It’s a linky kind of evening and I hope you don’t mind. But before I get to the links, I need to update you on the Kindle library book borrowing “feature.” I got an email from Amazon today to tell me my book had now expired. I have the wireless connection on my Kindle turned off and so the book couldn’t be disappeared. I am pleased to say that when I checked my Kindle this evening to make sure the borrowed book was still there, it was! So Kindle users who borrow books from the library, keep your wireless and/or wifi connection turned off when the book is coming due and it won’t disappear until you turn the connection back on. I am really glad this worked because I am only about 60% through Bill Bryson’s At Home. It’s a fun and fascinating book and I will probably dribble out some teaser information to you from it in the next couple of days.
Back when Occupy Wall Street got going I think I mentioned that they had a little library start up in Zuccotti Park that was created through donations and actually staffed by trained librarians. On November 15th, the library was destroyed by police clearing the park. Everything was thrown into dumpsters with tents and tables and blankets and anything else protest related. The library staff were told afterwards they could recover their materials from the sanitation depot. When they arrived on the 16th to collect everything, they discovered that almost everything had been smashed or otherwise damaged and was unrecoverable. So a new library was begun and now that too has been destroyed. It’s getting really ugly out there.
It’s not just the Wall Street folks who have an Occupy library though. They have ben springing up at many of the Occupy locations and supposedly the Occupy Toronto library is considered the best one. It is housed in its very own yurt! How cool is that?
Here’s something a little more lighthearted. American Book Review has put together a 100 Best First Lines list. A list of this nature opens itself to arguments when the first lines of various favorite books don’t show up. But it is also lots of fun to read through them and remind yourself of the first lines of your favorite books that did make it on the list. One first line that I love belongs to book by Anita Brookner. I have not read Brookner before so I have not read The Debut, but with and opening line like it has, I will have to read it. Here’s the line:
Dr. Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature.
I have to admit my first response was, “she didn’t know until she was 40?” Because, you know, I had figured it out by my late teens and even went so far as to major in English literature. When you major in English literature you know reading has irreparably ruined you life. As far as first lines go though, it is most excellent and now I’ve put The Debut and a few other books mentioned on my TBR list. I suppose you should consider that last bit as a warning. Read that list at you and your TBR’s own peril.
The Marriage Plot has a great opening line: “To start with, look at all the books.” Who can resist that??
I was down in Zucotti Park a couple weekends ago before the raid and got to take a look at the OWS library (“The People’s Library” as a sign proclaimed). It’s so sad to think of those books being gone. Oh, maybe I’ll put a picture of it up on my blog….
When you major in English literature you know reading has irreparably ruined you life.
Oh dear, it’s funny because it’s true.
Here in Portland, the ad-hoc (untrained) community activist staffing the Occupy library got wind of the police raid a few days before it happened, and had time to relocate all the materials to a safe location by the night before. It’s so infuriating that all the OWS library stuff got trashed – so wasteful & unnecessary.
This is completely off-topic, but I just got around to reading your post on Selznick’s new book. I loved, loved, loved The Invention of Hugo Cabret. I hear it has now been made into a movie. When I did a meme a couple of years ago, one of the questions was, “What book would you LEAST like to see turned into a motion picture?” I said, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The art work is such an integral part of the book…so intertwined with the story…I just can’t imagine how a movie can make that work. But I’ll sure rent it when it’s available on DVD. And I’ll be on the look-out for Selznick’s new one.
Rebecca, that is an irresitible first line! Very cool that you got to visit Zucotti Park and the library there. I’d love to see a photo if you are willing to post one!
Emily, yes, funny, sad and true. That’s fantastic that the Occupy Portalnd library staff were able to save the library. Things, I fear are starting to get ugly. Cities and poice are getting tired and protesters are getting more insistent. I’ve got my fingers crossed that things don’t turn really really bad.
Grad, I’m pretty sure I read Hugo Cabret because of you! I was surprised when I learned it was being made into a movie too. I’m both looking forward to and dreading the prospect. You’ll really like Wonderstruck!
Lol! I was wondering just the other day (heretical thought!) whether reading actually made you less happy, because you could be adversely affected by sad books and there are so many more of them than happy books. I have just come from visiting Dorothy’s (on no, Rebecca’s! I will remember that eventually!) and she was talking about the destruction of the protesters’ libraries too. This seems awful, so uncivilised. What possible justification can the police have other than pique and frustration? I have my stern face on. (Not, alas that it will do much good on the other side of the Atlantic, sigh.)
What a waste of books! You’d think something else could have been done — donate them, or at least set them aside somewhere to be picked up later? I guess, wherever there are books, people will congregate, which they didn’t want to happen…
That’s a great first line. I love Anita Brookner though I haven’t read any of her books in a long time–must check that one out. I wonder if that trick will work on my nook–I did check out one book but I know it expired before I finished reading–I may have connected the wifi, though, without realizing. I’ll have to try it myself! And trashing a library is just nasty. They probably took a particular pleasure in it–those heathens.
But I hear that paper books are so over.
Actually, that’s really horrible. I’m not a huge fan of Occupy City – peaceful marches and good intentions have the tendency to go by the wayside once darkness falls – but the destruction saddens me.
“In the fall the war was always there, but we did not go to it any more. It was cold in the fall in Milan and the dark came very early. Then the electric lights came on, and it was pleasant along the streets looking in the windows. There was much game hanging outside the shops, and the snow powdered in the fur of the foxes and the wind blew their tails. The deer hung stiff and heavy and empty, and small birds blew in the wind and the wind turned their feathers. It was a cold fall and the wind came down from the mountains.”
In Another Country Hemingway
That’s horrible that the police could find nothing better to do than to attack the library. Nonetheless, it shows how powerful the printed word still is (truly printed or digitally printed), doesn’t it? Actually, it seems someone could write a fabulous first-line of a novel based on that event, doesn’t it? Thanks for sharing the list, although I do think that with all the great books in the world and all the great first-lines, they surely could have had a list that didn’t repeat any one author. You’re right: the Anita Brookner line is great, and that may just have to be the next Brookner I read.
BTW, it’s me: Emily Barton, not worldcitizenshipchallenge. I have no idea how I managed to become that!
The news about the library’s destruction are infuriating, but I love that Emily Barton said above about the power of the printed word.
I love that opening line! And it also reminded me of The Marriage Plot, which I see Rebecca already mentioned.
Litlove, while many books are sad or unhappy in some way there is something to be said for the “at least that’s not me” effect, which then leaves one feeling a bit cheerier. I don’t know what the police were thinking in destroying the library. It really was uncalled for.
Louisa, isn’t it terrible? No one even got the chance to try and rescue them.
Danielle, I don’t think the trick works on Nooks because the ePub format makes them simple expire and you can’t open the file any longer. That is what I have heard anyway. If it is different. let me know!
Carrie, you crack me up! I think the Occupy folks have been comporting themselves pretty well. Of course there are always a few in any group that go over the line but I don’t believe the majority should be condemned for it.
Richard, it’s a good opening even if it is more than one line
Emily B, commenting incognito?
The police didn’t just attache the library, they attacked everything, but you’d think they cuold have allowed people to move the library. I think you could write hat fabulous first line and that novel!
Nymeth, it’s good to know that even in a time where people supposedly don’t read anymore, the printed word still holds a lot of power
That is very likely the case. I’ll have to test it out at some point. I have loads of books loaded onto my Nook, though, so I won’t be at a loss for something good to read in any case!
Danielle, I know, I had several books lined up on my Kindle just in case At Home disappeared!