Celebrate Banned Books Week September 29th through October 6th

I read banned books.

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is frequently challenged for promoting witchcraft, occult/satanism, anti-family themes, violence, disrespect to adults, lying, cheating, stealing, and rule breaking. It was “challenged in North Carolina for “a serious tone of death, hate, lack of respect, and sheer evil.” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was challenged but retained in Bristol NH because the book was “scary”.

Away From Her

Even before Away From Her hit the theaters the buzz was all about Julie Christie’s performance as the Fiona, a woman slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s Disease. As her husband comes to terms with putting her in a long term care facility she becomes increasingly attached to another patient. Julie Christie is probably best know for playing the role of Jackie in Shampoo in 1975 but she won an Oscar in 1965 for the movie Darling, in which she played a bored fashion model.

Away From Her will be the Wednesday Night Movie at the DPL on Wed., October 3 at 6pm in the Library Lecture Hall. Admission is free.

BPW

What Librarians Are Arguing About

The Library blogosphere has been buzzing over the Wyoming Library campaign. What on earth could cause such excitement? It is the controversial use of an image of the mud flap girl to push library books.

Feminists are outraged, others are amused, and some point out quite rightly, that the campaign is obviously a success because of all the attention garnered by the controversy.

Personally I found their other promos much more striking:

and amusing.

If you would like to see what else those clever Wyoming Librarians have been
up to, check out http://www.wyominglibraries.org/campaign.html

The Evolution of Libraries

I was talking with the neighbors this morning when one of them asked what I would be doing at work today. Before I could respond that I would be answering any questions that came in, pitching in at the Circulation Desk, working in the historical room, straightening the magazine collection, doing a little web publishing, perhaps some Interlibrary Loan, the smart aleck of the group quickly said, “ she will be doing a lot of shushing”. Sigh. The stereotypical image of a librarian is a hard thing to shake. I haven’t met any librarians in buns and drab clothing. Many of the librarians I know dress very stylishly and wear shoes that are anything but sensible, some even have tattoos! The Library is a lively place where people are encouraged to talk about what they are reading. The Librarians have many animated discussions at the Circulation Desk, sometimes there have even been complaints that we are being too loud!

I think things have changed here for the better, what about you? Do you prefer your library to be a dynamic center of discussions and information exchanges or a temple of scholarly silence?

Friends of the Library Membership Renewal Month

It's time to renew your annual membership to the "Friends of the Dover Public Library"!

Or to join for the first time if you haven't already!

Dues are $10 yearly or $7.00 for seniors.

The Friends meet on the 2nd Wednesday of the month (except July, August & December) from 5:30--7pm. The group is comprised of folks who care about their library and are interested in promoting and enchancing our resources. They run two annual booksales each year and help us to purchase items and equipment that are not affordable within the library's budget.

Friends also fund the purchase of all of the library's museum passes, pay for printing costs for the Summer Reading Program booklets, and hire speakers and entertainers for library programs for children and adults. This year alone they've donated money for three new public PCs for the library's Internet users, 500 souvenir change purses for children getting their first library card, plus a new "MovieMate" projector/DVD combo to make it easier for us to show feature films at our weekly Saturday matinees in the Lecture Hall.

Even if you cannot volunteer time to Friends' projects, your membership can demonstrate your commitment to the library. Applications for Membership are available at the library's front desk and you can volunteer to help with program planning, publicity, booksales, or baking. Alternately, you can simply check off that you're glad to support the Friends but wish to be an inactive member.

The Dover Friends of the Library appreciate your support!

IT'S THE GREAT BOOK SALE CHARLIE BROWN

Nevermind the "Great Pumpkin", we know you're waiting for the library's great book sale! So here's advance notice: the Library's annual Fall Book Sale begins on Saturday, October 27th at 9AM in the Library’s Lecture Hall for cardholders only. The sale is then open to the public beginning Sunday October 28 (1-5pm) and continues through November 11.

"The Call of the Pipes" bagpiping program

Free Program---Wednesday, September 19 at 7pm in Library Lecture Hall

"The Call of the Pipes" with Julie Hahnke, sponsored by the Friends of the Library

Bagpipes: they’re an ethnic instrument favored by the Scots and the Irish, but in fact, have indigenous roots throughout Europe and the Middle East. To most, they’re shrouded in mystery and intrigue. At one time outlawed, they’ve heralded monarchs, emboldened warriors and lamented the passing of clan chieftains down through the centuries. What is it about this little-understood instrument that calls to us so? Come find out!

