Judging a Book by its Cover

At the end of the year everyone creates of lists of bests and worsts; some lists are more interesting than others. (Do we really need a list to tell us Britney Spears doesn't know how to dress?) Two lists that we librarians found interesting were Favorite Book Cover Designs and Worst Book Covers of 2006 . Being the opinionated bunch we are, we disagreed with their choices and came up with our own list of Most Appealing Book covers.

I Like You by Amy Sedaris












Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen










Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessi












A Good Dog by Jon Katz










How about you? Do you know of a 2006 book cover that you think was particularly outstanding?

The Catalog Will be down Friday, January 5

The online line catalog will be down this Friday for several hours starting at 9:00. We will be able to check out books for you in person if you have your library card with you but you will not be able to place holds or renew your books online. Thank you for your patience!

P.D. James Book Made into a Movie

The movie Children of Men opened recently starring Clive Owen and Julianne Moore. What you probably won't know from the advertising is that it is based on the book of the same name by P.D. James. (It always irks me that the original author gets so little respect.) Children of Men was not one of P.D. James usual mysteries featuring Adam Dalgliesh or Cordelia Gray, actually it was not much like P.D. James at all. Here is the description of the book:

The human race has become infertile, and the last generation
to be born is now adult. Civilization itself is crumbling as suicide and despair
become commonplace. Oxford historian Theodore Faron, apathetic toward a future
without a future, spends most of his time reminiscing. Then he is approached by
Julian, a bright, attractive woman who wants him to help get her an audience
with his cousin, the powerful Warden of England. She and her band of unlikely
revolutionaries may just awaken his desire to live . . . and they may also hold
the key to survival for the human race.

As a P.D. James fan I felt compelled to read Children of Men and found myself fascinated with it. So if you go to see the film and enjoy it, go to your local public library and get the the book--it's worth reading.

New Year's Weekend hours

The Library is open from 9-5 Saturday. We will be closed Sunday and Monday. Happy New Year to you all!

What We Are Reading Now

American Skin by Ken Bruen "an overlooked author, quite Irish, quite noir"
Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille
The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Just Listen by Sarah Dressen
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory "Jane Boleyn, Katherine Howard, and Anne of Cleves have their stories told by the incomparable Philippa Gregory"
The Uses of Enchantment by Heidi Julavits "The best writing I have read in a long time, this book has everything; abduction, amnesia and witchcraft"
The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr

Holiday Hours

The Library will be closed Sunday, December 24 and Monday, December 25.

Librarians' Favorites of 2006

Make sure to check the Library's wiki- The Rabid Reader for a list of your Librarians' favorite books, audiobooks, and DVDs of 2006.

The Final Harry Potter Book has a Title

The title of the last book in the Harry Potter series has been released by J.K. Rowling. It will be called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The author has said two characters will die in this book. There is no publication date for the novel yet. You won't get your next Harry Potter fix until this July when the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is released.

Best of the Web

U.S. News has chosen 30 web sites to represent the best of the web and organized them into the following catagories; Shopping, Photo & Video sharing, Travel, Entertainment, and Health. Take a look, you may find something useful.

Looking for unique Dover gifts?

Finish your Christmas shopping at the Library. We offer an assortment of gifts unique to Dover.

Dover Public Library Bookback. The latest design of our popular bookbags has a zippered pocket inside, handy for keys and library cards, as well as a pocket on the front of the bag. $15.00

Birds Eye View of Dover 1888, a poster sized map from the Friends of the Library.$5.00

Notepaper featuring five historic scenes of Dover. $4.00

The Port of Dover: Two Centuries of Shipping on the Cochecho by Robert Whitehouse and Cathleen Beaudoin. $25.00

Factory on Fire! Cocheco Mill Blaze of 1907 Revealed DVD. $20.00

The Great Blaze: A Look Back at Dover's Deadly Mill Fire DVD. 12.95

2007 Dover Desk Calendar featuring historic Central Avenue photographs. $10.00

Come on in and see what else we have to offer!

