Non fiction faberaction

When it comes to reading I am absolutely a fiction reader, but that isn't entirely true is it? I am a student who reads for class, I answer reference questions for scientists in my library work, and I browse the papers on my coffee breaks. However when it comes to actual books it is rare for me to pick up a non-fiction work unless it's a purely informational resource. Youtube is my major source of non-fiction where I follow a lot of vlogs on current happening and LGBTQ life stories. I seem to like my fiction in under 10 minute doses.


That being said Behind the Beautiful Forevers wasn't a bad read. Though I will still agree it is longer than what I would tolerate for my own fictional interest. I honestly think reading more narrative non-fiction would give me a better view of events and things I don't understand, if I could dedicate myself to it. I am not the brightest crayon in the box and having a story that outlines some key concepts of reality immensely helps me grasp complicated world politics, history and global issues with not only a better sense of understanding but the important function of vivid recollection for later reference.


Non fiction's biggest bother to me is the focus on truth and authenticity. When I am reading fiction, and largely fantasy, often even simple rules like gravity are ignored without a thought, so I don't think I'm the most skilled fact hunter when I get wrapped up in a story. Knowing this maybe offsets some of the damage, but I would probably be less likely to spot inaccuracies wrapped up in a story than the average bear. That being said I come from a small community where gossip has always been the preferred source of non-fiction, so to say I don't have a basic ability to spot blatant fabrication when I see it would be doing myself a disservice.


I really liked Behind the Beautiful Forevers for the fact that it was narrative. A narrative format of information has always been easier for me to absorb than other formats of information, and while I could not relate to characters who were in such a different life situation than myself, it opened me up to a glimpse a perspective of the psychology, interactions and reactions of people in a state of poverty. I had hoped upon thinking on these concepts that it would give me information to draw parallels between poverty in my own country, and maybe understand things better, but I'm not sure it went that far for me,  or perhaps I just need to mull over the concepts a little longer to make connections.

The sense of place in the novel was also a huge asset to the book and contributed greatly to my positive reading experience. Something for me that would have helped better my reading experience would have been expanded character description. I am used to having more than just a name to draw on to identify a character, especially in fantasy reading characters often have odd weapons, costumes, hair and eye colour that help you keep track of them, the characters in this book were at times rather thinly described, even with the cultural similarities I feel the author was capable of better character descriptions a I vividly remember her description of Meina in the book and it is the only one that stands out in my mind out of the host of characters.

If you see fairies ya just might be crazy, or at a gay bar

 


Among Others by Jo Walton... eh... in all fairness it's difficult to be objective about a book you don't particularly like, and I'm pretty sure it's entirely scientifically impossible to be objective about a book you don't like where the main character reminds you painfully of an ex girlfriend. However let's give it a shot shall we?

 
The characterization of this book can be viewed as somewhat interesting since in my (absolutely non educated guess) Morwenna has a text book case of Asperger's Syndrome, however this also makes her a somewhat unlikeable character to those with a fairly steady psychological profile as she comes off as high strung, selfish, unreliable, and many of her social problems seem painfully self inflicted. Although Morwenna's musings on Lesbians are highly amusing since I've personally only ever had men share with me their thoughts and musings of how lesbians see communal woman’s showers and change rooms it's rather interesting to gain a straight girl perspective on the matter. I laughed.

The setting of the book lends itself to the fantasy aspect of the novel, bringing in aspects of folklore. As we discussed in class the time frame the book was set in to be per technology to convey the isolation of loneliness before computers allowed us to reach out to a larger pool of people to interact with to those who can't muster the social conviction, have a hard lot of being a social outcast. While I can agree with the perspective I just found that this theme detracted from my reading experience because I don't agree with it. Since internet interactions in and of themselves are a good percentage of fantasy and extremely malleable to personal perspective, I'm not so certain that what technology does to rectify loneliness isn't outweighed by the escapism of it. In the technology age it is perfectly acceptable to have imaginary friends as long as someone happens to be typing them out on the other end. It's not that the difference between real and imaginary bothers me so much, but the alarming and increasing amount of people who can seem to tell the difference irks me because personally I'd love to be that far in denial, however I'm not sure the end result makes you a better person.

Personally what I did like was the time setting of the book on the points that it is an adult novel. Thebook is written a time period that is going to be more relate-able to an adult audience and I think it is one of the factors that define it as an adult novel. Given the nature of Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, and Borderline Personality Disorder, I can see how adults that this book would appeal too relating better to a young adult character and people with a normal psychological/mental profile are willing to be more sympathetic to an immature young character than to an adult one. The time setting and age of the character up the relate-ability and likeability of the character to an adult audience.

The tone of the novel comes off more depressing based on the slow pacing of the book, not that I have a problem so much with depressing but are all good adult novels depressing? The tone of the book just really detracted from the reading for me because when I think of fantasy I'm looking for more of a back and white, with upbeat story line, and I think I kind of had that expectation when I saw the genre on the reading list then when I got to it, it so clearly wasn't what I wanted. I just don't understand why award winning books have to be so depressing. I do get the aspect of conflict but isn't their some creative way to be upbeat that is worthy of an award?

The language of the novel threw me a bit because it's not really written in the accent I would imagine the character to have given the setting, however every now and then regional slang pops up at random like an actor falling in and out of an accent. It makes the book harder to read with out adding all that much to it and personally I found it distracting.

