I also remember my first library card plus the card catalog. Sometimes I date myself because when I am talking about the libraries, and how things used to be done the young people just look at me as if I am from another country.
What I also remembers is that you had to be quite in the library, and now you can talk on your cell phone etc. I should say that people do talk on them even when there are signs all over the place to shut your phone off. Do you think that the libraries will be around in the near future? Especially since books as we know them to be.
Well, I am now pretty set on not getting a Nook--I have a Kindle (which I love) and I just got an iPad (which is amazing, good for .pdfs in ways that the Kindle sometimes is not, and can check email when I'm near a wireless network)--and I've been reading B&N ebooks on the iPad instead of the computer now--which is about 1000x more pleasant.
I'm currently reading
Antiphon for the scifi/fantasy sneak peak here and then
Lord Jim on the beach (since I'm breaking up Antiphon by section, at least for the first two, to conform to the reading schedule).
Mystery and Manners is next in my beach bag (I love Flannery O'Connor's short stories, and this caught my eye one day while shopping at B&N).
Finally,The Princess And Curdie is what I'm reading for the moment on my e-reader.
literature wrote:I'm reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for my library bookclub and am trying to figure out the purpose of the book. I'm about 2/3's into it and am forcing myself to finish it. Has anyone else read it and what are your thoughts? The author paints such a negative picture on the people in the Dominican Republic and for those that have relocated to the NYC area. The only positive thing I can say about the book is when the author talks about Rutgers University in New Brunswick NJ as I work right in that area and am familiar with everything he mentions.
Sheila
I had heard good things about Oscar Wao and gave it a try. I got it as an audiobook from the library. I'm not convinced that it is as good as the reviews made it sound. I got very tired of hearing about drunks, wife beaters, adultery and child abuse. If this is an accurate picture of the Dominican Republicans, it's certainly not flattering. If you want to stop now, you won't have missed anything because it doesn't get better or become different. We don't have to finish every book we pick up - isn't there a law about that somewhere?
JaneM wrote:
literature wrote:I'm reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for my library bookclub and am trying to figure out the purpose of the book. I'm about 2/3's into it and am forcing myself to finish it. Has anyone else read it and what are your thoughts? The author paints such a negative picture on the people in the Dominican Republic and for those that have relocated to the NYC area. The only positive thing I can say about the book is when the author talks about Rutgers University in New Brunswick NJ as I work right in that area and am familiar with everything he mentions.
Sheila
I had heard good things about Oscar Wao and gave it a try. I got it as an audiobook from the library. I'm not convinced that it is as good as the reviews made it sound. I got very tired of hearing about drunks, wife beaters, adultery and child abuse. If this is an accurate picture of the Dominican Republicans, it's certainly not flattering. If you want to stop now, you won't have missed anything because it doesn't get better or become different. We don't have to finish every book we pick up - isn't there a law about that somewhere?
Thanks, Jane M and debaker. It's just with a book club I get kinda' anal and have to finish the book, which I will do today. Why would an author paint such a bleak picture of his country? Although, think back to books written about wars. I've read so many gory details but this was because of war. I can understand the writing about the leader (dictator) of the Dominican Republic. It's more the language used in the book that I object to. I think I am enjoying the footnotes on the pages better than the story.
Back in February the library bookclub did "Into Thin Air", about climbing the highest mountains in the world and what the people had to prove to themselves while suffering through hyperthermia and death. That book I gave up on. But I did watch it on the Weather Channel and I still wondered what did these people have to prove to themselves...freezing to death! I guess they look at me and wonder why I don't live a little.
Sheila aka Literature
gmfuhlman wrote:I also remember my first library card plus the card catalog. Sometimes I date myself because when I am talking about the libraries, and how things used to be done the young people just look at me as if I am from another country.
OH, I sincerely hope they will always be around. but I am honestly concerned that they may not. I am not sure why I am as concerned about it as I am. I know that the fact of library branches closing around here, and hours being cut that they are open is a big concern. I know of at least one on this forum that is in one of those affected one way or another in my area. I had been in the process of working toward my MLS, but am right now running scared because of all the cuts. I have decided just to go ahead and stay in the classroom. That is still not a given anymore.
