91-year-old Scotswoman Louise Brown will soon borrow her 25,000th library book. She’s checked out 6 or more per week since 1946 with nary an overdue fee.

I, sadly, probably won’t ever be this lady, because nearby libraries rarely stock what I want to read and I have to buy most of my books. Still–something to aspire to!

Tags: library books, Scotland

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I won Tongue in LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers giveaway, and so I review it:

Tongue is the story of K, a fine-dining chef, learning to live alone after finding her husband, architect Han Seok-jo, cheating on her with her cooking-class student and former model Se-yeon. It is full of the pain that such a betrayal can bring. K’s loneliness is palpable, expressed mainly in the loss of her sense of taste–the first sense to go in those who have lost the will to live, she points out, and a dangerous condition for a professional chef. It is difficult to watch her long for Seok-jo (who is completely in love with Se-yeon, to the point that he builds her his dream house and helps her start a cooking class of her own), to cling to him through their dog (which Se-yeon wouldn’t let him bring into their home), to dream about how to bring him back to her.

There are many books and movies whose cover blurbs and promos tout a surprising twist ending. Few of these deliver; often the surprise is not all that surprising. In Tongue, the surprise smacks you in the face and leaves you gasping. Kyung-Ran Jo’s writing has been compared to that of Haruki Murakami, and I can see that, but the calm gruesomeness of the twist ending is more like Yukio Mishima.

All in all, it is an excellent novel that will resonate with anyone who has been betrayed by a loved one and dreamed of both redemption and revenge.

Tags: Korea, Kyung-Ran Jo

Plotz does in this book exactly what the title says: he read the whole Bible (something that most Christians and Jews report never having done) and records his thoughts about each chapter. With caveats: The Bible he reads is the Jewish Bible, which ends at 2 Chronicles. He says he’ll leave the New Testament to a non-Jew, but I would love to see a sequel or a revised edition that includes his impressions of the NT.

Plotz finds and is comforted by the moments of beauty in the Bible, but he is horrified at God’s punishment of the people who are most faithful to him, the encouraged murder of innocents, and the surprise endings to the most famous Bible stories–where most of the stories end and the indiscriminate killing begins. He seems to gloss over some of it–there are some horrid verses in Deuteronomy 22 about punishing rape victims that he does not address–but he touches on some of the big stories, like the rapes of Dinah and Tamar, and the mauling of the children by the bears.

This is a great book for Christians and Jews who do not understand how people can be offended by the very substance of their religions, or how one could possibly leave the faith if they “truly knew” God. The way most people read the Bible is not the way they would read any other book; they open the Bible to a particular chapter or to a random page and read until they feel better. When one reads it as they would read anything else, from cover to cover, one learns a lot, and is often disappointed and even “brokenhearted,” as Plotz is, at the brutality and fickleness of God and his people.

Tags: agnosticism, Christianity, Daniel Plotz, Judaism

rating: 4 of 5 stars
FASCINATING. Don’t Sleep just about successfully bridges the gap between professional ethnography and popular autobiography.

Everett was a linguist with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an evangelical organization which sends linguist-missionaries to learn the languages of various cultures so that they may translate the New Testament for them and thereby save their souls. He went to the Pirahã with this goal in mind, accompanied by his wife and three children.

Interspersed with his stories of learning to live with this radically different culture is extensive information on their unique language and a hilarious (to me, a linguistics dork) intellectual sparring with Chomsky’s theories of universal grammar.

Don’t Sleep is being pimped around the atheist blogosphere as a book about a missionary who is deconverted by his subjects. And yes, that happens, but it is contained in the epilogue, and the book is by no means about that experience. That part is a little infuriating to read, though–Everett went through hell on earth trying to get help for his wife and one of his daughters when they were very ill with malaria, yet when he came clean about no longer believing in a god, she left him. (Kiiiiinda wanna scratch her face for that, lol.) Seems to me that dragging a feverish and delusional person all over Brazil for a week trying to save her LIFE would be proof enough of a morality that doesn’t necessarily come from religion, but whatever. The point is, not much is made in the book proper of the deconversion. More important is the clash of Everett’s Western, Christian culture and the Pirahã culture–he cannot convert them to a belief in a god they cannot see, as they generally aren’t concerned about anything not in their direct experience. In fact, we do not know of a single Pirahã conversion. They just can’t be arsed.

So: if you’re interested in language, the cultures of the Amazon basin, religion and irreligion, or the lives of ethnographers, this is a good one.