On Wednesday, September 19th, Marblehead piper Julie Hahnke will present a 60-minute lecture and musical demonstration on the Great Highland Bagpipes. She’ll explain how the instrument works, demonstrate how it’s tuned and played, explore the range of pipe music, and present the history of the bagpipes and the cultures in which they’ve developed.

Julie Hahnke is a competitive solo piper and has won numerous awards for her playing, including an Eastern US championship in 2004. Her concert and speaking appearances include a performance with the professional choral group, Gloria Musicae, in Sarasota, Florida in April 2005, and a lecture at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts in June 2007.

The Friends of the Library offer free refreshments following the program.

Saturday Afternoon Matinees Are Starting Again!

Come in this Saturday at 2pm in the Lecture Hall to see Blades of Glory. Blades of Glory is rated PG-13 and stars Will Ferrell and Jon Feder as as two rival Olympic ice skaters who were stripped of their gold medals and permanently banned from men's single competition. They find a loophole that will allow them to compete as a pairs team.

Rainy Day Reminders

Days like this make me think of a powerful Ray Bradbury story entitled All Summer in a Day. The story takes place on rainy soaked Venus; the sun comes out once every seven years for an hour.

"Ready ?"
"Ready."
"Now ?"
"Soon."
"Do the scientists really know? Will it happen today, will it ?"
"Look, look; see for yourself !"
The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun.
It rained.
It had been raining for seven years; thousands upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.
"It’s stopping, it’s stopping !"
"Yes, yes !"
Margot stood apart from them, from these children who could ever remember a time when there wasn’t rain and rain and rain. They were all nine years old, and if there had been a day, seven years ago, when the sun came out for an hour and showed its face to the stunned world, they could not recall.

Fall hours begin this weekend

The Library is now open all day Saturdays 9am to 5pm and Sunday afternoons 1 to 5pm.

Happy Birthday, Bob!

Bob Newhart turns 78 today. Last year Bob added to his resume of actor and stand up comedian by writing a book I Shouldn’t Even be Doing This, a very amusing autobiography. He includes some of his stand up routines so it’s even more enjoyable to listen to his famous dead-pan, stammering delivery in the book on CD.

Don Rickles and I are best friends. I know that might seem strange to those who know Don only by reputation, but somebody has to be his friend. Just to make sure I don’t forget, Don gave me a doormat that sits just outside the front door of my house. It reads: “The Newharts: The Rickleses’ Best Friends.”
From I Shouldn’t Even be Doing This

Books Become Art!

Do you like scrapbooking? But are you yearning to move to a more creative level of book-making? Take a look at these fabulous artists and their book-inspired creations:

ALA's e-newsletter, American Libraries Direct, had an interesting link this week to http://thisintothat.com/ the website of Berkleley book-artist Jim Rosenau. He builds bookcases and bookshelves out of actual books. He says that "No books that could change the course of world events are harmed in the production." Here's an example of one of his whimsical creations.

This reminded me of another creative person I'd seen who creates purses out of books. You can commission Caitlin at Rebound Designs (http://www.rebound-designs.com/) to make a fabulous handbag out of your favorite hardcover book. Just what the fashionista-librarian needs! Here's the lovely Jane Eyre model:

Scottish artist Georgia Russell works with a scalpel to transform

books like this Journal into mixed-media creations under acrylic:

Photographers Abelardo Morrell and Cara Barer exhibit haunting black-and-white and color images of contorted and mezmerizing books in odd poses and positions:

Robert The does "book installations" and sculptures like this one called Desert Rose:

Takeshi Ishiguro solves the problem of a book light to read by. Here's his pop-up book that comes with an actual working lamp inside it!

And Danish artist Olafur Eliasson laser cut 454 slices out of this book in a rendering of his house on an 85:1 scale:

If you're inspired by these superb examples of book art, it's just another reason to come to the library's booksale in late October. While others are picking out good things to read, you can be picking up your art supplies!

The Library Will Be Closed for the Labor Day Weekend

The Library will be closed September 1 - 3 in celebration of Labor Day.

A Matter of Perspective

My neighbor and I were walking our dogs around the block this morning when she asked whether I had read The Kite Runner. “No”, I replied, “I don’t like to read depressing books; life can be depressing enough without reading sad books. I am a sucker for a happy ending.” Her take was very different from mine. She likes depressing books, because it makes her life looks wonderful in comparison.

How about you; do you like depressing books or happy ending books, or a bit of both?

What would you call a big pile of books?

