Dickens Drama

*Spoilers about Great Expectations*

Do I love Dickens, or do I not have a clue what he's saying half the time?

[Gif Credit: thatonemoviechick.tumblr.com] 

I just finished Great Expectations. For those who don't know, it's split into three 'books' (or parts). I was with it during book one: Pip meets a convict, Pip is nice to people, Pip is summoned mysteriously to places and made to walk an old lady around a room etc etc...lots of odd, kooky things occur. It sets up some Great Expectations.

Then book two happens. I honesty don't know if I understood what was happening through a lot of book two. Perhaps I wasn't in the right 'zone'. Much of book two passed me by in a blur. Why is Pip called Handel? What? Not much happened here IMO that was relevant to the greater plot. I struggled.

My favourite quote from the whole book did actually happen in part two though (just to contradict myself). It reads:

 "We spent as much money as we could, and got as little for it as people could make up their minds to give us. We were always more or less miserable, and most of our acquaintance were in the same condition. There was a gay fiction among us that we were constantly enjoying ourselves, and a skeleton truth that we never did. To the best of my belief, our case was in the last aspect a rather common one." (Chapter 34, Page 275).

Isn't that a beauty?

Book three. Things get shocking and reveal-y. I sort of managed to pick it up again here. But Pip's whining opinions and mood swings go on for so long it's hard to remain focused. However all the oddness and kookyness from earlier does get wrapped up in one way or another, so if you like neat endings then this might be the book for you.

[Side note]  Pip really is a horrible person sometimes. The worst thing is, he knows this most of the time, feels guilt-ridden for most of the book BUT STILL DOES NOTHING ABOUT IT until the end of the book. I'm glad he went home to find Biddy married to Joe. He deserved her not. [Grumble over].

So what's my drama? In total contrast to G.E, I have read David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, and both I enjoyed hugely and wished there was more to read at the end. SO MUCH LOVE FOR THOSE BOOKS. On a different note, I have also read A Christmas Carol, and during this, kinda wished the first spirit had killed Mr Scrooge off to spare us reading the rest.

Why do I have this love/hate relationship with Dickens books? It's putting me off reading any more in case I find it a total snooze-fest like G.E. Butttttt do I give him one more chance and read one more, just in case I find another fav like Oliver Twist? I don't know. This has been my Dickens Drama. Any suggestions/help greatly appreciated.

Over and out.

'Shelf Help' in the college

Okay, so it's not the most original title for a promotion on self help through reading, but it works!

I work in an FE college. As you may be aware, there's been lots of media coverage and much emphasis placed on the mental health of our young adults in recent years, which is very amazing. It's important, especially around exam time when many students experience extra levels of stress, sometimes on top of existing issues. FE colleges around the UK are working to help their students and where I work is no different. But what can the library do? We can offer books, of course! It would be a longggg post if I were to go through everything we're doing, so I just wanted to share one little aspect.

As part of a larger promotion on mental health, stress and and self help, I have put together some little 'shelf help' packs. These include a book, a DVD, a CD, a quick read (a shorter book, usually no longer than 100 pages) and some leaflets about various mental health issues and how reading can help. These items are all chosen with the aim of cheering people up. They are stories, movies and songs to help the students feel happier, inspired and make them feel less alone. It's tricky, because what makes one person happy might not make another person happy, but I did some research and did my best to put together good selections. The choices included things like 'Freedom Writer's' DVD, 'Slam' by Nick Hornby, 'Life in a Day' DVD, 'The Hundred Foot Journey' by Richard Morais and 'Feel good songs' CD.

A poster I created to promote the packs

So far one pack has been borrowed, which I am pleased with. It might not sound like a great success but I honestly didn't know whether any would be borrowed. I prepared five packs. Library promotions are often trial and error. If no more are borrowed, then I'll try something different next year. I won't bore you with the details of how reading can boost your mood, just thought I'd share my little experiment.

Over and out.

The EU referendum and our college library

There's a big vote coming up in the UK. On the 23rd June 2016, everyone in the UK aged 18 and over can vote to decide whether they want to stay in or leave the EU. I won't go into my personal views here, but we're doing some cool things in the Library to help get the students interested in the whole situation.