At the end of the day Among Others was not my cup of tea. I can see why certain people would relate to it, I on the other hand like most lesbians my age who are not Wiccian or do not have a Wiccian partner probably think that if ya see faeries ya might just be a little bit crazy, based on personal experience, and unfortunately when you are a lesbian you have to make the conscious decision you don't actually fall into that circle (since that particular profile is pretty common). So perhaps I've just been a little to close to the book to get the fantasy enjoyment out of it or find it all that amusing/insightful to meditate on. Thanks to Ellen for being on my team here.

East Meets West, a New Reading Perspective

I have never read a story told in a collective voice and while I realize that Buddha in the Attic is an exceptionally well crafted example of the writing style I have to say I like it a lot more than the common switching characters perspectives at chapter intervals. It allows you to get a cohesive story with out feeling interrupted in in your reading or fragmented. It was kind of a mind blowing experience that someone could even write a perspective like this, capture all the elements of a story and keep track of it. I have a feeling that if I even tried to write a short story like this I would be constantly forgetting all the details and it would unravel and get away from me. It really allowed me to read in a context that brought things alive for me in the way having a conversation with actual people brings things alive. I remember vivid aspects of the book as I would remember having a conversation with someone from a day gone past.

When it comes to the characters I actually felt more connected to them but in a different way than my typical reading. When a book focuses on one character or a small group of characters you get to know in-depth about them as if they were a personal friend, however you are only getting to know them in the context of the story. When you read Buddha in the attic you get to know characters like you get to know members of your community. You know details about them but not necessarily their innermost thoughts and over all personality. I think personality is the thing people feel the disconnect on, while I do feel that the characters very much do have individual and strong personalities you're not getting to know them in the way you would get to know the personality of a friend. However the story spans a much larger and encompasing experience of their existence you so do in another context know them even better than you know a real person you know now because many people I know in the now have not experienced a lot of what they will face in the future. You get to see a good chunk of how these characters react to events in their life and that's a different way of knowing someone then by knowing them for a defining part of their life like a high school friend you don't talk to anymore, or Bilbo in the Hobbit who the whole book is facing something very out of context with his regular life experience. In Buddha in the Attic you get the bigger picture of the characters but not necessarily they drawn out detail.You get to know them in the perspective of a community sense. Like the way everyone in my home town knew Mrs. Cuttie in Selkirk was a strong woman because her husband died of cancer and she raised a sickly daughter on her own, the Mrs. Goodman raises strong sons, has a sense of faith and knows more about the local church than anyone else in town, how Mrs. Nordal always knows all the town news before the paper does and the name of the best Doctor you should visit based on what's bothering your health. I know all of these people they are residual parts of my life but we're not close friends. I know aspects of their personality, some of what they have been through in life. Seeing characters portrayed in the same collective manner that people refer to members of their own community in, somehow made they whole story come alive and every character seem intensely real in the sense of reality as we actually perceive it, and remember it not how the entertainment industry tells us we perceive reality in more readily used story telling styles and perspective books and movies are made available in. tTe collective manner in the book really strongly impressed the characters upon me.

As for envisioning the characters I actually did envision them quit readily, I think I would have had a harder time doing so if I didn't have some background learning in the culture. The name of a Japanese garment or religious object that they kept tucked away didn't throw me off in picturing them. I had an easy time with the country side characters more so than the city characters because my family and community have told me stories of generations of farmers past. I can't say I had the individual detail where I can recall by name an individual character but I had an easy time envisioning their experience in a “wide lens” sort of way. A group of women in Kimonos standing around on the boat flustered and flitting about talking to an American, farm workers in the field, a mother working on the farm while her kids play in the country side, a servant in a white household going about her work. Yes might not have been the kind of detail that requires one page of writing to describe that characters dress kind of visualization, or a full face movie moment close up, but considering my immediate response to the question was “Of course it effected my ability to visualize the characters their wasn't that much individual detail...” however when I think back to reading the book I can recall seeing the characters very very vividly and I'm really at a bit of a loss on why that was but I was fully captured by the book and the visual nature was absolutely part of that.

And then they ate biscuits...

My first thought of reading The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt evoked memories of Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, which is about the only ongoing relationship I’ve had with the western genre, and it was a forced one being that it was the only thing on the four channels of TV I grew up with, that had a plot and showed Sunday evening. While I knew just from the title that the context of the book was likely to be very different than my childhood memories of westerns, I cannot say I was very excited or captivated by thought of reading a western book.


When I actually got into the reading I have to say the author does an excellent job of creating the “head space” of the main character. I like the internal dialogue and narration of the character. The story made me crave food cooked over an open fire, and it was a gem of a reading experience to see a cowboy struggle with weight loss with all the conviction, resolve and mentality of the average woman and experience pretty much the same issues and utter defeat in the challenge. Also had fun inserting gay cowboy subtext between Warm and Percy as I was reading but I’m not sure that was an enjoyment the author intended the reader to take away from the novel.

On the downside the plot did not grab me at all. The characters seems so real it was hard for even a fantasy lover like me to grasp the pseudoscience/alchemy chemical part of the plot, I was actually quite surprised when the substance turned out to be “real” in the book as I thought it was going to turn out to be a con. In the end we are left with a pretty typical bounty hunter plot line. Make money then lose money, end up broke. Joss Weedon’s Firefly show, Outlaw Star the Anime, Cowboy Beebop the Anime all have the exact same concept, while being unoriginal isn’t the worst crime in writing (after all I love a basic clear cut good vs evil good for the win plot over and over again personally), but I guess given the clear skill of the writing in this book I was expecting more originality in the plot. It wasn’t bad it just didn’t grip me. It was typical.

