biblio tech

The full title of this book is BiblioTech: why libraries matter more than ever in the age of google. This book is from 2015, and when I got a fair way into it, I thought that maybe I had just waited too long to read it, given that what John Palfrey is discussing here is how libraries stand against cutting edge technology. So perhaps its was because the technology he was analyzing is from 2015, and that's what made his arguments a little weak.

Nope.

Its because the majority of of what John Palfrey says in this book is included in the book reviews. Here an example from Goodreads, which I assume is written by... who, the moderators? crowd sourced like a wiki? Who knows, its not attributed:

"... John Palfrey argues that anyone seeking to participate in the 21st century needs to understand how to find and use the vast stores of information available online. And libraries, which play a crucial role in making these skills and information available, are at risk. In order to survive our rapidly modernizing world and dwindling government funding, libraries must make the transition to a digital future as soon as possible -- by digitizing print material and ensuring that born-digital material is publicly available online."

He also says it will be difficult, and it will cost money, and therefore we as readers and library supporters need to support libraries so they can take on this task, collectively.

That's it. Its an 8 minute speech, tops.* Its a pamphlet. In BiblioTech, he just repeats this nine times, in chapters 1 through 9, and the repeats it again in chapter 10, which he helpfully titles "Conclusion." Each chapter focuses on a different point such as how preservation, cloud computing, or networking tie into the problem and the solution he's suggesting, but each of these points is included in nearly all of the chapters. "hey john, how can we spin this crimson article up into a book?"

By the time I was three-quarters through, I was pretty sure that each chapter was written as an stand alone essay in support of the main message. And probably with enough time between them, that he wasn't exactly clear on what he'd written in the others.

Here was the clincher for me: Each chapter has a quote taken from history or literature that one assumes is designed to set the tone for the chapter. The quote at the beginning of Chapter 9: Law, is from an 1813 letter from Thomas Jefferson to Isaac McPherson. It reads:

"He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

Ah, learnin' I get it. We share what we know, and it helps others without harming us. Sharing knowledge should therefore be freely undertaken. Gotcha, good one. Inspiring, actually. Pretty sure I've heard it before though... where was it? Oh, yeah, 9 PAGES EARLIER, in Chapter 8: Education, word for word, same quote. 

That's just sloppy. you come on up here and write we must support libraries on the blackboard three-hundred times, smartypants.

All good ideas. Make a bullet list and print them on a bookmark. Don't waste my time.

* It is a speech, you can find it on YouTube and other places. Its over an hour! Criminy! I'm sure you can find it yourself.

operation shylock

Philip Roth is not called a modern American master for nothin'. At least, I assume folks call him that. 

I've read just a few of his books, and its always a fun ride. In the last one I read,* he wrote about himself in the first person as well, using his own name, but in what I could only assume was a fictional way. This story includes the same technique, and its not at all clear that the Philip Roth that inhabits the universe of this novel, Operation Shylock: a confession, is the same as the Philip Roth who inhabited that novel, whether fictional or semi-fictional.

In general terms Philip Roth talks about growing up in the New York area, and mentions the name Claire as someone he is connected to, which is the name of a character from the last novel of his I read (I'm almost sure.) But...

Keeping the reader guessing seems to be one of his delights, as well as his dry humor and honesty. And the surprises he slides in between the lines, or in a single line; so subtle. I found myself second guessing, did he just say that that happened?

Roth is talking about big ideas, with thoughtfulness and well formed characters. They struggle with and against one another is ways that make them seem real. His writing is so believable, that at times it can be as slow and uneventful and your every day, and then we turn a corner and step into the jaws of another reality, one just as real, but often far outside our day-to-day.

 

I finished this a while ago, but just haven't gotten around to writing my thoughts about it. I have one or two more to catch up on.

* It wasn't the last one, this was the last one. And it was great. I think I confused the two books, given how close together I read them.

march monthly planner

March is yet again upon us.

After a few teasers of warmish weather here north of Boston last week, it chilled down again in the past few days so that we slid into March with cold days and colder nights. It was sunny yesterday, March 1, but still cold and windy as all heck. That's Lion for you.

Today it started cloudy and now, at about 5:30 PM, its getting dark, its rainy and cold. But its Saturday! Can't be all bad, right, and while today is definitely the Tiger of March, tomorrow the rain is supposed to stop, and it will just be cloudy all day, and may even get up to 50!

Yeah, a Bear. Definitely. We going to grill anyway. Just try and stop me.

