betsey.blanche's blog

The library is helping me fill in a gap in my education. Much to my embarrassment, I somehow managed to graduate from college with a degree in English Literature and a minor in gender studies without ever reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I even own a copy, given to me by an English professor when I was in graduate school. The book has quietly haunted me (darn gothic novels) from my bookshelf for at least 4 years now but I just couldn’t bring myself to commit. There are so many books in the world to read! The text seems so small! It was pathetic.

The Twitter feed “Fake Library Stats” recently tweeted “After complaining the pituitary glands of 63% of librarians secrete a hormone that is necessary to keep them alive.” Sure, there’s a stereotype that we librarians like to complain but we can also be overwhelmingly positive when it comes to resources we offer. And I’m about to be super positive about the fact that I just read a library book and did not enjoy it at all.

Up until a few weeks ago, my cynical side had prevented me from reading any books with the 158 call number. Although the Dewey Decimal System officially labels these books as “Applied Psychology,” these books are generally referred to as Self-Help books. And although I don’t have all the answers, I was turned off by the apparent cheesiness of positive thinking. Sometimes I’m a curmudgeon!  That’s on me. But recently, a friend and fellow cynic recommended Oliver Burkeman’s The Antidote.

The 2013 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards nominations were announced earlier this week. The Eisner Award – which some refer to as The Oscars of the Comic Industry – celebrates artists and writers of comic books and graphic novels.

Fifty years ago Betty Friedan made waves with the publication of The Feminine Mystique. Many credit this book with the start of the 2^nd wave of feminism which, building on the political success of the first wave, was able to address less obvious forms of gender inequality and focus  on more subtle issues that affect women’s quality of life.

Almost all of us have had a debate among friends about pop vs. soda vs. coke and how anything but what I say is weird. And yet, in this age of television, Twitter and Tumblr, it’s difficult for us to think of American English as regionally unique or special. Of course, I don’t often tweet about the dust bunnies under my bed which might set off a debate about whether they’re instead “dust kitties”, “house moss” or “woolies.”

People do pretty cool stuff sometimes. Sometimes people do cool stuff just because it’s fun and interesting and hope that other people also think it’s fun and interesting. That is the best kind of cool stuff! Let me give you an example. Back in the mid 1990s, a group of Austinites were gathered together by Jason Neulander to create a sci-fi-esque radio show which they performed in short section at Little City Coffee House (how I miss thee!). What started as a simple radio sketch has now blossomed into Intergalactic Nemesis—a three-part radio drama, three volume graphic novel and the first ever live-action graphic novel that launched at the Long Center for the Performing Arts.

If you asked someone unfamiliar with the graphic novel collection at Austin Public Library to name some books or type of books they thought would be in the collection, you’d most likely get a list of superhero books published by Marvel and DC Comics. And these two publishers do indeed have a large and loud presence in graphic novel collections all over the country. But it’s fun to see what else pops up in graphic novel form. We’ve blogged about some non-fiction titles such as Feynman and The Influencing Machine.

It seems the stars have aligned just right this week. Today marks the 146^th anniversary of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s birth. This is one of the few historic birthdays I have memorized because, of course, she shares a birthday with Charles Dickens. Oh, and, um, me too. Not only do ol’ Laura and I share a birthday, we also spend some of our formative years in the great state of Kansas. This blog, of course, is not about me. This blog is actually about nurturing curiosity and finding new and exciting tidbits in our old favorites.

We’re three weeks in to 2013 which tends to be a time when people start to realize they haven’t done as well on all their new year’s resolutions as they’d hoped. But it’s not too late to get a jump on your goals and make up for lost time. And the library can help! Several people I’ve talked to recently have resolved to begin learning a new language or brush up on a second language they’ve been neglecting.