Tags: atheism, Christianity, Daniel Everett, ethnography, irreligion, linguistics

On my several visits to your fine store, I have noticed that you carry a great deal of GLBTQI material on your shelves. Bravo, say I! Good job. I’m glad that whoever is doing your purchasing is paying attention to these important issues.

Two things, though.

1) If you wanted a single shelf on which to display all GLBTQI material, why not simply set up a GLBTQI shelf? Why have you crammed it all onto the Social Sciences shelf? I mean, I understand that some social scientists do study these issues, and I am totally for having those materials on a Social Sciences shelf. But today I saw a gay romance novel on that shelf. I suppose you could make the case for having romance novels on a social sciences shelf, but it seems a bit of a stretch to me. 

2) Could you maybe have some other items on the Social Sciences shelf too? I mean, you have a big, beautiful biography of Malinowski stashed over there in the bargain book bin! That thar be social science. Or, how about some sociology and anthropology primers? Steven Pinker’s language books might do well there (instead of the Religion shelf [?]). My point is, social scientists do study things besides GLBTQI issues. I’d like to find some of those issues represented on my shelf, is all. I shouldn’t have to go to “Current Events” to find something vaguely anthropological.

Again, I applaud your commitment to providing reading material on these important issues.

Much love (except for your outrageous prices),

ME

P.S. I promise, as soon as I save up enough gold doubloons, I will come buy that Malinowski bio.

P.P.S. You need to stock more thesis paper. 

P.P.P.S. Really, dude, these prices. WTF?!

1) What author do you own the most books by?
Stephen King

2) What book do you own the most copies of?
I don’t do concurrent copies, but I have read The Stand to rags and re-purchased it

3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
meh

4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
Frodo ::swoon:: And maybe Sam Vimes

5) What book have you read the most times in your life?
The Stand. I reread it once every couple of years. IT is probably a close second.

6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
I’ve no idea

7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I don’t think I’ve read any bad books, but I’ve gotten some that I just couldn’t get into at the time…Guns, Germs, and Steel and The Extraordinary Madness of Crowds for example

What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Letter to a Christian Nation

9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I’m not tagging anybody, but I’d make everyone read Letter to a Christian Nation and maybe The Age of American Unreason and The Shock Doctrine

10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for literature?
Someone who can write, obviously…Just give them all to Toni Morrison and save time

11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
I would love to see someone with sense make a Discworld movie. WITH SENSE.

12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
Any of Stephen King’s books that haven’t been movie-fied yet. They just ruin them. Lay off!

13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I don’t recall ever having dreamed about any of those things, except maybe IT, and that was more pants-wetting scary than weird…

14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
Depends on your definition…If you think Stephen King is lowbrow, then most of those

15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
Several works of Japanese and Chinese literature fit into this category. Gerald’s Game definitely fits.

16) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
Bleak and depressing Russians FTW.

18) Roth or Updike?
Never read ‘em

19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
Sedaris seems more trendy, so I’ll go for Eggers

20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Chaucer/Shakespeare

21) J. Austen or G. Eliot?
MEH

22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
I have read embarrassingly little “classic” “literature.” Stuff like War and Peace, Middlemarch, and so on. (It’s the authors’ fault for including few or no dragons in their books!)

23) What is your favorite novel?
LOTR, of course

24) Play?
I don’t really do plays…

27) Short story?
“The End of the Whole Mess” by (yes, again) Stephen King

28) Work of nonfiction?
The Shock Doctrine and Letter to a Christian Nation, at present

29) Who is your favorite writer?
Right now? Chuck Palahniuk.

30) Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
Ugh, Stephanie Meyer and those dudes who wrote Left Behind. And J. K. Rowling.

31) What is your desert island book?
Someone once asked G.K. Chesterton what book he’d most like to have on a desert island. He answered, “Thomas’s Guide to Practical Shipbuilding.”

32) What are you reading right now?
Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

34) If you knew you would have the chance to read (n.b.: not REread) just one more book/play before you die, what would it be, and why is that?
LOTR – I wouldn’t mind my final moments to be spent traveling to the West

Tags: meme

Well, I didn’t have to run around so much today because all the sessions were in the same room, so I got to actually see the sessions.

Ashley Bryan started us off with a rousing communal poetry recital. His enthusiasm makes you just about want to jump up out of your chair. At all other times he seems to be a very mild-mannered gentleman, but put some Langston Hughes in his hand and he is jumping around, grinning, declaiming poems loudly and proudly. Every child in America should hear him.

Then we heard some stories from storyteller Diane Williams. Her beautiful speaking and singing voice brings every story to life.

Pat Scales provided us with a bibliography of children’s books set in, told about, or written by authors from the South.