But it just gets better from here. March may come in like a Lion and go out like a Lamb, but don't forget all the days between, and what their names are. How else can you plan your month? In a few weeks it will be Saturday the 16th. Got plans? It may be important to know that Saturday the 16th is the Ox of March. And the next day is Elephant, in case you're planning the whole weekend.

Not sure why that matters? Well feast yer eyes, my friends!

March 2024

March 1 - Lion: How was this beast for you this year? Did it help to have Leap Day first?
March 2 - Tiger: I just ran an errand, and yep, today feels like a 700 pound killer.
March 3 - Bear: Sounds like we may have more of a black bear than a grizzly tomorrow.
March 4 - Shark: Rain and clouds forecast for the rest of the first week. Sharks don't care.
March 5 - Wolf: These dogs hunt in packs.
March 6 - Bull: Can get to 6-feet, and 2500 to 3000 pounds.
March 7 - Moose: Road signs say Brake for Moose. Its not to save the moose.
March 8 - Eagle: Hunter from the skies.
March 9 - Scorpion: If you're not careful they can get into your collar, or up your pant leg.
March 10 - Dingo: Here's where's... I left it right here! Turn your clock ahead! *
March 11 - Hawk: Maybe not as fierce at the Eagle, but keep your cats and small dogs in view
March 12 - Lynx: Not a house cat. Think jaguar in a smaller package.
March 13 - Bat: Seeing these guys in the night sky means the bugs are back.
March 14 - Monkey: Monkeys have tails, apes don't. HBD Coleen!
March 15 - Snake: No legs, but they DO have a neck, backbone, and a tail. Horrible mistake.
March 16 - Ox: Slow and strong.
March 17 - Elephant: Huge and gray.
March 18 - Raven: Black, and bigger than it has a right to be.
March 19 - Stag: Also called a hart, these big boys run in small family groups in Spring.
March 20 - Crab: Watery and unchanging. First day of spring!
March 21 - Goat: Cheese and devil associations.
March 22 - Horse: Clydesdale or pinto.
March 23 - Pig: Get your boots!
March 24 - Dog: Time for a walk! And maybe a catch.
March 25 - Dolphin: Bright, fun and wet.
March 26 - Rooster: Early rise, and lets get things done.
March 27 - Turtle: No one stays closer to home.
March 28 - Toad: Nobbly and damp.
March 29 - Robin: When these guys come back, news is looking up.
March 30 - Rabbit: They live in shrublands, which is why they like the suburbs. You got shrubs right? HBD Kelton!
March 31 - Lamb: Fluffy, warm and delicious!

If you find this helpful, let me know in the comments. 

Headed back to work Monday? Its Shark, take an umbrella. And maybe some reinforced pants.

* Turn your clock ahead at 2:00 AM on Dingo, up to 3:00 AM. That's right you lose an hour or sleep between Scorpion and Dingo this year. And don't make plans for 2:30 AM, Dingo morning, that time doesn't exist.

path of vengeance

Star Wars: The High Republic: Path of Vengeance is a novel published by Disney Lucasfilm Press, so is is a novel or is it film related merchandise? I'm not sure, but it does seem clear that the author is likely working for the publisher, or is (was) under contract to produce this novel. Why do I say that? Well, if this author decided to write this on their own and just submitted it to Disney in hopes that they'd publish it, then this is fan fiction, and if this was an assignment that Disney gave to them then its merchandise, right? At least it is first and foremost; in my mind anyway.

Why is that important? For the same reason that when you pick up a book in the bookstore that has Tom Clancy or James Patterson's name on it. Those people aren't writing the stories, someone else is. Who? Somebody, but you'll probably have to dig a little to find their name. you can find your own links, I'm not going there

So what is the difference between an author who has been published in their own right, and an author who works for a corporation like Disney or James Patterson? Well, I don't think these companies are author mills, but the focus does appear to be more on cranking out the material (merch) rather than publishing the highest quality novels they can.

Long introduction (rant?) concluded. That said, here's where I am on Path of Vengeance and its author, Cavan Scott: The story was interesting, the writing isn't that great. 

