Beautiful Libraries

Flavorwire posted a list of the 25 Most Beautiful Public Libraries. (See link below.) I love finding lists such as this, although I don't always agree with the choices. In this case, they definitely found some beautiful libraries. Some of them are so white or stark that they make my eyes hurt. (Stuttgart, Germany and Lisses, France) Others, however, seem so inviting that I want to go sit there and read. (Stockholm) In some of them, I can't seem to see any books -- though it may just be the angle from which the photo was shot. The Norway and Bangkok libraries intrigue me, and I don't understand the Villanueva, Colombia picture.

Isn't it wonderful that the world values books and knowledge so much that they build these magnificent structures?

How about you? Which of these buildings appeals to you? Do you know a library that you would add to this list?

25 Most Beautiful Public Libraries

Do we need violence ratings for books?

I just finished Mockingjay, the last book in the Hunger Games series. While I really enjoyed the whole series, I've got to say the violence in the final book got to be a bit much for me. Lately, my tolerance level for violence in books, movies and TV shows has become really low. I quit watching Hawaii Five-0 several episodes ago after refusing to sit through a lengthy torture scene. Same thing with NCIS: Los Angeles. I just don't have the stomach for it anymore -- if I ever did.

But what about books? For me, books are actually more affecting than movies or TV. For some reason, scenes from a book or story can really stick with me. One particularly disturbing scene I read in an Ellery Queen magazine over 40 years ago can still haunt me. I wish I had never read it, and that's the problem. Once you've read something it's there in your mind, like it or not.

My book discussion group buddies are well aware of my squeamishness about graphic violence. But it's not always easy to determine just which books I'll be unable to face. Last year, one of our choices was Little Bee by Chris Cleave. Initially, I loved Little Bee's voice and the story looked promising. But when we got to the beach scene in Africa, I just couldn't go there. I knew it was going to be really bad -- and my friends confirmed that it was. So I skipped the rest of the book. Another book that I found really disturbing, but that the whole world seemed to love, was The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I only got part way into the book and realized I couldn't read it. My friend convinced me to skip a little ahead and try again. Unfortunately, that took me to the scene in the stadium -- those of you who have read it will probably recall the scene. Nope, not gonna finish that one.

When friends heard I was reading The Hunger Games, they were surprised. They thought it might be too violent for me. But I actually enjoyed the first two books. In the last book, the body count went up too much, not to mention the cruelty factor. Another book that should have disturbed me greatly but didn't was The Bone People by Keri Hulme, the 1985 Booker Prize winner. The story deals with child abuse, but the book is about so much more than that. I'm not sure, though, why I was able to read this book and not others. I think that the cruelty factor plays a big part.

What about you? Do you have a violence tolerance level? Would you like to have violence ratings on books, like we have for movies?

Free books

So, what to do with all those books you read and enjoyed but don't have room to keep? You could donate them to your local library or the Goodwill. You could haul a box down to your sister's house and leave them on her doorstep. You could even take them to your next book club meeting and share them with your fellow bookies. Or, you could install a Little Free Library in your front yard and share them with community -- not only a great way to pay it forward, but also a good way to meet your neighbors.

Book Lovers Heaven

If you’re like me, your family tries to steer you away from bookstores whenever possible. They know once you cross the threshold, you’ll be lost to them for at least an hour. I thought about that yesterday, when my sister mentioned a village in Wales that is literally filled with bookstores. So I researched it and learned that, indeed, the village of Hay-on-Wye, located on the Welsh side of the Welsh/English Border in the County of POWYS, Wales, has at least 30 bookstores. (Heaven!!) New books, old books, rare books, bear books. You name it; they’ve got it. This village is definitely going on my bucket list. 

                                                                  Hay-on-Wye

The courage of authors

Those of us who read (and review) books sometimes lose sight of the fact that a real person has spent time and emotion to put that story into words. And those of us who edit books can sometimes be even more oblivious, even insensitive, to the reality of an author’s efforts.

I thought about that this week when a fellow member of the EFA (Editorial Freelancers Association) posted a link to a letter John Steinbeck wrote upon completing “East of Eden,” one of my favorite novels. 

A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.

Well—then the book is done. It has no virtue any more. The writer wants to cry out—"Bring it back! Let me rewrite it or better—Let me burn it. Don't let it out in the unfriendly cold in that condition."

Steinbeck letter

Thank goodness for brave souls such as Steinbeck, who, after laboring for months or years to tell a story, have the courage to put that story into the hands of an editor and eventually out to the public.

You’re reading what?

My name is Vicki, and I am a reading snob. (Recovering) I wasn’t always snobbish about what I read. As a young person, I eagerly devoured books that ranged from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan stories to the westerns of Louis L’Amour, from Victoria Holt’s gothic romances to Ayn Rand’s paeans to “objectivism,” and of course mysteries of all types. So what changed?

Well, my years as an English/American Lit major certainly introduced me to what academia considered “quality” fiction. But that didn’t really sway me, I don’t think. Because the truth is, I find many books considered classics downright boring. No, I think what happened was that over many years of reading a wide range of books and authors, I came to appreciate good writing. I learned to recognize formulaic plots and clichéd writing devices. The more poorly written novels just couldn’t hold my attention anymore.

I then fell into a trap, however, assuming that just because a writer wrote in a certain genre (romance) or a book cover carried a certain style of illustration (Fabio), it must be poorly written. How wrong I was.

Two things made me realize the error of my ways: First, I was discussing books with a woman I met at a party. I mentioned that I really liked Tony Hillerman’s books. He wrote mysteries set in the American Southwest and his main characters are Navajo Tribal Policemen, Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, two of the most fully drawn characters I’ve ever encountered in any book. I want to have these guys over to my house for dinner.

Anyway, this woman responded, with a noticeable sniff: “I prefer Barbara Kingsolver’s writing. Hillerman writes at a fourth- or fifth-grade level.” I hadn’t read Kingsolver at the time, but felt somewhat slapped in the face by this comment. (I went on to read several of Kingsolver’s books, and she has become a favorite author of mine.)

The second wakeup call came from a website I frequent called Readers Paradise – a place for people who love to read and discuss books. Posters there read books of every type and category: fiction, non-fiction, romance, mystery, memoir, and more. And everyone is welcome. Several people kept mentioning that they liked reading Georgette Heyer. I researched Heyer, and learned that she is considered “the undisputed queen of Regency Romances.” I confess I didn’t know what that meant. But looking at the covers of her books, I was somewhat put off.

This just didn’t look like something I would read…so I didn’t. But I kept seeing her name mentioned with such fondness that I finally picked up one of her books, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have since read several others and plan to read more.

I never want to be that sniffy woman. I want to always stay open to new authors and new stories, because without that openness, I might miss out on something truly astounding.