Did the characters really change in the end? I don’t think so, so much as the world they occupy changed. Eli speaks toward the end of the novel about a change in how he and his brother conversed after their last adventure, how they were never quite as open with each other after their bounty hunting days (did I mention the foreshadowing in this book totally wrecks the suspense.) it shows more a change in social expectations I think rather than actual change in character.

When I was in the closet and to an extent still when I am around my parents, family and anywhere else that seems to be required a level of blending in with the norm, while it may be perfectly all right during a football game for my mother and sister to make causal comments about the football players butts, it would come off as pretty awkward if I made comments about the cheerleaders. However when I am with a group of lesbians then it’s pretty abnormal not to comment. Likewise I think the characters in the novel would find themselves out of context of their new life back with mommy dearest if they were running around trying to drown and shoot people in the head.  I think at least for Eli he pretty much got tired of being something that wasn’t his natural state, like I got tired of “being straight” and he just up and went home. I just up and came out the closet, it’s not a change so much as a survival of what you are not.

Charlie on the other hand may have changed more as a character if we decide to infer that he goes on living a non-violent life and dials back the substance abuse. That being said with the loss of his hand in real life I wouldn’t bet on someone with I fondness for morphine and alcohol to turn their life around after the loss of his hand, even Elie as much as admits in the novel Charlie was at his most magnificent as a killer. He has yet to survive being something he is not, sadly (although seriously if you're a killer I have a hard time feeling sad about it) he doesn't have much of an option being that he lost his hand.

To sum it up the Sisters Brothers,  is a character driven literary western that hosts a standard bounty hunter plot line.

Best of teen reading list,and the winner is...

My favourite read this semester was the first one I read off the reading list and the one I immediately grabbed off the pile when the class book order arrived at my home, and that was Stitches.  Sure it had the appeal of being a graphic novel but I was not expecting such a deep and fluid story. I had never read a graphic novel that was to be taken as a true story, but I found stitches a compelling read though I felt slightly removed from the story because of the medium. Graphic novels are usually tales of complete fabrication in the reading I do so it was a little bit of a challenge to me to grasp the story in the concept of being real without exaggeration to a large extent. That did not however take away form a captivating read, with strong art which conveyed immense emotions in the characters portrayed in the book.

I would like to also add that Karma was a runner up, and I didn’t think I would like that book at all.  So that one wins the award for runner up a biggest surprise in the reading list. I really enjoyed the exposure to a verse novel that I wouldn’t have otherwise picked up. Stitches if I had come across on the shelf I would have naturally gravitated to, Karma I wouldn’t have given a second look and it was nice to get the exposure to something completely different from my normal reading and that I wouldn't have picked up on my own.

Getting back to Stitches there are a number of types of people I would suggest the book to. Fans of independent comics, graphic novel readers in general, memoir readers who might be interested in the alternative format, and readers with low literacy levels looking for more sophisticated story line or content,  written or conveyed in a way that is easy to read.

While these are the people I would suggest give the book a read, I’m a little lost at how to pitch the book. Words like dark and disturbing come to mind naturally based on the story and at but the captivating nature of the book and detailed effective conveyance of body language in the story are hard to sum up in a marketing pitch for the book. The best I can come up with is "Stitches is a deeply personal story of a boy’s upbringing that expresses the fears, voids and sense of helplessness that lack of communication can bring within a family unit." While that may suffice for adult readers I doubt that teens would find that as captivating a summary, but since Stitches was written for adults I find myself having an even more challenging time defining the work in terms that would appeal to teens. One thing I do lack is recommendation skills for reading material.

T is for trouble... and teenager... coincidence?

Ok I will admit it the book "When Falcon's Fly" is not my cup of tea. The biggest enjoyment I got out of the book was seeing the names of local land marks in print and in context of the story... it's weird for me reading books with settings I have actually been too. I think it may have actually been a first outside of travel guides.

I can see how the book would appeal to a reluctant reader with its sports "action" sequences. It takes on the task of putting readers in a more active role and mindset as the reader, other styles of books are more of the "sit back and relax" or "sit back and hang on" this book attempted to engage the reader in the action and I feel that makes it a good choice for a reluctant reader. I will keep it in the back of my mind for reluctant readers.

When I think of teen RA work I'm a tad torn, I know I can handle girls, create exciting displays that will capture attention and spark interest... but then there are boys...  At the very least I can suggest gender neutral titles, and I'm pretty up to speed on graphic novels, so I'm not completely going to mentally freak myself out about the prospect of RA work for teens.... Oh and just about any guy who plays World of War Craft or Dungeons and Dragons, well I've pretty much got that covered. Being that fantasy and male nerds are more "cool" than ever, and also more likely to use the library than they average jock, I can pretty much peg a kid who looks like he hasn't seen the light of day in a few months, as a gamer and come up with a few titles to suggest. (I wouldn't make that snap judgment lol but you get the idea)

Also there is Novelist and the internet, book trailer and other resources I can use to help me out. I feel pretty darn lucky to have these tools at my disposal, but they absolutely make me more comfortable in my ability to Teen RA work. If it is a regular part of my job I can see myself taking a real interest in the material, learning and staying current with it, and over all enjoying the work to be better at teen RA. I wouldn't say I'm a natural or anything, but I do feel it is something I could pick up as I go along a do well with.