The college I work at takes students aged 16 and over. This means that many of them won't be able to vote. But that doesn't mean they won't have an opinion. I created a display on a notice board giving the basic details about the Referendum (the pro-leave and pro-stay campaigns and supporters with details of how to vote and where to find information). We then popped this up in the main walkway through the Library:

This was just an idea to give students the chance to voice their opinion, but mainly so that those who can't vote in June because they are too young, have a chance to have their say now.  Now, these things can occasionally fall flat on their face and you're left with a lonely looking notice board with nothing written on it. But here, the opposite happened. This was after three days:

I then had to start rubbing off the ticks and starting a tally so that other people would have space to tick and cast their vote. The next picture is after 8 days:

(Leave 51, Stay 76, Not Sure 2)

So far more students seem to want to stay but the leave voters are catching up. For anyone thinking of planning something similar in their library, here's two big things to know:

1) These students have a definite opinion. Less than five people so far have said that they are 'not sure'. Most have confidently ticked either yes, or no. They are more interested in this than perhaps people would give them credit for.

2) They can be sensible. I was expecting penis drawings and random swear words. But apart from one person who wrote 'racist' on the board, nothing like that has happened. Just people looking at the board, asking us questions at the desk and happily ticking what they thought.

We did a similar experiment back in October, asking students to join the debate on whether we should still celebrate Black History Month.  That worked out really well too, with lots of students writing comments on the boards as well as just ticking yes or no. Basically, give them a whiteboard to cast their vote on something political and important and they will deliver and you'll have minimal penis doodles. The other main point to all of this was to remind those who can vote in the real referendum to register to vote. We have set up a dedicated computer permanently logged into the register website to get people to sign up and help them if they need help.

Libraries are really good places to get people interested in important community and global events. I think I read somewhere that during the last general election there were more people who didn't vote at all than who voted for any of the parties. It's important libraries work to get those who can vote to go and vote and those who can't interested enough so that they care enough to register when they can. Enough political rambling for today.

Over and out.

Throw ALL of the books away. A sad story.

Weeding. It's a controversial topic. No I'm not talking digging out the dandelions from your lawn, I'm talking digging out books from the shelves of your library and getting rid of them. This seems to be a problem for some people. This opinion bothers me.

I read an article from The New Yorker the other day. It reported that a library director from California weeded roughly 40,000 books from the shelves of his library over a summer. Protesters angrily gathered. The director gave his perspective, explaining his perfectly acceptable reasons for this 'purge'. 1000 protesting people signed a petition insisting he step down. And then, he did. The man was bullied from his job.

There's a few things people should remember about Librarians and Libraries.

1) We appreciate books. We know books. And most of all we know which books haven't been borrowed in two years, because out library systems tell us so. "Ahh, but what if someone had looked or used the book in the library without borrowing it?" I hear you cry. This is a possibility. However the people that work in libraries often know their shelves like the back of their hand. Some books don't move from their shelf positions, ever. They are dusty and unappreciated and untouched. Sometimes it's better for them to move on and free the shelf space for a book that someone needs.

I'm not even sure what a Valentine Potato is

2) Times move on. When I was at LibraryCamp back in 2014, I head a tale about a library where books on homosexuality were still classified under 'criminal activity' because no-one had weeded that section in forever. Some books do hold their own against time, such as classic fiction and philosophy. But the truth is most non-fiction books get to a point where they can be wildly offensive or dangerously inaccurate. Would you give a trainee doctor a book on mental health treatment from the 1960's? No. God only knows what horrors they would inflict upon their future patients. Books from the fifties on how to be a perfect housewife, cookery books that have old measurements in, medical volumes that still recommend segregating bathrooms...they all need to go!

"A very lovely training manual" OhGodWhy

3) As the article mentions, libraries aren't necessarily museums. Yes some of these older books are nostalgic and remind people of past times or are culturally significant. But that's the responsibility of a museum to house those treasured antiques. More often than not, a museum wouldn't take a library copy of a book anyway. Too many stickers and alarms and suspicious stains.