I looked up Cavan Scott, who seems to be a good comic artist, and many comic artists are talented story tellers. Scott seems to have come up with a pretty good story, and it also seems like he originally started with Disney doing comics for them, and then started writing for them more recently. When you take a look at his work, it seems mostly to be comics. The writing isn't awful, its just a little flat, and has way too many clichés and idioms. Clichés aren't the worse things, but when you're writing about people living in a galaxy far, far away, its just unlikely that they are going to say things like we do, and that takes us out of the narrative. It lifts the veil. see what I did there? It disturbs our need to suspend disbelief while reading fiction. Here are some examples from the first few pages:

"the skin of her... teeth" p. 4 

"his nose had... been put out of joint" p. 8

They're pretty regular all the way through, and even the similes pull the reader out of the galaxy where the story takes place. Like the slur about Evereni being "sharks" or describing a creature that "ran on four legs like a lion." I assume they don't have sharks and lions in their galaxy. Its just the easy way out.

One cliché I couldn't find when writing this entry was something like 'lit up like a Light Festival bough.' That's just a lit up like a Christmas tree, with a few words changed. Try harder, bro.

Am I a snob? Maybe, but I probably won't go looking for more of these books. This one was a gift, and I'm very grateful. The story was fun, and it was interesting to look back at the Star Wars universe at a time when the republic was at peace, and things were good. This era seems ripe for stories, shows and movies, as well as books and comics. I just think the production value should be there regardless of the medium.

Here's an interview with Cavan Scott and 4 other authors working for Disney on these books and comics.

punch the future in the dick

Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick* is the second novel in the Zoey Ashe series by Jason "David Wong" Pargin. The first installment was good; I bragged about it to people like I wrote it myself, and at least one person went out and got a copy, and they enjoyed it too. The second installment was good, but perhaps not as good at the first. A lot of what was new in the first one, things I hadn't read about before, and what made the future that Zoey Ashe inhabits so interesting, are repeated in volume two. Mostly by necessity. 

I don't mind that so much, its what we expect when we read a sequel, but what the first one had in adventure, and character development, was lacking here. There are some new characters, but we don't learn too much new about the character's we met in book one, except a few scraps. So I guess this was a sequel, but it felt a little it like a Zoey Ashe adventure, rather than a stand alone novel. It was good, it just wasn't great.

This book, like the first, was published under Jason Pargin's pen name, 'David Wong.' Why? I don't know, but a lot of his previous books were published using the David Wong name as well. More recently, he's been using hi real name. When doing a little research for this blog entry, I found that he has written another book in the Zoey Ashe series, called Zoey is Too Drunk for This Dystopia, which just came out this year, and also has his real name on the cover. Not only that, but newer printings of his older books have revised cover art featuring Pargin's real name as well.

I thought this book was good, as I said, and will probably pick up book three at the library at some point. If and when I do, I'll try and write about it here. I will also say, as I did in my review of the first book, these stories have movie potential.

* I don't think its a spoiler to report that the future's reproductive organs we not actually harmed at any point in this novel; for those of you who may have been worried.

last kingdom

The Last Kingdom is not the latest Cotton Malone novel by Steve Berry, but it's pretty recent. I picked up this copy from the book sale at my library, which discarded my copy after the rush for this title calmed down (I assume.)

I've read a bunch of the Cotton Malone stories, because my wife likes them, but I haven't read all of them, nor have I read them in order, but it seems to me that Steve Berry is working on spinning off a new character; Luke Daniels. I don't recall the last one of the Cotton Malone stories I read, but Luke Daniels may have made an appearance in that one. I've been a little lax in keeping up the blog, and unfortunately, not every book makes it on here as it should

Maybe its just that Berry has written Cotton Malone as a more mature character, and now he's aging out. He's essentially retired, owns a small rare bookstore in Amsterdam, or someplace... sorry, you can read it if you want the details has new young wife, or girlfriend ibid and the new guy, Daniels, is a much younger man. Young enough that he looks to Malone for help. So maybe, its a passing of the baton, rather than a new series?

This one had a little of that Dan Brown or "National Treasure" feel to it. The Last Kingdom has Malone and Daniels trotting around the Bavarian region in Germany searching for information about this local legend. They soon discover that they aren't the only ones looking, so the sub-plots, plot twists, double-crosses (and triple-crosses!) ensue. This was a fun romp, but didn't have me glued. I can usually tell based on how long it takes me to read a book; if it isn't a great book, I don't go out of my way to keep reading. Some books keep me at the breakfast table for an extra 10 minutes, or I stay up to finish a chapter before I go to bed. Great books have me skipping other things to find more time to read. This book took weeks, so, average read.

golden enclaves

That's Book Three: done and dusted. The Golden Enclaves is the third book in the Scholomance Trilogy by Naomi Novik, which I banged out is pretty quick order, for me. That normally means that the books are engaging enough that I'm going out of my way to find reading time, rather than just reading a little at breakfast, and when I go to bed. That methods usually ends up turning your average novel into a two to three week ordeal.