Eragon in Theaters Dec. 15th!

I am very excited to see the movie Eragon based on the book of the same name by Christopher Paolini. I loved the book (epic fantasy including dragons), but I also love the author's story. He grew up in Montana and was home-schooled by his parents. One of his favorite pastimes was reading, and he spent much of his time at the local public library (I did not make that up!). At the ripe old age of 15 he started writing what would become Eragon. In 2002 his family decided to self-publish Eragon, and visited 135 public libraries, schools, & bookstores to do promotion. Did I mention that he attended these events in medieval costume? In the summer of 2002 Carl Hiaasen, whose step-son had read the book, brought the book to the attention of publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Knopf published Eragon and book two in the Inheritance Trilogy, Eldest. These books have been New York Times #1 bestsellers, New Hampshire 7th & 8th graders gave Eragon the Isinglass Award in 2005, and Eldest won a Quill Award. So by all means see the movie, but don't forget to also read the books.

Are libraries at the bottom of the food chain?

An article entitled "Book donations made easier" appeared in our local paper recently. Three Rockingham County towns have signed on with a bookseller called Got Books. The company, a for-profit business based in Massachusetts, places containers for donated books near landfills or recycling centers. Their trucks collect the contents weekly. A used book sale is then held every Friday and Saturday at their warehouse in North Reading. 50% of each weekend's sale profits go to a variety of non-profit organizations in the area. I congratulate the Got Books people for an innovative, and apparently successful, business endeavor.

What bothered me in the article was the sentence that said, "Books not sold in the book sales are given away to schools and libraries ..." So in Step 1, the book was so used, so outdated, or so unwanted that the original owner dropped it in the Got Books bin to get rid of it. In Step 2, the book was not even interesting enough to sell for a discount at a warehouse sale! So, its next evolution is to offer it to schools and libraries? Since when did we become the book home of last resort? Why would anyone think that we would want third-hand leftovers? Why would anyone assume that a library would be happy to accept scraps? Our customers want new titles, the hot DVDs, current music, and the latest bestsellers on audio and tape.

Here in Dover, we encourage you to donate your used books directly to the library. Yes, we do get plenty of clunkers (like the four boxes of '80s management textbooks that came on Monday) that go directly to our next booksale or to the recycling center, but on Saturday we also got a wonderful donation of the two brand new novels by Robert Parker and Michael Connelly! We have about a dozen people waiting to read these two books, so we will gratefully add them to our collection.

Twice a year we have fantastic booksales, sponsored by the Friends of the Library. By the time of the next sale in April, those two Parker and Connelly novels will probably be past their height of popularity and we can take those extra copies and put them in the sale. $4.00 for the Friends! The Friends of the Library make thousands of dollars at our sales; funds that go right back into programs and services and equipment for the library. Did you know that all of our family museum passes are purchased for us by the Friends? That service alone costs over $2000 annually.

So while I wish Got Books the best of luck in their business--- they've seen a niche and are acting on it, I still prefer the direct-to-the-library route for your book (and media) donations.

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled volumes yearning to breathe free...! We'll keep what we need, sell the rest, and use the profits to purchase more library stuff you really want. Let's not use the middleman!

Unusually Warm Temperatures: Good Luck or Global Warming?

Join us on Sat., Dec. 2nd at 2:00 for a free screening of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary on global warming.

The vast majority of scientists agree that global warming is real, it’s already happening and that it is the result of our activities and not a natural occurrence. The evidence is overwhelming and undeniable.
A few facts to consider:
· The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.
· Malaria has spread to higher altitudes in places like the Colombian Andes, 7,000 feet
above sea level.
· The flow of ice from glaciers in Greenland has more than doubled over the past decade.
· At least 279 species of plants and animals are already responding to global warming,
moving closer to the poles.