Museums don't want this. This isn't culture.

4) Library books tend to wear out faster than those at home. Sometimes these books can be taken to hundreds of different homes in one year and they begin to fall apart. Then you repair them. Then they fall apart again. After a few rounds of this there's often not much worth keeping. From my experience, tatty books are always checked over before they go to book Nirvana to see if a replacement copy is worth buying.

No-one, however, is going to replace this. Ever. 

5) Where do people think these books go? Yes a large proportion do go on to be pulped, but then some of those books deserve that fate. Some go on to be re-sold. You know amazon market place? It's full of ex-library books looking for a new home. Some companies, like Better World Books sell the books on for a library, to reduce their workload. Some are donated to anyone who might want them. But again, books such as a very, very out-of-date law book could be dangerous if someone used it in practice. Some books need to go.

Doctors in the 21st Century that's who.

The article story made me so mad. The main niggle of the protesters, was that they wanted to know what had been weeded and why, so the article states. Why? We don't tell anyone else how to do their job! Librarian's are trained for this work. We don't just waltz through the shelves employing crazy reasoning like "oh, this book has a orange cover and I hate carrots, so it must be burned immediately."

So as a last note, please trust us. We won't be getting rid of anything useful. For one, libraries as you might have noticed, are struggling financially, so getting rid of perfectly good books is hardly our number one priority...and finally people complain sometimes that libraries are 'old' or 'only have out of date' books. Quite often that's not the case. But by persecuting and bullying those who do try and weed, you're only increasing the chances of this being the reality.

Over and out.

P.S: If you need cheering up after this, Awful Library Books is a blog dedicated to posting the weirdest, most hilarious and creepy books that libraries decide to weed. If you're still not convinced that weeding is a good thing, check out their site.  All images on this post are credited to this blog.

Traits that Hufflepuffs and Librarians share

*non-potterheads might want to skip this one*

I've been in a Potter mood as of late. Not sure why, however it may have something to do with a wonderful Hufflepuff t-shirt I purchased about a month back. I've been contemplating Hufflepuff values for some time in relation to my job. I know it might sound a bit weird to apply a set of values from a fictional house in a fictional school to my real world, but I've always said one of the whole points of reading is that it help you relate to other people and concepts. Even if they're not based in reality, you apply the reality to it. Get it? No, I'm waffling.

Madam Pince, the Librarian at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry is largely an unlikable character. The ability to do her job is never called into question, however her thin, vulture-esque description, coupled with her strictness paints an unappealing image. She is suspicious of Hermione when she attempts to get a book from the restricted section, despite her note from the teacher. She screeches at Harry and Ginny after catching them eating an Easter egg in the Library and bewitches their belongings to hit them on the head as they rush out. And her reaction to Harry's old, written-in copy of Advanced Potion Making? "...what have you been doing to that book you depraved boy? // Despoiled! Desecrated! Befouled!" It didn't even belong to the Library.

Movie Madam Pince [picture credit]

I don't think it's ever mentioned which house she hails from, assuming she attended Hogwarts herself. I think you might have gathered from this post so far, that I (yes, I realise it's not real) am a Hufflepuff. I joined Pottermore, was sorted and placed into Hufflepuff and thought that to be the best choice for me personally. I am a happy Huff.

But how does being a Hufflepuff tie in with my library work. Well I personally have decided that Library work is perfectly suited to me and my Huffly nature. Lets go through three reasons...

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
The key word here being patience. If you engage in Library work that has anything to do with other humans, you need to be patient. You need to show the 100th person in that day how to use the printer, even though you're sure at least half of them have been shown a million times before. You need to sit down with people and explain what might be to you a very basic thing, like saving a document to a memory stick and how to access that same document again afterwards. You need to patiently explain about reservations when people get annoyed that the book they need isn't available right this very second. Patience is definitely a virtue in this work.