We had an interesting conversation around the Circulation Desk the other day. A huge amount of books had been returned all at once, inspiring the question “What is the collective noun for a bunch of books?” A bevy of books was one suggestion; someone else liked a bounty of books. I said since they were all library books, why not a boomerang of books? They go out, they come back again. An Internet search came up with the term “a library of books”. That was just too obvious and not as fun as creating our own collective nouns. I am not even going to discuss what the website said was the collective noun for librarians. It’s just too stereotypical and really gets my bun in a twist!

Dark and steamy

If you like mysteries told from a killer's perspective and don't mind a lot of blood and murder you may want to look into a little known subgenre called "noir fiction". These crime novels often combine obsessive passion with murder and always involve evil, weaving together just enough of the dark side to make one wonder. Most recently I came across an entertaining mystery that included all the noir characteristics, "Bad Thoughts" by Dave Zeltserman. I was so enticed by the tense, fast pace I immediately wanted another like it. Looking up the subject "noir fiction" I found we have at least 13 recent novels that you might also like to try. If you run out of recent material try the old classics gathered together in our short stories section, "Crime novels: American noir of the 1950s" and "Crime novels: American noir of the1930s and 40s".

Save yourself some money

Why spend $6 - $8 or more on a paperback book when you can buy practically new ones here in our "books for sale" corner for just $1? At this price you can afford to get the books sandy on a beach, a little crushed in a suitcase, or even left behind in an airport. New donations arrive every day so we always have an array of materials in almost any genre you'd like. Popular authors like Robert Parker, Tami Hoag, Carly Phillips, Tom Clancy, Dennis Lehane, Jeffrey Deaver, and David Baldacci are right there on the shelves waiting to travel with you. Come on in and stock up!

You can save even more by borrowing paperbacks free from our collection of over 1300 items.
You just won't have the freedom to accidentally damage or leave them behind!

Exciting news! Tuttle's to be a Picture Book!

We're thrilled to report that the 12-generation story of Dover's famous farmstand and country store, Tuttle's Red Barn, will soon (September 22) become a hardcover picture book: "Tuttle's Red Barn: The Story of America's Oldest Family Farm" by Richard Michelson and illustrated by Caldecott Award winner Mary Azarian. Here's the book description from the publisher's catalog:

In 1632, John Tuttle set sail from England to Dover, New Hampshire. There he set up a farm on seven acres of land. From those humble beginnings the Tuttle family story became America’s story. As the Tuttles passed down the farm, along the way they witnessed the settlement and expansion of New England; they fought in the American Revolution; they helped runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad and sold maple syrup to Abraham Lincoln; they bought the first Model T in that Dover; and they transformed the old barn into the thriving country store it is today.
With Caldecott Medalist Mary Azarian’s evocative woodcuts and Richard Michelson’s moving prose bringing the Tuttle story to life, readers will be enraptured by the panorama of American history as seen through the eyes of one family.

There will be a book signing party at Tuttle's on September 23. Look for more information at http://www.tuttlesredbarn.net/.

Looking forward to...

Now's the time that publishers release titles of their forthcoming Fall 2007 books. One title I'm especially looking forward to is World Without End by Ken Follett. It's the long-awaited sequel (18 years!) to one of my favorite books, Pillars of the Earth, a 1000-page historical saga which followed the construction of a 12th century cathedral in England. In this follow-up story, it's now the 14th century and we'll follow the fate of the offspring of the "Pillars" cast as they combat the Black Death and War with France. The new story takes place between 1327 and 1361 and promises to be a wonderful medieval epic as only Follett can create! The novel's release date is October 9 so get your name on the holds list. It's sure to be very popular!

America has a new Poet Laureate

Congratulations to Charles Simic, UNH Professor Emeritus who has been chosen as the U.S. Poet Laureate. Mr. Simic replaces another talented New Hampshire poet, Donald Hall. Charles Simic won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990 for his book of prose poems The World Doesn't End (1989). His Walking the Black Cat, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Poetry in 1996. In 2005 he won the Griffin Prize for Selected Poems: 1963-2003. Simic will publish a new book of poetry, That Little Something, in February 2008.

Against Winter

The truth is dark under your eyelids.
What are you going to do about it?
The birds are silent; there's no one to ask.
All day long you'll squint at the gray sky.
When the wind blows you'll shiver like straw.

A meek little lamb you grew your wool
Till they came after you with huge shears.
Flies hovered over open mouth,
Then they, too, flew off like the leaves,
The bare branches reached after them in vain.

Winter coming. Like the last heroic soldier
Of a defeated army, you'll stay at your post,
Head bared to the first snow flake.
Till a neighbor comes to yell at you,
You're crazier than the weather, Charlie.

Charles Simic