Daily Thoughts 4/26/2011 (The Earthshakers, Gifts)

Illustration of "The Rock" Gold Blocking and Inking Press, no. 4, from an advert for Kampe & Co of 78 High Holborn, London as printed in The Art of Bookbinding by Joseph William Zaehnsdorf, 1890

Daily Thoughts 4/26/2011

This morning I read some more of The Earthshakers by Harold Lamb.  The book was originally published as The March of the Barbarians and Tamerlane.  It has that old fashioned feel of history written with an upright Rome, an exotic East, and pillaging hordes of barbarians.

Today has been quiet and steady.  I checked the displays and checked the gift books.  We received some donations of books on music.  One of the books, The Beatles Anthology written in 2000 is the first book by the Beatles on the history of the Beatles.  It is a quarto book and has lots of photographs.

As usual I updated the Twitter account and entered some more surveys for the library.  We are going to be ordering again soon which should be a nice change.

I put the book, All The Lives He Led by Frederik Pohl on hold today.  It is his newest book.

I am thinking ahead about a discount to Book Expo America http://www.bookexpoamerica.com/ which is on May 23-26 this year.  It should be excellent.  I registered for the May 23, 2011 Day of Dialog Today http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/articlereview/889795-457/story.csp

Web Bits

Librarians at the Gate an article from Publishers Weekly on Book Expo America
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/print/20110425/46943-librarians-at-the-gate.html

Daily Thoughts 6/15/2010

Annaberg-Buchholz, Ladenschild einer Buchhandlungin der Wolkensteiner Straße, April 2010, Photo: Andreas Praefcke (Own Work), Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Daily Thoughts 6/15/2010

I have to put The Affinity Bridge by George Mann down. It is rather dry and I am finding it a bit stuffy. The concepts are interesting, the story is interesting, the writing is not that exciting.

I finally have all four books for my Readers Advisory 101 Course, Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, Ice Station by Matthew J. Reilly, and Bootlegger's Daughter by Margaret Maron. These are solid, predictable reads.

I received an advanced uncorrected proof for The Last Block In Harlem A Novel by Christopher Herz. It is published by Amazon Encore which is a new venture by Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000373401

Today, I spent some time working in the storage area looking at shifting books. I also have been playing with Evance which is a system for running summer reading programs. I am looking at the adult summer reading module. I have figured out how to add a few links, input reviews, and setup a basic message about Adult Summer Reading. I am just getting the hang of the system.

Something which I have noticed that people like to read is fiction about the Amish. The most popular author is Beverly Lewis. It is a very different way of living to read about.

I also took a look through the gift books. I find the easiest thing to find and add are the classics. Paperback copies of The Odyssey, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Oresteia by Aeschylus, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and other classic writers get donated constantly and are always used by the high school students.