Teens usually seem to feel more comfortable talking to me than I am with them. I'm not sure why but I do often get asked for advice from the teens in my life and they even go out of their way to include me in their lives. That gives me a little confidence that I can offer them material, and content that engages them, and expands on their likes. They don't scare me nearly as much as the kids because I am way less afraid of the teen who tells me my suggestion "sucks", than the parent who tells me their kid has been having nightmares for weeks because I suggested the book "Where the Wild things are". I think I scared the kid I baby sat for life when I showed her Lion King II... she is 18 now and still remembers being sacred... Sure she loved the original Lion King but the 2nd one had alligators... well those are just scary... clearly...  I can gauge teens they don't freak me out too bad, kids I'm just clueless on.

Verse Verses Traditional

I had not read a Verse Novel before Karma and I have to say is clearly changed my opinion of verse novels… not that I really had an opinion of verse novels so my as a expectation that they would be long fragmented and difficult to take in more than small doses.


What I got in Karma was a fluid, vivid, and descriptive experience that offered me so much more to my style of reading than the average narrative. I will be sure to pick up additional verse novels in the future for the pure pleasure of the reading experience.

If you can break down the sigma of the writing style I really can’t see how anyone who has managed to give one of these a shot wouldn’t at least find them readable, (provided the reading level matched the reader) regardless of liking the specific story or not. I think one of the big hurdles to overcome with verse novels is the concept that they are “not readable” some strange Shakespearian writing style that one must invest time in to understand and get the effect of. I like poetry and prose but when I do read I tend to like it in small doses. I often feel when I come across it like I just don’t have the time to get into it unless it’s in short snippets. Karma disproved that.

I’ve read books with Poetry in them but the fluid ability of a verse novel to incorporate the feel of poetry and carry a story makes it a powerful and enjoyable writing style that I can’t wait to get more of. Teens are likely more open than I in general I would absolutely recommend verse novels to teen readers.

I really like the vibrant feel that the verse style creates; I like the fluid nature, and that the writing offers a bit more variety. I enjoy all these things and look forward to reading more.

Dis the dystopian

I do think that All Good Children is an award winning novel. While it personally was not my cup of tea it’s generic enough to reach a wide audience while cramming in enough controversial subject matter to open discussions and thoughts on many ethical topics. From genetic profiling, over use of antidepressants, technology addiction, government controls, and monitoring, reality TV and interracial relationships (still controversial to some although less so today thankfully) the book runs the gamut of thought provoking subjects while some are more prevalent and relevant to the subject than others I notice the skill the author used in raising issues as a natural part of the story, giving the reader an opportunity to think on an issue then moving on fluidly with the story without flying off on tangents.

I am not sure how “gripping” the plot was that is the only point I having issues with I mean over all it a gripping plot but I feel you lose the quality “gripping” when you draw things out as extensively as they were in the book.  It just lacked so general element of excitement that is often captured by similar titles of the genre.

Also I come back to the fact that I don’t quite get certain male aspects of humor so the humor in the book didn’t really hit for me even though the write is female, she manages to for the most part pull off successfully a story form a male point of view… except when she is talking about Xavier and his supernatural ability to smell yummy then she is (in my opinion) writing like the biggest girl ever which was one point of her writing I had an issues with. Her writing is skillfully crafted and when she broke the flow with her attachment to Xavier’s character it was almost disappointing.
Missing the element of humor in the story and having a long plot lacking much action outside of sports I just can’t agree that the story was gripping, the plot maybe but the actual story fell short. The story highlights creativity, individuality and non-conformity. The aspects of creative expression and rebellious nature are the back bone of the main character and I suppose the characters were memorable enough since I do recall their names.

I think the novel is also general enough it the “time setting” that it will not become easily dated. When you look at the technologies she has used in her book it’s at a level that someone could have read the book 50 years ago and followed it before we had the internet, and I can absolutely see how it will stand the test of time as a story of non-conformity.  The content in the book is very well presented but I do feel a few additional “hooks” to hold the reader’s attention, and add some spice to the duller parts where the story dragged were much needed.

I’d suggest it for teens as something they should read, but I’d also pay attention to feedback from them if I was told by readers or the age group that the book is as slow as I felt it was I would hesitate to recommend it to anyone other than fans of the genre. I love fantasy so a slow fantasy novel likely won’t bother me to much but for someone who isn’t a fan of the genre it can be painful to keep reading a book they don’t really like the concept of to begin with. That’s a shame too because I do feel the book has an extensive amount to offer young readers in content and context.

Alexie VS Peters – Win Luna

In comparing Julie Anne Peter’s book Luna to Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely true Diary of a Part Time Indian. It is really no surprise that despite Alexie’s better crafted writing style, I enjoyed Peter’s Luna way way better just on relateability. People accuse the characters of being pretty one dimensional in the book but considering how many one dimensional people there are in the world sometimes to me “one dimensional” characters seem more realistic and plausible than those that lend themselves to better crafted writing.

Sometimes I think that being a Lesbian I will identify more with guy stuff, I know some lesbians identify and get along with guys fairly well but for me it’s all about the ladies all the time. Most books told from a male perspective just do not interest me, I date girls, all my good friends are girls and outside of my family unit my interaction with boys is pretty darn limited. One of the huge challenges for me was getting into Alexi’s humor and I just failed at that, which is odd because I always joked around with guys just fine when I worked in hospitality but maybe my tastes have changed since then. I found myself more often than not having to analyse the concept of “funny” I had to look at all his jokes from a completely different point of view than my own and while I could see where some people would find it funny it just didn’t translate with me.