To read more visit www.climatecrisis.net and/or borrow the library’s copy of the book “An Inconvenient Truth: the Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It” by Al Gore.

Great children's books for Christmas giving!

On Tuesday, December 12 at 10:30am, Children's Librarian Marcia Cannon will present a program highlighting many of the best books for children this holiday season. Her reviews will give parents, grandparents, aunt, uncles and other caregivers lots of suggestions for books which will delight the child on your list. Presented as this month's "2nd Tuesday" lecture for members of the Dover Senior Center, Marcia's talk is open to the public as well.
Location: Library Lecture Hall (top floor)
Length: 1 hour
Cost: free
Benefit to your child: Priceless!

Library Hours for the Thanksgiving Weekend

Wed., Nov. 22 - 9am to 5:30pm
Thur. & Fri., Nov. 23 & 24 - Closed
Sat., Nov. 25 - 9am to 5pm
Sun., Nov. 26 - Closed

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Football Frenzy!

Yesterday, we watched the Patriots trounce Green Bay 35-0; Saturday we cheered as UNH beat Maine in overtime and made it to the Div. 1-AA football playoffs for the third year in a row; Saturday night, as we sat at the Whitt watching UNH hockey beat UMass Lowell 4-0, they kept flashing the score of the Ohio State/Michigan game on the big screen. We also had been pulling for Rutgers but they lost, and we were secretly happy when Dallas beat Indianapolis even though we've always professed no love for either the Cowboys or Bill Parcells.

If you're glued to the TV during football season, you may as well read a book during the commercials, timeouts, or interminable coaches' challenges. There are several great new football titles just out including: Charlie Weis's "No Excuses: one man's incredible rise through the NFL to head coach of Notre Dame"; Tom Callahan's "Johnny U: the life and times of John Unitas"; "Moving the Chains: Tom Brady and the pursuit of everything" by Charles P. Pierce; and Michael Lewis's "The Blind Side: evolution of a game" about football's invaluable left tackle position. Get a gridiron book before you settle down in your armchair after that turkey dinner!!

Free Screening of Monster House

Join us at the Dover Public Library this Saturday, Nov. 18th at 2:00pm to watch the animated movie Monster House. Monster House is about three teens who discover that their neighbor's house is really a living, breathing, scary monster but no adults will believe them. When they disturb the house creepy events start to take place and they must save the neighborhood in this animated adventure.
To see a full listing of movies at the library click here.

As always our movies are free and open to the public.

BYOP! (popcorn)

Lots of FREE Books

Booksale leftovers are free all this week! There is still a good selection of used and/or practically new books free for the taking, on our upper floor outside the Lecture Hall.

Have You Read These Movies?

Some terrific books are coming to the silver screen. You can enhance your cinematic experience by reading the book first.

Fast Food Nation is based on the book of the same name by Eric Schlosser. It is one of the most fascinating and schocking non-fiction books I have read in a long time.
Fur: An Imaginary Year starring Nicole Kidman is based on the biography Diane Arbus by Patricia Bosworth.
A Good Year starring Russell Crowe is based on the novel of the same name by Peter Mayle.
Little Children starring Jennifer Connelly and Kate Winslet is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Perrotta.
Running With Scissors starring Annette Bening and Alex Baldwin is based on the book of the same name by Augusten Burroughs.
Infamous starring Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock is based on the biography of Truman Capote by George Plimpton. Critics say this is an even better portrayal of Truman Capote than seen in the film Capote.
The Prestige starring Hugh Jackman is based on the novel of the same name by Christopher Priest.

Popular Book Lists

We keep refilling those bookmarks that you all love of the various lists of "read-alikes". If you liked the "Other Boleyn Girl", you will probably want to see the books on our latest list of "Henry VIII and Company" read-alikes. But don't wait to come in and pick up a bookmark, we add all of these lists online and they may be viewed right in the catalog under "Readers' Choices".