The Sorting Hat rains praise on Huffs [picture credit]

I'll teach the lot and treat them just them same
Inclusion and equality. Big players in the Library sector. A misunderstanding about this line is that you don't have to have anything special about you to be in Huff. It's exactly the opposite. Huff doesn't care if there's anything special about you or not at face value. When you first come to the Library desk, my job is to assume nothing and give everything possible. I wouldn't turn anyone away until they give me a reason to. The library concept treats everyone equally (or tries to) by giving everyone access to free materials, allowing everyone to share the same space and applying the same rules to everyone using that space. Rich, poor, struggling student, honours student, it's all the same to us.

Much smiling  [picture credit]

The Badger
The house emblem. Badgers dig their homes, they dig for food. They do make good finders, (I know the fact that Hufflepuffs are good finders is a running joke from A Very Potter Musical, but it applies here :D).  Give a Librarian enough time and we'll try our utmost to find what you need. At library school you're equipped with your searching tools and tactics, just as a badger is equipped with it's nose and claws at birth to find what it needs to survive. Also, "A badger ... has loosely fitting skin which makes it difficult for an antagonist to get a firm grip of a badger in a fight" (badgertrust.org.uk). Libraries have been under fire from cutbacks for years and years, but we haven't lost the battle yet. To back this up it's said somewhere the J. K Rowling chose the Badger for Huff because it is often underestimated, but when provoked can fight off animals much bigger than itself. Libraries are quite often underestimated. You should give us a chance :) Also, have you ever heard of a badger character in a book that's been evil? I can't think of one. (Would love to be corrected here though!)

Beautiful Huff illustration by Skaralett [picture credit]

So there you have it. Three traits that I think Hufflepuffs and Librarian's share. I personally think Ravenclaws would make great Librarian's too! Scary Madam Pince was a funny, stereotypical character, but Librarians now are usually much friendlier! We'll also probably have snacks to share too.

Over and out.

I'm reading a shiny dictionary

Well, sort of. No I'm not trawling through that classic reference volume The Oxford Dictionary (yes I have heard of people who actually do that). Instead, I would like to present you with my latest purchase: Firefly: The Gorramn Shiniest Dictionary and Phrasebook in the 'verse by Monica Valentinelli.

[Image Credit: waterstones.com]

This book is new. As in, really new. It was published on the 15th April 2016. It's a fairly nice size at around 160 pages with some incredible photos, sketches and quotes that bring the pages to life. Here's the blurb:

Insult your enemies in magnificent style and learn brand new declarations of love! This comprehensive Firefly dictionary and phrasebook takes in both the history of language in the 'Verse and modern usage. Explore all the terminology used in the show, be it spacefaring-speak, medical jargon or frontier phrases. Plus, get the inside scoop from the show's language consultant. A must-have for all Browncoats.

It largely reads as a dictionary should, you know, in alphabetical order. The main idea (I imagine) was to create a definitive source for definitions of the Firefly-specific terms, such as Alliance terminology, 'verse slang and Browncoat banter. However you get much more than just this. Quite normal words have their place in this little book, words like 'strawberries'. These 'normal' words are sometimes explained in the most basic sense, but more often their meaning is described in regards to the show. As fans will know, strawberries are a super rare and delicious treat (as is most fresh produce) and Kaylee especially has a cute strawberry moment in the first episode, after Shepherd Book partially pays for his ship fare with a box of the sweet fruits. The entry for 'strawberry' reads:

Strawberry, n. Fresh berry enjoyed by Kaylee in "Serentity". The fruit is rare and hard to come by for travelers. 

But this isn't just a dictionary, oh no Sir. So what else can we expect? Well, to start, language biographies for each of the main characters (Captain Mal, Jayne, Inara, Kaylee, River, Shepherd Book, Simon, Wash & Zoe) take a page each in their respective alphabetical place in the dictionary. This explains a little about how the characters talk and how their language is influenced by their upbringing, history and surroundings. 

Kaylee does subtlety [Image Credit: buzzfeed]

The books has a forward entitled 'Language use in the 'Verse' before the main dictionary begins. One of my favourite bits of this book is toward the end. There's an interview with Jenny Lynn, who was a translator for the Chinese usage in the show (including some hilarious stories about translating curse words). Following this is 'keys to understanding Pinyin' before Pinyin translations of the Chinese used in the show in episodic order. So remember when you first watched Firefly and a Chinese phrase was flung at you and you were left like 'wait what?' (my DVD copy did not grace me with subtitles). Well this explains it alllll. Ending the book is a FAQ section with the author of the book (who btw also worked on the Firefly RPG). 