To contrast Peters’ low brow one dimensional, slapstick sort of comedy with main character Ragan  in Luna was enjoyable and relateable (if somewhat over done) I’m about that much of a klutz and watching youtube videos  or reading stories of other people falling down both entertains me and makes my ungraceful existence seem not so trying.  I think many girls (and boys) of the age group go through a stage where they feel klutzy. Seeing characters portrayed in this light can make that day you smashed your head into the desk trying to pick up the pen you dropped, or when you slipped on the ice on the last step of the bus and fell on your ass (or on someone else) in front of everyone, seem not as crushing as it felt at the time.

I think young people will like Luna for the "Taboo" aspect of the story too. It’s going to be a new concept to many of the people who read it and even though there is fairly little "questionable content" outside the aspect of Luna’s gender identity, I think it will give teens that feeling that they are reading something that isn’t generally approved of. As much as I don’t like the thought of that personally, in the context of the acceptance this book is encouraging, the feeling that you are reading something that your parents might not approve of is still a selling point for many teen readers.

I could talk about my likes and dislikes in the context of what the novel offers in its content about gender identity, but I’m not sure that would be what most teens who read the book would say like found “likeable” about the book.  So I’m going to refrain on recapping what we went over in class and comment on Luna as how it was intended to be viewed. When you strip away the social context I think it’s an enjoyable read for the age group.

Alright I changed my mind I am going to comment on how the book’s context of gender identity. The thing about this book is it’s so darn girly. I mean I’m sure Luna wouldn’t have had it any other way, but I mean the only way this book would get more girly would be to slap a pink cover on it. I would be very hard pressed to recommend this to the majority of straight male teens because I don’t think there is a lot there other than the acceptance of other gender identities that they can grasp onto.

Had this been a book focusing on the brother of a boy transitioning to female it would have been a very different story, but it would have reached more of an audience.  I think it would have had enough elements that way, to attract both genders to the story. This story is aimed at G-I-R-L-S and those who identify that way. I think this is both good and bad.

I think that if you look at it statistically the male side of the population is where trans-acceptance really needs to be pushed because statistically (not exclusively) men are more likely to not accept transgendered persons. However the support structure for men transitioning to women is within the female social structure. If more girls in the future accept Trans women (and persons) as “normal” then it gives trans women a more accepting social structure for them to fit into the gender roll socially of who they really are.

When we look at the popularity of gay males in modern social society (not that gay men are not still subjects of discrimination as are Lesbians) in their relation to women we see that a good deal of the acceptance of gay men by straight men comes from women with gay male friends. Perhaps the road to acceptance of gender and sexual diversity is through the primary acceptance by women of these individuals. That’s not to speak ill of men just my experience coming from a small country town that when gay men are accepted by straight men it is usually from the standpoint of, if the guys want to hang out with the girls the “Gay Best Friend” is usually along for a ride. The attitude starts off as a begrudged “necessary evil” to look cool with the situation but humans are adaptable to situations once they normalize something they once perceived as dangerous, acceptance is almost involuntary. Before you know it the uncomfortable jock is standing up for the gay boy in the bar when harassment occurs because the gay friend is part of “the group”. 

When you look back on how scary it was to drive at 16 years old and how little you even think about getting in your car to get to work on a daily basis you see how easily just being exposed regularly to something that is perceived by those around you is normal abates your fears and how you naturally adapt. I think Luna offers something of starting point for this context, after all driving is way more dangerous than trans people…. Although don’t get me started on women drivers…. Just kidding.

No Pictures for You!

I have to say as an avid graphic novel fan I very much enjoyed the selection, with the exception of Treasure Island which I cannot comment on as I am still stuck on the waiting list for it at the library.  I actually enjoyed American Born Chinese so much that I am eager to read Smile that was also on the list to begin with, but not discussed due to lack of availability. I’ve flipped through it and it looks like it will be equally as good, but perhaps somewhat dated for the up and growing generation who has the benefit of clear braces now. I can very much relate to the experience the main character is going through but being that smile is suggested for a younger audience we have to ask. “Is this still relatable content?”

If you are looking for a graphic novel to replace Smile on the reading list I would suggest the 7 Generations Series. The author is local and it is an astoundingly popular local title with Aboriginal youth.

I would have to say that the choices for the assigned reading differ a good deal from what I normally read. I am open to reading almost anything in graphic novel format but I do tend to gravitate toward the popular fluff. Good old fashion superhero comics, Manga, and the odd fantasy or fairytale story that catches my eye, as well as a ton of Gay and Lesbian manga. Manga was just where I first found a steady source of stories about homosexual characters so I tend to still go to a Manga source if I am looking for gay material to read for fun.

My graphic novel reading actually tends to be more diverse than my novel reading, and I often find that when I do branch out from my comfort reads in graphic novels very much enjoy the experience. These were exceptional reads and I think I might have enjoyed the graphic novel version of Treasure Island a good deal more than my classmates had I gotten the chance to read it.

My enjoyment of the reading of these diverse titles pushes the point that graphic novels are a good tool to get readers to expand genera’s in their reading repertoire. If someone plunks a novel down in front of me I am not at all interested based only on the fact that I don’t read the genera. My reaction is to discard it based on the time I would have to invest in it to determine if I liked it or not. Graphic novels are more “likeable” from the get go thinking it’s only going to take me about 10-15 minutes to determine if I want to read the whole thing or not, and I am one of those people who tends to have to finish books they start, so the concept of getting “stuck” to a book I don’t particularly like is less scary.

