Shannon: a Poem of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

From the inimitable Campbell McGrath comes an epic poem of george shannon, the youngest member of the lewis and clark expedition, who wandered the prairie alone for sixteen days.

The last of the Maha will fade from the earth Vanquished utterly by the Pawnee & after the Pawnee the Sioux may perish & eventually the Kentuckians and Ohioans &c--I doubt not but my countrymen Will populate in numbers these fulsome plains But what untold count Of years & men, of decades & centuries What numberless generations will it require Life by life & skeleton by skeleton To claim this land from the buffalo?

With "Shannon," a testament to both natural splendor and human courage, Campbell McGrath has created a thrilling narrative that rises from those vast, lonely spaces that continue to haunt the American consciousness.

-Publisher's marketing

A Great Place to Live

I remember my first library as a kid and it was by all intents and purposes the library you would conjure in your imagination.  It had all the props, leaded glass windows, gothic architecture, the faint smell of old wood mixed with yellowing paper, positioned on a quant little main street of a small town.  The one thing it did not have was the librarian of one's dreams.  Skip the physical aspect of their appearance, and let's focus on that perfect librarian, the lover of books, the mentor of readers.  I instead had the opposite experience which was the librarian of the desk and the stamps.  It's the librarian of my dreams that would have led me to the great books.  I stumbled into books and because of this it was only as an adult that I actually read "The Wind in the Willows" or other fine classics.  What could have been had I read those as a child?  So as a vendor and recommender of books, I particularly consider this as one of the most important parts of my job.  

I stumbled across this wonderful video that made me contemplate this life of mine that is so essentially built around books and the reading of them.  "A Great Place to Live" reminds me of that dream of a library, and

the art of fabrication, embellishment and piecing together of words that can result in a completely new world.  I hope you enjoy it too.  

On Writing

Checking out quotes today I found some interesting and fun thoughts from some seasoned writers:

“Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.”

Mark Twain

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”

Samuel Johnson

“I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten, - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.”

Brenda Ueland

For the love of Poetry

The Red Wheel Barrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel 

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens.

william carlos williams

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

Need a little twelve step action for an overactive obsession with Vampires?  Our last blog listed some great series to keep one sated if you're casting around for the next great vampire series to get literally buried into.  I just couldn't leave the topic without one more recommendation.   "The Reformed Vampire Support Group" by Catherine Jinks, makes no bones about it....being a vampire is a pain.  Nina, the main character and fanged at 15 attends a vampire support group where they all have a unique set of problem and need to be there.  Jinks takes all of the hoopla and lore of vampires and writes it as it would be in real life.  A 15 year old forever, doomed to live off blood but refusing to feed off humans or create another vampire, (guinea pigs watch out)...there are unusual solutions and problems unique to the 21st century teenager vampire living in the "real" world.  This is a book that propels you forward as delighted as you are to see such an over wrought subject matter portrayed as never before.  Now that's something to read.

Where Blood is Drawn

What to read... what to read..... a trend we are seeing with our school and library orders this year is the frequency and variety of Vampire Novels being produced for and consumed by our fledgling teens.  You won't find me complaining about it or worried there is some deep underside that spells doom for newest generation of readers, because I myself am a fan of the well written vampire book.   Fantasy seems to be what we need right now and as I read the list of new releases bearing down on us this spring I am most ready, excited and even a bit fearful of "The Strain".  Sounds practically too good to be true if you read all the promotional material.  Director Del Toro (of the Oscar winning "Pan's Labyrinth") makes a dramatic splash in his fiction debut, the first volume in a vampires vs. humanity trilogy, coauthored with Hogan of "Prince of Thieves".  Check out what he has to say about his life long passion with Vampires. The advance buzz has worked on me, and I've already got an order in for "The Strain"

My vampire reading buddy (a.k.a Julia) tells me there is an even better series out right now that all the "Twilight" fans may want to try called "The Vampire Academy". Four in the series so far and I've been selling it like hot-cakes to my libraries.  Marketed to the young adult crowd.  

If perhaps you want a more adult foray into the sexy vampire world, don't forget the Charlaine Harris "Southern Vampire" series featuring a really fun main character,  Sookie Stackhouse. They're really irreverent, in your face, sexy and fun.  Even if you like the HBO adaption of the novels "True Blood" which I happen to really like too, you will want to read them or you'll miss a lot of the story line.  

Mary's Complaint

While it is intriguing and "oh, so politically correct" to strive for a paperless society, a textbook free universe, a population that has shed itself of any possession that might weight one down, I propose that this "K" thing is just another thing, another gadget for consumers and really, in my own office and everyone else's office we have all proven that we can't go paperless because we don't want to! We want our lists, our printouts, our contact with information the way we want it and are most comfortable with. So the most intriguing aspect of "K" or "That Electronic Thing that Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World", doesn't really hold up, it too will fill our landfills, it too will always become dated as it already has with a newer bigger version.

So there, I've drawn my own personal line in the sand. Before anyone begins with a counter argument please note that I've done a little of my own self examination on this subject. I wonder if perhaps my protestations sound a bit like those stubborn writers who when introduced to the typewriter declared it as an interruption to the creative process, another hurdle interrupting the flow of words and crafting of story. Are we merely old codgers

embracing the past? Are we book trade skeptics just fearful of becoming obsolete parts of a dying industry?

I think it is enough and important to make an argument for the book, as I love the tactile feeling of the page, I yearn to read something that doesn't glow with that unnatural light. I want to connect with the universal experience that sitting quietly, head bent over page gives me. As I turn a page, I can connect with the past knowing not much has changed over this one

human experience. It is enough and okay to be fearful and despise "That Electronic Thing that Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World".

I rebel at yet another commercial entry into our fraying language. In this world of Post-its, Nike's, Coke's will Book be replaced by "That Electronic Thing That Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World?"

It wasn't that long ago that I had my first run-in with a T.E.T.T.A.H.F.O.T.B.L.W. owner. With sarcasm he quipped "Aren't you worried this will put you and everyone else out of business?". Well yes, frankly I was and still am. I take little comfort that this same person worked in the stock market and quickly corrected anyone discussing what was feeling at that time like an impending recession in our economy "this is a decline not a recession". Whether it is a depression, a recession or a decline it has been sustained bad news for this industry.  Today Simon and Schuster reported losses this first quarter of 2.1 million.  So I hope my stockbroker friend was wrong about "That Electronic Thing That Amazon has Forced on the Book Loving World". The greater point is do we discard our great industries? Do we take glee in any American industry's decline or fall in a competitive marketplace? Do we really want to lose the publishing diversity that our shrinking population of independent publishers offer us and every aspiring writer out there? Do we care about the survival of the bookstore, the printer, the bookseller and "the book"?

My line in the sand stands redrawn. In writing this I realize this gadget is a symptom of a

a greater problem and I will rectify my own tiny corner of the world with a vote of my purchasing dollar. If I choose to buy a book, I will choose to buy it from someone that loves books as I do. Amazon is a big dog corporation now which revels in it's size, does the alpha dog thingee with everyone in the industry and shows no conscience. They've spawned what could be the virtual dagger, slaying an industry that their own fortunes were built on.