I haven't even finished the whole thing yet, but I think any proud 'fly fans out there will love love love this book. I've already started re-watching the series because it made me remember how incredible this show is, not only for its very Whedon-esque linguistic edge, but just for its absolute ability to make you fall in love after the first episode with all the characters (even Jayne).

We <3 Jayne and his hat. [Image Credit: Pintrest]

Considering this isn't even a proper review, it's getting a bit lengthy, so i'll quit rambling. Basically, if you loved Firefly, buy this book. Or I'll lend it to you if I'm feeling nice. If you have no idea what Firefly is, congrats for making it this far down the post without dying of boredom, and you should go now and binge-watch Firefly with all your might. Because hey, there's only one season (don't get me started).

Over and out. 

Why I'm beginning to like those '100 books to read before you die' lists.

A lecturer I had for Uni once said something along the lines of:

"I hate book lists. Who cares if lots of other people think it's good? I barely have time to read the books I've decided I want to read, let alone trying to complete some upperty list full of Jane Austen."

And for a long time I agreed. My 'to read' pile is large, and I keep stumbling across new books to add to it. Books that friends recommend, books that I like the cover of, the next book in a series I started once and always meant to read the sequal. However, whilst lurking around bookish sites on the web I stumbled across a list. I've mentioned this a couple of other times in other posts: The BBC's Big Read top 100 list. Way back in 2003, a poll/survey/something happened, and the BBC compiled a list of 100 best books as voted for by the general public. Two things appealed to me about the list:

1) I had read and enjoyed at least 10 books on the list already. This was appealing a) because I'm lazy, and if I'm already 10 books down, all the better and b) because if I had read and enjoyed at least 10 of the books on the list, perhaps my reading taste mirrored that of whoever was surveyed and I would enjoy more of the books on the list.

2) I was sadly lacking in 'classic' reading. I read what I had to for school, sixth form and university and so far not much had appealed to me and from then on I avoided the classics like some suspicious looking stain on a hotel mattress. I decided that I was now an adult, therefore a) my reading tastes may have also matured a la some tasty french cheese and b) I work in a library and people keep assuming I've read everything by Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Bronte. Which I haven't and it's embarrassing to tell people much younger than myself this awkward fact.

When I'm asked if I've read all the books in the Library

[Picture Credit]

Another reason to complete these lists full of classic books, is that they're usually fairly easy to get hold of from a library. Because they're classics. And everyone loves them, right?

I have now read almost 50 of the titles on this list, and I HAVE ACTUALLY ENJOYED SOME OF THEM. They're books that I would never usually go near if I had the choice, Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. Who the hell would known that I would actually love that book. Like...I could not stop turning the pages. Jane Eyre.

Okay it hasn't been all sunshine and daisies. I tried Perfume by Patrick Suskind, number 71 on the list over Christmas and considered it possibly the most ridiculous and unnecessary piece of asshattery that ever made it to print. I honestly felt slightly nauseous the whole way through. They made a film based on that book. Who would do that? But on the whole things have been surprising. I am slightly dreading reading more Jane Austen - I keep ignoring it but I suppose I'll read it one day, if only to say I have read all 100 on the list.

Most challenging length-wise on the list so far has probably been Gone with the Wind by Margeret Mitchell, clocking in at 1011 pages. Most disliked (aside from Perfume) probably Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (see my grumbless in a post I did at the time). Currently reading The Godfather by Mario Puzo and somewhat enjoying it. More than I thought I would anyway. But this, I suppose, is the whole point. I'll probably do some more reviews about books from the list along the way and I'll update with my progress when I reach a suitable milestone.

Me reaching the end of Gone with the Wind

[Picture Credit]

My point here, after all this garbling, is perhaps try to complete a booklist. If you don't fancy 100 books, I'm sure there's shorter versions out there. You might just find a new favourite genre.

Over and out.