I highly enjoyed the diverse reading selection, and exploring these titles with the class. I’m actually surprised at how much reluctance there seems to be in the class in general to graphic novels. Reading a graphic novel or a jam packed highly illustrated manga is 2^nd nature to me at this point so when skilled readers say they have a hard time following it I guess it shocks me a little. I’ve read bad graphic novels and disorganized ones, poorly translated ones that made barely any sense and I didn’t think any of the titles fell into these categories.  I know the anime fans and superhero junkies give the impression of a whole bunch of geeks playing dress up at a convention but these titles and many more have a great deal to offer a variety of young and old readers, the market for girl oriented material in graphic novels has EXPLODED in the past 10 years, and with the popularity of graphic novels you can expect that you will get asked questions about them in most public or school libraries. They are generally quick reads and it’s good to have some experience with them so you can suggest good material.

Age Numbers and Page Numbers

Well…. This is a bit of a challenge for me to answer because I didn’t really read until I was around 11 -12 easy reader chapter books were things I tended to look at the length of and go… “Well nope” I started reading Garfield comic strips, and then went straight into Series and Formula Books. One of the major motivating factors in reading for me (because I was so bad at it) my mom would buy me pretty much whatever I wanted, and I wanted things I could collect. My “Easy Readers” was a subscription to “Wildlife Fact Files” which sent me a set of cards to read every month. From there I was sucked into the Animorphs vortex, and for the most part jumped straight into adult books. Mercedes Lackey  being my author of choice. It seems like a weird scale of reading. The only thing that even comes close to an Easy Reader is now a series, but at the time was a standalone book Into the Land of the Unicorns that was written with the intent of being a series but the next book wasn’t published until I was over 21 so I waited a lot of years for that book. The books were published 10 years apart and I cried when I read the dedication "Dedicated to all the readers who have waited, patiently and impatiently for this second volume with my deepest apologies for taking so long."

-Bruce Coville

I feel like this isn’t really following the assignment but I have to say how much a really enjoyed Tale of of Despereaux.  My age seems to have nothing to do with what I like to read and I think that holds true to this day because I would absolutely read another easy reader  having read Tale of Despereaux the only other easy reader (which was also a series) that I read was Series of Unfortunate Events because of the hype and reviews of the books. I think I got to book 8 before I lost interest in the repetitive pattern of them but I do remember enjoying them, I was also very much above the age range for the book.

Looking back at easy readers illustrations usually didn’t play a part in my reading. Until I read Into the Land of the Unicorns I was kind of under the impression reading sucked in general and after I changed my mind the words kind of stole the show. Who needed pictures when you could make the characters look how you wanted them to look? Actually I tended to avoid books with large images or many illustrations because I felt that it took away from making up the characters how I wanted them to look in my imagination. That being said when I was 16 I fell in love with graphic novels and even went back to younger series books provided they had chapter illustrations. I would rarely read anything without illustrations whereas in my youth illustrations usually annoyed me because I would think “Well that’s not what I think the characters look like.”

Well feel like I haven’t been very good at answering the questions assignment but to sum it up. My first easy reader was Into the Land of the Unicorns. I actually disliked having illustrations in my books after I read Into the Land of the Unicorns because they interfered with my personal creation of the book characters and settings. I have never been one to fit the age range of the books I read I feel that holds true to this very day, but reading shouldn’t have rules right?

Tyger VS Tigger

So as I have admitted in my previous post I was not very much of a reader growing up, and I have to say nursery rhymes always weirded me out. The fact that the adult I was having a perfectly coherent conversation with had just sat down was now rhyming to me about some generally pointless and not engaging event like a girl getting scared by a spider, or mouse running up and down a clock honestly made the whole reading thing to me just seem to make people a little bit…. well…. Strange.

Worse than that were the rhymes I found the rhymes disturbing like Three Blind Mice. Whatever did that awful woman want with their tails anyhow?  The rhyme that sticks with me as really having bothered me was Who Killed Cock Robin after reading that one I thought that maybe these rhymes had scary underlying meaning like making murder and violence an acceptable part of society. Which actually made the innocent ones bother me more because I was trying to figure out what kind of morbidity they were promoting and when I couldn’t figure it out I wondered what other people were taking away from them.

I liked reading nursery rhymes because they were short so if I was supposed to be reading I could spend all my time on one or two of them and feel like I had actually accomplished finishing something, being that I was a painfully slow reader. I don’t recall disliking nursery rhymes but to say I liked them was a bit of a stretch too. Rather the concept of trying to figure out why anyone would write about such silly events and why some of them seemed to be so good and others  there seemed to be something not quite morally right about kept me reading them. I also imagine looking back on it that I assumed at a young age all nursery rhymes were written by the same author because of the writing style.

I had enough books read too me that I was aware certain stories that were made by the same person sounded a certain way, because nursery rhymes were usually stuffed in one big book I just assumed one person wrote them, because I really couldn’t imagine more than one person being so very strange. I have since discovered that the world is a very strange place.

Having had such mixed feelings about rhymes as a child I wonder how it is they determine what reading levels and age groups nursery rhymes are for?  At my age now I hate censorship and can’t imagine locking something into an age group but as a kid I thought some of the rhymes I heard were just palin wrong and should not be read in front of children.

