reading. I can see that. I might have to take a whack at that book, if it’s available to us mere library mortals.
The Dirda books sounds good, but I’m still waiting for “Classics: Because They’re Good For You.”
What lovely books you have to read – I’m keen to try something by Michael Dirda myself, and I’m intrigued now to hear more about The Real Life of Mary Ann Evans. Being in a library must be like living in a sweetie shop!!
I look forward immensely to hearing more about the real life of Mary Ann Evans. I’m a huge fan of her work but don’t know all that much about her life.
I live on a barrier island. Good for some things, but not when it comes to our tiny library. I miss large, urban libraries that are open late into the night. I can usually find most books I really want by on-line searching the libraries in our “system.” But, it takes days for the book to travel from one branch to the next – if they have it at all. I’ve already checked for Stefan Zweig’s book so I can participate in Slaves of Golconda. None of the branches carry it, so I’ll have to buy it from Amazon. Bummer.
Sigh.
Now the Dirda is on my tbr list.
(Working in a library is dangerous, no?)
I just replaced the first sentence with, “By the number of books… you’d think I was a fanatical reader.” No need to explain yourself – perfectly acceptable behavior. Nice reading list. Keep up the good work.
I may even write up a book report soon. I keep meaning to. Right now I am a reading a piece of fiction about a researcher who lives with 114 dogs for 8 years and establishes that they are better communicators than humans.
I read one of Stephan Zweig’s books many years ago and I remember enjoying it immensely.
You’re lucky to work in a library and not a bookstore, you would probably end up giving your employer most of his money back!!! (I know I would!)
I have three of Dirda’s books, including Classics for Pleasure All of them are quite good. They are but a small portion of my books about books. My seven year old thinks that books on books are my favorite because I love books so much. But, they have the benefit or drawback (depending on your POV) of only introducing you to new books and authors. There are just too many good books to read!
I’m glad to see you’re getting some good recommendations from Classics for Pleasure. It was quite the TBR-builder for me (not that I needed any help with that).
Some great suggestions, thanks! As for reading ebooks, I’ve tried Stanza on my iPhone. I agree the feeling of ‘owning’ a book just by the touch of a finger is gratifying, but I find reading out of my iPhone is so straining, for me anyway. Oh well, can’t have them all, can we. But for the books you mention here, I would definitely want to get hold of the real thing in my hands.
I just checked out The post office girl too! Of course it is on the pile of books that I will eventually have to carry back to the library one of these days…
And of course I do have to study for mid-terms. Are you doing a full time masters in LIS? I am and it is draining the life out of me…
Thank heaven for libraries and more importantly, interlibrary loan!
Daphne, Oh I am happy. Having access to so many books and such a variety of them is wonderful. And that’s ok if you don’t read all your books in three weeks. It is still fun to have them around.
Sylvia, you think so?
I hope you can get a copy of the book. That way I can read it vicariously and find out if his thesis holds up. And I am sure there must be a classics because they’re good for you book out there somewhere.
Litlove, being in a library is like being in a sweet shop only books are a lot less calories! Dirda is fun to read. His love of books really comes through.
Maggie, I’ll be sure to share the interesting Mary Ann Evan tidbits. I don;t know much about her life either and I think this book takes an interesting approach to it.
Grad, the Zweig book is new and I was surprised my public library had it since the university still has it on order. I suppose there are pluses and minuses about where you live. sometimes I think how nice it would be to live away from a big city but I think I would miss many of the conveniences especially easy access to lots of library books.
Melanie, working in the library is very dangerous
Bikkuri, ah, you are the reason I love blogging about books: no need to explain myself! Your book sounds interesting please do blog about it
Em, my husband has been working in a bookstore for over 13 years. I don’t know how he manages it. Obviously he has much more restraint than I do!
Joseph, I am with you 100% on the books about books. I have a few by Dirda and a shelf of others. I love them but you are right, there are too many good books to read.
Teresa, LOL, do any of us need help building our TBR lists? And as I keep reading Dirda, I keep adding more!
Arti, I can’t imagine reading on an iPhone. I think I’d be squinting all the time. Love the Kindle though. It has a good sized screen. Still, I will never give up my paper books entirely.
Isolde, oh, do read Post Office Girl and join in the Slaves discussion on the 31st! I am not full time in the LIS program, I think I would go crazy if I were. I am taking one class each quarter. It will be awhile until I am done but I won’t be crazy or in debt (I hope) so I don’t mind it taking so long. Good luck on your midterms!
Lisa, oh yes and yes again!
That sounds wonderful! I was thinking the other day that I don’t use my school library enough. I get books from them through interlibrary loan now and then, but I was looking through their shelves of new books the other day and realizing they have a great selection. I should check those shelves out more often! Too bad about the silent reading book, although perhaps you picked up the major points from reading the beginning? So many scholarly books really don’t say much that’s new after the intro.
I’ve been reading the introduction to Saenger’s book on Google Books. Wow. It’s utterly fascinating. And I’m learning a new word on every page.
Hello morpheme, parataxis, and staccades! Naturally my library doesn’t have it. Even the university doesn’t have it. So I either have to try my luck with ILL or shell out the thirty bucks for it. I’ll decide after I run out of Google Book pages…
(And I am just a wee bit proud that it was my ancestors the Irish who gave us word separation! Silly Romans and Greeks!)
Dorothy, once you start checking out those shelves at your school library you’ll be a goner! The silent reading book still intrigues me even though I decided it is not what I was hoping for. Maybe I will try it again another time now that I know more of what it is about. Or maybe I will be satisfied with just thinking about the introduction.
Sylvia, I am so glad you are enjoying the Saenger book. Too bad none of your libraries has a copy. Hopefully you can get it through ILL. All those new words is what threw me. I wasn’t prepared for them so they ended up just making me grumpy even though I think his thesis is fascinating. Yay for the Irish! (I have some Irish ancestry too)