8.06.2007

Where has all the good mythology gone?

It’s a challenge to blog about anything but food – given that it seems I’m always thinking about it, not to mention that I eat more often than I read – but I’ll give it a try:

1. I just got a review copy of a book called Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas (Front Street, 2007). Strange, strange stuff. It’s scary in the same way I found Wolves in the Walls by Neil Gaiman (HC, 2003) scary. Or that Victorian short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Sort of creepy. This boy is living in an apartment building and he’s lost his family to these mysterious “woolvs”. He only talks to his neighbor “Missus Radinski.” You never see these woolvs – they’re these dark shadows, which we all know can be much scarier than if we had seen the real thing. The entire text is spelled very phonetically (“I longs for bloo skys. I longs for it to rane.”), which is both infruriating and effective in portraying a locked-up, scared boy in what appears to be a post-apocalyptic setting. This is in a picture book format, but it’s really for an older child – about 4th grade and up. The cover is really striking – I can see it flying off the shelf if you display it in the YA section, perhaps. Overall, I really liked the book. It’s difficult to find good scary books, and the sense of foreboding and fear without giving away too much information make this a very smart addition to the genre. Just beware the spelling - it was difficult not to throw the book across the room.

2. I finally got an account at Good Reads. Right now the only method I have of keeping track of the books I read is an old Excel worksheet I created back in library school. And I haven’t used it for months. I tried LibraryThing awhile ago but found it horribly un-user-friendly. So hopefully Good Reads will fare better. I’m really horrible at remembering books I read so I really need this one to work out!

3. At work, I’m putting together a core mythology selection list. This is a list that the librarians can choose from to replace their older titles or flesh out their collections a little more. The trouble is, do you realize how many of the classic mythology books are out-of-print??? How is that??? Don’t kids read mythology anymore? They must because I’ve had a significant number of librarians ask me for mythology books. This list is not going well.

4. Lastly, I have to post this Unshelved strip. It’s one of my favorites. If only more librarians would have this attitude toward maintaining their collections…









3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yay for weeding! Dude, you have to check out this comic over at Penny Arcade. The two guys who write the comic are super video gamers, but like to occasionally chat about other things. Like male librarians. Friday's comic at Penny Arcade.

Susan T. said...

What a nice port o'call you have here. Welcome to the blogging waters!

Susan T.
Chicken Spaghetti

Anonymous said...

You should try Shelfari. It is very user friendly.

http://www.shelfari.com

Enjoy!