 I have also been looking for a rhyme book for my reading for ages 0-5 and for the same book I have found it listed as ages: 1 and up, 5 – 9 and 9 – 12? Apparently the internet may always have an answer but many times it seems unable to settle on just one. The worst part is that I found all these listed at relatively sound informative site that I normally pull book information off of like Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  What exactly is poetry for children?

For me I can honestly say the first “rhyme” that stuck in my head at a young age was “The Tyger” by William Blake, because it was part of a Batman cartoon episode. Bruce Wayne only read the first few lines of it in the cartoon episode, but I remember the words painting such a vivid picture in my mind, I actually did ask for it by author in the book store ended up reading the rest of the Poem … what is more I remember distinctly liking it. This likely stemmed only from my love of big cats at the time, and it having being on a batman episode where someone became part cat I assumed it was about some one transforming into a tiger. I read the Lamb as well but couldn’t relate so some of the other works in the collection the book store owner gave me. I do remember thinking the William Blake poems were more meaningful than nursery rhymes, and they gave me more of a sense of normalcy because when I puzzled through one or two of them they sounded like something an adult would say. Therefore if I read (or more likely had read to me) poetry that was dealing it things like good and evil, and death and murder, it didn’t bother me because it sounded like it was coming from an adult, who I felt should know about these sort of things and talk and explain about them to other adults. I wasn’t  as discouraged if I didn’t grasp the meaning of things because I figured I wasn’t meant to at my age and I just enjoyed the powerful visual properties of the words used in short bits of writing that I could actually read in a short period of time.  The Tyger will always stick with me because it painted a fierce and beautiful image of a large flaming cat with wings, a giant kitty that was all claws and fire. I don’t think I understood it any more than that but I liked it and I remember it almost to the word to this day and I am sure if you had asked me to recite it to you in grade two, I likely did know it word for word. I still enjoy short poerty and the strong visual disctiptions it holds.

It's all Greek to me! The reluctant reader.

 My recent travels in Europe had me not only thanking the stars that I could read some French and that by mashing French and English together and guessing a few words that kind of looked like French or English you could usually find something to eat off a menu or figure out how to purchase a rail ticket in most countries. The exceptions to this rule on my route being Bulgaria and Greece where the equivalent to having someone change all your word documents into wingdings font (pencile airplane mail box..... open mail box) and you lose all ability to read. This made me reflect on my childhood lack or reading skills

I was an odd combination of a reluctant reader growing up. I had a high vocabulary but could not easily decode words. My brain could talk fast and form complex sentences at a young age. I was always included in adult conversations and helped my parents entertain their friends from a very young age. When you have been discussing what you saw on the news with your parents, as well as things like investing and insurance and then you are put in front of ”The fuzzy bunny book" you really have no interest in it. It always seemed like an awful lot of work to wreck your brain to figure out the words and then end up with something so below even what was average for your age level the experience was mind-numbing. Why would anyone go through all this effort when they can just speak to people over the phone or in person? The sad thing was I just wasn't at the right reading level for my age and the content seemed like way to much work for a whole lot of things that were geared at much younger people.

My parents were called in because of it in grade 4 I was much below the rest of my class and because I had so many good friends it was really no trouble to get into a group of people and figure out an assignment, the teacher always clearly explained what they wanted to I didn't really have to read it. It was not until grade six that I was actually forced to learn to read because it became more effort to not read then it was to start decoding things. At this point I had the Babysitters Club thrown at me and promptly threw it back everything about the books threw me off from the pastel color  covers to the prospect of reading about the daily social interactions of girls. I'm a girl I do girl things, why should I have to read about them? Then again this is coming from the weird kid who from a very young age told their parents that Inspector Gadget should be reported to child and family services if he was a real person because he always left Penny and Brain alone in the cartoon episodes.

The other option of the day was Goosebumps. The problem with Goosebumps is that I was an absolute wuss when it came to scary stories, but after coming to the realization that the books were really not all that scary, I managed to choke down the books at an insanely slow speed enough to learn to read. The thing that I think kept my morbid fascination with the books was being continually amazed at how stupidly unable the characters were at making decisions when it came to their own safety. Book One in the series I thought had a clever plot twist, and Monsterblood sold me which was volume 3, and kept me reading the books but alas even the monster blood sequels with in the series were never as good as book 3 there was just something about the lack of control the character had over the events in Monsterblood that them seem less stupid and two dimensional then most of the character in the Goosebumps series.

I liked reading series books more for the collection aspect of things, after I finished a book I got to add it to my collection. I always had a pack rat personality when I was a kid and in the end it was that, that kept me reading to add to my collection. My reading level improved but my speed did not. I've always been “built for comfort and not speed”. I hated reading in class because everyone would flip the pages faster than me and I found it distracting and irksome. It was about this time I came across a book in my basement that I had bought at a 3rd grade book sale Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Colville. I almost didn't read it because it seemed way to "girlie" a big white unicorn on the front walking through a dark silver forest. I was afraid it would turn out to be a romance novel *gasp and horror* I avoided reading any kind of romance book until I was about 18 and am still loath to admit that I do enjoy a good/bad romance. It's just not good for a grade 6 tom boy image you know?

