Librarian by Trade, Nerd by Nature

kittydoom: It’s damn scary, is what it is.

Wed, 09 May 2012 00:00:25 -0500

kittydoom:

It’s damn scary, is what it is.

jyhslibrary: reading gives us a place to go when we have to...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:28:34 -0500

jyhslibrary:

reading gives us a place to go when we have to stay where we are

jyhslibrary: A reading time line - love the High School entry

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 03:00:48 -0500

jyhslibrary:

A reading time line - love the High School entry

Maureen Johnson: SO I READ A PIECE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 02:52:18 -0500

Maureen Johnson: SO I READ A PIECE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:

maureenjohnsonbooks:

… .so I read this piece in the New York Times about parents who publish their kids’ books. As an author and a person who likes the internet and new media things, this sort of thing interests me a lot. But I did get a strange, queasy feeling about it that I wanted to parse a bit. Let me say a…

imwithkanye: The Hunger Games, if directed by Roger Corman....

Fri, 23 Mar 2012 03:55:34 -0500

imwithkanye:

The Hunger Games, if directed by Roger Corman. [ew]

I watched Breaking Dawn: Part I with my friends last night and I...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:30:05 -0600

I watched Breaking Dawn: Part I with my friends last night and I decided to rename Edward and Bella’s beautiful baby demon Audrey 2.

If it was a boy, it would’ve been Edwob.

I wish it was a boy.

That still doesn’t change the fact that it’s made of pure evil, though. Just like its namesake, Audrey 2.

engelen: HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, COMMUNITY!! Why buy cards when...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:09:00 -0600

engelen:

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, COMMUNITY!!

Why buy cards when you can print these out?

Community love! Can’t wait until it comes back again!

librarianheygirl:

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:19:24 -0600

librarianheygirl:

kateordie: Storage Wars Comix 4! Barry 4 lyfe. OMG dead!...

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:15:36 -0600

kateordie:

Storage Wars Comix 4! Barry 4 lyfe.

OMG dead! Storage Wars is one of my biggest ~~obsessions~~ guilty pleasures, and Barry is by far my favorite because he acts pretty much exactly like he does in this comic.

iheartclassics: We couldn’t help ourselves! :)

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:04:29 -0600

iheartclassics:

We couldn’t help ourselves! :)

I was searching for some funny, sparkly Twilight pictures to...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 22:30:59 -0600

I was searching for some funny, sparkly Twilight pictures to pair with the copy of Twilight I’m giving away in this Christmas’ White Elephant exchange, and discovered this. It’s not family appropriate but it made me laugh more than it should have. :)

iheartclassics: Jane Austen’s Birthday Horoscope for December...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:48:08 -0600

iheartclassics:

Jane Austen’s Birthday Horoscope for December 16, 2011: Sagittarius
Your wit is on fire, Sagittarius, as you head into the holiday season! No Yule log needed. Your sense is overshadowed by your sensibility. Your prejudice is buried in your radiant pride. Today you can persuade anyone of anything, and you will try! But be careful not to outshine those who are important in your life: especially your family who will support you in anything. Return the favor (but maybe wait until your birthday is over!) and lend a little brilliance to someone else.

Happy birthday, Jane Austen!

jyhslibrary: Things that first appeared in Shakespeare that we...

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:41:50 -0600

jyhslibrary:

Things that first appeared in Shakespeare that we still say.

jyhslibrary: Books that make up a bench - what a clever idea.

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 19:17:29 -0600

jyhslibrary:

Books that make up a bench - what a clever idea.

Day 13 - Your Favorite Writer

Sun, 04 Dec 2011 16:41:43 -0600

Count me in as one of the millions with a literary boner for our Regency-era HBIC (that’s “head bitch in charge” for the uninformed), Jane Austen.

Flawless Queen

I read my first Austen - Pride and Prejudice - in high school for an independent project, on the recommendation of my teacher. She had me at “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. It was a match made in snarky girl heaven, and it helped reignite an interest in the classics. After reading Northanger Abbey on my own, I was stoked when one of my college syllabi paired the novel with Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (Jane does Gothic better, natch).

I’ve always felt kinship with her heroines, from the sharp but judgmental Elizabeth Bennet to the intellectual, kind of Spock-ish Ellinor Dashwood, and down to the flighty, bookish Catherine Morland. They’re not perfect, and they have realistic expectations (fully aware of their finances and social strictures) but don’t want to settle for anything less than they deserve. They grow and change before they reach their happiness. Even though these books were written a couple hundred years ago, I still feel like these ladies would fit right into society today (after the initial techno-culture shock, lol), which is a large part of what makes Austen’s work so resonant today. I just love the mixture of satire, drama, romance, and domesticity in her work, and I haven’t found an author that’s been able to match her.

Preach it! Kate is fabulous with a side of awesome sauce, and...

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 22:27:39 -0600

Preach it! Kate is fabulous with a side of awesome sauce, and the points she makes in her column apply to pretty much all popular media, not just comics.

kateordie:

My new column is up! In which I talk about the ‘if you don’t like it, don’t read it’ defense and the real-life consequences to sexualizing girls’ heroes.