Then, of course, it was Judy Blume’s turn. Her heartfelt speech had an entire auditorium wailing. I sobbed like a child!

After book signing, storyteller Yuyi Morales opened up her bolsa de sorpresas (hope I spelled that correctly…I speak Japanese, not Spanish) and brought out Señor Calavera and remembrances of Coleen Salley.

Now my favorite part: My signed books!

Louise Borden’s true story of the Reys:

Yuyi drew gorgeous little illustrations in the books she signed!

She signed it in silver ink on the deep purple-blue background….preeeeetty.

And here’s her counting book–she drew Señor Calavera in it!

And here are the Judy Blume books!

Tomorrow I probably won’t have time to see many sessions, as I will be running around from faulty laptop to faulty laptop. Thank goodness for blister cushions!

Tags: Ashley Bryan, Diane Williams, Judy Blume, Louise Borden, Pat Scales, storytelling, Yuyi Morales

So I’m here in my official capacity as Lugger-Arounder and Makey-Worker of Laptops and Other Electronic Equipment at the Fay B. Kaigler Children’s Book Festival. I didn’t get to sit in on many of the sessions, but I did get to meet the presenters and authors. There was one very interesting session on “hush harbors,” places out in the woods where slaves would go worship in their own way, done by Freddi Evans. I did sit in on that one, largely because I needed to help with the technology.

SPEAKING OF WHICH. O my every god. The computers the USM tech people loaned out to us should not even exist. They didn’t bother to clean them, so they were dusty and smudgy; at least one is completely out of commission because it is acting very strangely; they don’t appear to have the capacity to play sound, although I know that they must. They are slooooooow and their touchpads are way too responsive, so you end up opening five or six windows trying to open just one, which slows them down even more. They are stocked with Office 2003, when most of the presenters are using 2007. It’s really frustrating for me, and even more so for the presenters. Poor Ms. Evans couldn’t get most of her material to work, and the lack of sound was really bad for her because her presentation mostly involved song and dance. The out-of-commission computer decided to completely lose its mind right in the middle of a big presentation later on, and we had to swap computers entirely.

BUT ANYWAY. I got some books signed, pictures of which I will post…now.

Here’s a book a former professor (and director of the Festival) wrote. She seemed surprised to find that she now has a fangirl. (Fractured faerietales are my FAVORITE THINGS.)

She got all smart-alecky signing it.

Here’s a collection of African folktales by Ashley Bryan.

A spooky offering from Arthur Yorinks…

A sweet poem by Eloise Greenfield, illustrated and signed by Jan Spivey Gilchrist.

Finally, another Ashley Bryan; this time, a colorful celebration of Satchmo.

More tomorrow! (Say a prayer to whatever gods govern technology that these abysmal laptops will cooperate.)

Tags: Arthur Yorinks, Ashley Bryan, Catharine Bomhold, Eloise Greenfield, fractured faerietales, Freddi Williams Evans, Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Very interesting book about the Gnostic gospel of Judas. I was a bit disappointed that Ehrman wrote about the text, but didn’t reproduce any of it. But I learned a lot about the myriad ways Judas is viewed by many gospel authors, and about Gnostic Christianity.

The gospel of Judas is a gospel written about, not by, Judas, and portrays him as the only disciple that really “gets it”–in order to regain his heavenly home, Jesus must shed his mortal skin. He tells Judas that he will be the greatest of all disciples because he will help Jesus discard “the man that clothes him”. By “betraying” Jesus, then, Judas is just doing what he’s supposed to.

I don’t really get why Judas has gotten so much heat. If God planned to send his son to die, why beat Judas up for doing what was in the plan? (Not to mention, why make him an archetype for eeeeevil Jews?) Scapegoats are fun, I guess. It seems to be a common theme among so many Christians that they don’t trust their God to know his own business and make his own judgments.

Anyhoo, interesting stuff here for students of religions and especially Christianity of course. As for me, I always love a good retelling of an old story.

Tags: Bart Ehrman, Christianity, religion

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book really should have been two books. For half the book Taibbi is investigating how Congress really works (a topic that he reports on quite well and makes understandable, but that really could fill hundreds of pages on its own). For most of the rest of it, he’s in deep cover at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, exposing the craziness of the people who appear to have taken over government and public discourse. I would have loved to have seen more of this as well, and maybe he could supplement it with undercover stints at Saddleback or New Life. I enjoyed his style and his passion, but I think the squashed-togetherness of this book might have deranged me a little. Even a two-part series would have worked better.

Tags: irreligion, Matt Taibbi, politics