Well I was madly interested in animals at the time and being that the back of the book seemed to have no visible love interest I could always have read it and then if ever questioned by the imaginary image police I could claim I had no way of knowing it was a love story if it turned out to be one. After reading that book I wanted to read. I had a love for fantasy adventure books, reading became a love, joy, and past time. By the time I hit grade 7 my reading speed was only slightly slower than average and my ability to read and deal with vocabulary slighting higher than my classmates.  One summer made all the difference. I had quickly realized that larger books were vastly more interesting and was willing to put in the time to get them read. Over the summer I could read as slow as I wanted and I didn't have to compare myself with anyone.

At the age of 16 I discovered that comic books were not just men running around in tights and had a renewed reading addiction (and I do say addiction being that some of my trips to the shop cost me over $300 ah the days where you had a job and didn’t pay rent).

 I think I will be able to relate to kids who don't want to read as a librarian. I've experienced some of the difficulties of reading myself.

1. Learning to read is hard.

2. People assume sometimes that because you don't read well you have a limited vocabulary and lack ability to understand plots.

3. Young reading material seems so stuck in pink and blue gender roles that it can be unappealing to people who are more green or purple or even orange. I still liked stuff about girls as a kid but was more interested in books where the female character excelled over her male counter parts or proved herself a valued equal rather than stories that just involved female oriented social interactions. I pretended to like green books which would be more geared at boys but contained love stories or aspects of plot a girl would like... but if the book did not have a central female character I usually lost interested in my reading at a young age. When I actually started reading in grade 6 I liked books with male lead characters.

Currently in class we have gone over reasons why kids are reluctant to read, and in general I think that more than one reason usually apply for any given reluctant reader. I would be interested in knowing what some of the best approaches are to helping reluctant readers? We talked a bit about the difficulty with boys being concidered more acive and having less selection, but what are some of the ways to help a reluctant reader move past the reluctance quickly? Giving them a choice is a good start but so many books to choose from can be a bit daunting. Knowing which type of reluctant reader you have is also a good step toward helping them but how do you assess what problems a kid is experiencing as a reader? In a school library you may have more chance to assess the child or ask a teacher but in a public library it seems like it would be a great challange to sort out what type of problems a kid may be experiencing. 

There is a book that sparks for everyone. It's like the first love of your life in a way and some of us have to go through more pages than others to find it. Hopefully I spent enough time with the pages that didn't spark to relate to someone who hasn't found their first book yet. Your real first book is the one you remember always. I couldn't tell you what the first book I ever read was and I only remember kids books that I thought were stupid but I do remember the first one I loved.  Hopefully having gone through more pages than most to find it, I can remember how hard it is to learn to read and help those who are reluctant in reading find what is right for them. The three challenges I listed are only some of the challenges young readers can face, but most of us do learn to read but the fastest way to learning to read, is loving to read… and yes I still read books about unicorns if only for the nostalgia of it.

2 Peas in a Podcast, Libraries and Podacsting

Personally I'm a podcast fan I listen to one weekly and enjoy them while I work, however I found myself a skeptic when it came to library podcasts. Why? Well because I hadn't really come across any good ones... when you think about it being an "entertainer" isn't necessarily something that has gone hand in hand with library staff. Sure there are library positions that require you to be a good public speaker but the essence of a podcast is essentially YOU without much other than your voice. The volume and tone of your voice and your ability to be personal are stretched to the max. You really are under a great deal of expectation when breaking into such an entertainment form as podcasting. Educational tutorials may have additional visual aids but for the most part you have very few tools other than your own wit to capture your audience and that is a lot to demand of anyone.

I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the podcasts suggested in our class material, but still found enough audio issues or poor projection of voices that I personally wouldn't have listened all the way through to a couple of them unless there had been some educational value to come out listening with.

If you don't have a natural "entertainer" on staff your ability to run a successful podcast for your library is slightly limited at the very least the host must be an above average public speaker to pull of even a dry educational tutorial.  The alternative is to have authors and storytellers make up the bulk of the broadcast... this however gives the podcast less of the consistent feel that tends to draw in users. The purpose of hosts on TV and Radio throughout history and into the present, reflects a constant, that the public often looks for in an entertainment program.

In regards to educational podcasts and tutorials. The value of having audio tutorial available on your site is defiantly there. However I'm not sure I would call these "podcasts" so much as online tutorials and  seminars. The difference being that podcasts kind of carry a "series" or "ongoing" implication by definition. Where online audio tutorials, or seminars refer more to stand alone events. The thing I caution with in audio tutorials or educational podcasts is that having a clear speaker is key, as the audience will not have text to refer back to. A podcast it lacks some level of audience interaction that a real life seminar or class would have. It gives people the luxury of listening any time they want but they must wait to have questions about the content answered. Live web meetings through software such as "gotomeeting" and"BlogTV" allow for live webcast events in real time, but that is a little outside the scope of "podcasting" however is a real time comparison.

I think a podcast project with the right personalities can be amazingly successful for  a library, but I think that the talent for that kind of an undertaking is lacking in the general population. While podcasts may be amazing tools the talent to run a successful one might be lacking in your organization. In which case I think you can do just as well with text based information. Many people have issues with public speaking and for some reason (those of you who know me know I don't shre that particular afflication, but I do note that many do) having a mic in your face seem to make those issues even worse. Podcasts are a difficult, more costly undertaking requiring equipment purchases and bandwidth, compared to many forms of free social media.

It is vital to weigh the needs and wants of your patrons, the skills of your staff and scope of your budget before undertaking the creation of the more advanced social media format of the podcast. While they can be valuable tools podcasts come with costs associated and are demanding in creation time. The end results in what they can do for providing information to your patrons and drawing interest is however, impressive.