I’m really proud of this one.

Day 12 - A Book You Used to Love But Don't Anymore

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:58:04 -0600

I don’t have a specific book, but the answer is unequivocally

ANYTHING EVER WRITTEN BY V.C. ANDREWS/HER GHOSTWRITER.

It’s my personal pet theory that V.C. Andrews is kind of like a gateway drug to adult literature for teen girls. They’re shelved in the grown-up section of the library, but the main characters are all down-on-their-luck young girls searching for love and acceptance in spite of their batshit insane families. They’re a mixture of wish fulfillment and terror wrapped up in incest subplots and punny titles. Young girls can relate to them because they feel oppressed/let down by an authority figure or two, and the romance is often relatively tame and quite sweet when it’s not between the main character and her brother/adopted brother/cousin. Huge caveat there. The girl gets her happily ever after but not without enduring massive tragedy, and it’s fun to read something so over-the-top and “adult”. I would even go as far as considering them the Twilight of their day. Just, y’know, with less sparkle and more attempted rape. The Logan series (beginning with Melody) were my favorite.

Unfortunately, Andrews’ ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman (she only wrote the Dollanganger books and half of the Casteel series before she died) recycled the same plot points a few times too many, and I quit after the Shooting Stars and Hudson series wrapped up because I already knew what happened. It looks like he’s moved away from the 5-book family sagas, so perhaps he’s mixing things up plot-wise too, but I can’t vouch for that. From the descriptions of some of the books, I don’t think he’s flown too far from the nest.

Honestly, these books are the epitome of “WTF”. They’re completely cracked out. After finding …in the Attic, a V.C. Andrews nostalgia/snark blog, a couple of years ago, I decided to read Petals in the Wind. It’s the most amazing book ever in a campy, so bad it’s good, Joan Crawford “Mommie Dearest” way, but when I was actually reading these, from ages 14-16, I definitely didn’t see it like that. I can’t in good conscience recommend V.C. Andrews to anyone unless they’re into that kind of ironic, schlock-loving sort of thing (I’m like the mayor of that place, so no judgments here). But yeah, I don’t like like them anymore, either. Cary Logan, you’re just no Fitzwilliam Darcy. I’ve moved on.

jyhslibrary: Nathan Fillion gets caught reading. You know the...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 02:20:53 -0600

jyhslibrary:

Nathan Fillion gets caught reading. You know the star of ‘Castle’, or ‘Dr.Horrible’s Sing Along Blog’ - seriously you don’t know who he is? Starred in cult classic Firefly…no?…nothing?… frankly you are just embarrassing yourself now… (ALA Store)

I want this one so badly, but it totally won’t make it past my office cubicle, thus defeating the purpose, lol.

barelysuppressedfirth: the cravat looks great, by the way....

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 01:21:22 -0600

barelysuppressedfirth:

the cravat looks great, by the way. subtly done.

Day 11 - A Book You Hated

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:33:01 -0500

Yeah, this one is easy. Very, very easy. I can point to a whole host of books I hate for all kinds of reasons. In fact, they’re cataloged quite neatly on my Goodreads account. I love reading, and since ANYONE literate can pick up a pen and write if they so desire, the number of stories out there that I can choose from is practically infinite. Because I have so many choices, and because there are so many good ideas out there in the ether, I have the opportunity to be picky. AND I AM.

What sets me off? Whiny characters; weak and wimpy protagonists; ZOMG perfect super special snowflake protagonists; endless descriptions of scenery (I swear to you, I don’t care at all what that mountain range looks like or that clearing or meadow or mill or anything); a lack of action; a lack of character growth; a lack of humor. Said list is not comprehensive, of course, but these are the biggest sticking points for sure, and my most hated stories all contain at least one or more of the aforementioned elements.

But really, there’s only one author whose works fill me with so much hatred that I basically quit literature. His name?

HERMAN MELVILLE

I mean it - I QUIT LITERATURE. As a high school junior in honors English, my greatest ambition was to be an English major in college. Books were pretty much my life, and I liked to discuss them. I finally began to see what my teachers saw in the classics after rejecting the canon in favor of stuff like Sweet Valley Twins and Fear Street. However, American Literature was beginning to break me. (In fact, there’s a whole period of American literary history that I like to pretend never happened. Basically, it’s the period after Hawthorne and Poe and the Romantics, and before John Steinbeck.) And Melville is the author who made me turn my back on the future I had mapped out for myself. Between Moby Dick and Bartleby the Scrivener, I lost all will to read “literature” again, and ended up becoming a science nerd. I refused to take another advanced English course and only rekindled a love of literature in college, when I unceremoniously discovered that biochemistry was a little bit of bio and a whole lot of chemistry. And then, in my senior year of college, Melville almost undid once again what it took nearly 5 years to build back up. That was when I quit reading pre-WWII American lit for good.