Novik did everything right here: compelling characters and storyline, some drama, some hooks, some fun, some romance, some action, some surprise, some death, a smackerel of foreshadowing, see what I did there? and as I said in my review of the first book, an original and engaging view of how magic works in this version of our world. And that magic and how it works is not just interesting, but it plays heavily into the story, and how the witches and wizards that use it need to manage its needs and implications. Reminds me a little of Isaac Asimov's three rules for robots. Once he came up with the rules, he wrote a series of short stories (I, Robot) to test them and see how they might function is 'real life' settings. Novik does the same thing, she pokes a prods at magic through her characters to see what it will do, testing the rules and implications.

If you enjoyed the Harry Potter series, enjoyed The Magicians books even more, but weren't as much of a fan of Narnia Series, then this is probably for you. The Bone Season has some similarities as well, in the interesting view of magic in our world, but the Scholomance is much better written.

Novik crushed it. Read this book.

 

last graduate

Part two of the Scholomance Trilogy is called The Last Graduate. Naomi Novik is pretty well practiced at multi-novel story arcs, she has a series called Temeraire, that has 10 books in it. You can find more about that, and Naomi Novik, as well as some kind of web interactive trip to the Scholomance on her website.

I had to wait for this book at the library as it was reserved by someone else, but I banged out a few others while I waited, but now that this one is done, I've started on the third book, as I bought a surplus copy at my library's book sale. Unlike a lot of middle books in trilogies, The Last Graduate is really the second part of a longer story, and it really does pick up right where the first book left off. And sneak peek: the same is true between the second and the third. I'm not sure if these books would read so well if taken alone, or out of order, but then, I don't think any writer assumes that will be the case, and any subtle summarizing of the earlier book is probably done to catch up those who have had to wait a year, or however long its been, since the earlier book was published.

Book two develops the main characters in more detail, and we watch them grow in this book from the juniors they were in Book one, to the seniors they are now, getting ready to graduate from the Scholomance. This story took some turns I wasn't expecting, but I guess that is the plan. I don't normally spend any time while reading trying to work out the ending, but in some cases I'm not surprised, and in others, I am. This was one of the latter type, which is always fun. Novik does a pretty good job of convincing you of one thing, along with the protagonists, only to then change your mind, and win you over about something you didn't think you'd ever change your mind about, taking you on the same journey as the characters. That's tough to do, and can sometimes seems clunky. The worse of which is just the explainer, whether to a supporting character, or even worse, in inner dialog.

I reserved judgement on this when i wrote about the first one, because I wasn't sure where this was going to go, but I'm going assume the third book is going finish this story up nicely, and say Read this Book.

 

On a side note, this series has the backbone that I think people look for in a movie premise, or more likely a TV series. I can imagine something with a fair amount of production value that might be pretty good on the small screen. Diverse cast, international scope, and enough intrigue to pull in various types of viewers.

sea of tranquility

Sea of Tranquility was on the New York Times Bestseller List, according to the cover of this paperback I picked up at my library's book sale while waiting for my shot at the second book in a trilogy I just started. That's not why I bought it, it was because the blurb on the back cover made this one sound like a wild romp with some Cloud Atlas vibes.

It was, but not AS out there as Cloud Atlas.

Emily St. John Mandel tells a pretty good tale. She probably best known as the author of Station Eleven, which they apparently made a mini-series out of over at the HBO Max, which, in case it isn't obvious, I haven't seen. St. John Mandel is also the author of The Glass Hotel, a blurb of which is included in the backmatter of this book, and if i understand that paragraph correctly, that book may include some of the same characters as this one. Another reminder of David Mitchell.

And I just needed to read the first line of this book to know that St. John Mandel is a funny woman.

Sea of Tranquility did nod in the David Mitchell direction, for me, but the story line was completely original, albeit with some time traveling antics that I guess we've all seen before, but how they're woven together here was a treat. This was a good one, and I'll keep my eye out for books by Emily St. John Mandel.*

Read this book.

 

* Moments after publishing this post, I was cleaning up by closing browser tabs and read at the very top of Emily St. John Mandel's website, these words, "St. John is my middle name. The books go under M." I guess that's pretty clear, and apparently happens often enough that its the first line on her page. Mandel is a funny woman.