How To Recommend Books: A Guide for Patrons, by a Library Page

Hello, library patron!

So, you want to recommend books to your local librarian/library page. Great! Library workers, as a general rule, like books, and are always on the lookout for new authors they might enjoy. But, you're having some trouble finding the right way to recommend that great author whom you love so much. You don't want to offend them, and you don't want to bore them. Here is a handy-dandy guide, written by a genuine library worker, employing examples from her four years of library service.

Here are some successful approaches:

1. The direct approach. "You should read Agatha Christie." A bit blunt, but effective. Keep in mind, this should be said in a nice tone of voice, since it could sound sort of rude.

2. The Why-You-Like-An-Author approach. "Have you read anything by Janet Evanovich? You should, she's really funny. She always makes me laugh out loud." Also direct, but with a bit more background.

3. The I-Just-Really-Like-This-Book Approach. "I thought that The Time Traveler's Wife was really good. You should read it." This works.

4. The mutual interest approach. "You like Patrick O'Brian? If you like military history of that period, you should read Bernard Cornwell- he wrote a series of books about the army during the Napoleonic Wars." This is my favorite approach, but it does require some knowledge about your librarian's interests.

5. The Same-Author Approach. "If you liked Dawn's Early Light and Yankee Stranger, you should read Queen's Folly. I like Elswyth Thane." If you know that they like an author, this is always a good plan. Even if they have already read the book, it can lead to fun conversations.

6. The Sequel-By-Another-Author Approach. "You like Sherlock Holmes? Have you read Laurie R. King? She wrote some sequels about him and his apprentice, Mary Russell." If it's a good sequel, this is great. (And in the case of Sherlock Holmes, he of the many pastiches, they might well have something to reccomend back. For example, The Case of Emily V.) (This is also true for sequels of Pride and Prejudice, though many librarians are highly opinionated about these.)

7. The Genre Approach. "You like historical fiction? Try reading Rosemary Sutcliffe, she's a good author." Also effective.

8. The Parroting-Popular-Opinion Approach. "You should read Twilight. Everyone says it's great." It's not the best approach, but public opinion often is decent in regards to books. I mean, The Kite Runner was popular for a reason, right?

9. The What-The-Heck Approach. "I found this book for you in the stacks. Take it out and read it. You'll like it." This is not the best approach, but it will probably make your librarian friend laugh, and that is nice too.

And, two bad approaches.

1. The Offensive-Snobbery-For-No-Good-Reason Approach. "You should read Laurell K. Hamilton. If you don't, people will think you're illiterate." Gee, thanks, lady.

2. The WTF Approach. "I hated this book. I have no idea why my wife ordered it. You can read it if you want." Err, thanks?

Feel free to print out this hand guide to carry with you.

Fun Times at the Library

This post was going to consist of several funny letters to various patrons, dealing with subjects which I have been involved in the past week at the library, but then I realized that the letters were sort of mean and not something to post on the internet. I am still curious about why our recent shipment of rubber bands smelled like fish, I still believe that it is reasonable to expect some level of literacy in our patrons, and I still am curious about the large collection of lesbian erotica left in our book drop, but I am going to leave these questions in peace for right now.

Instead, I am going to comment, in a surprised but happy way, about the sudden popularity of the works of Evelyn Waugh. I would attribute this to the upcoming remake of Brideshead Revisited, which I am rather excited about, by the way, but for the fact that I've recently checked in (or out) copies of Vile Bodies, Decline and Fall, and Helena, as well as Brideshead Revisited. And those are just the ones that have passed through my hands. Is this a case of people hearing about a movie and deciding to read the entire oeuvre of the author? Has Evelyn Waugh been recommended by Oprah recently? Or has the reading public just developed good taste?

Countdown to Greece!

6 weeks, my friends. 6 weeks. I'm insanely excited.

I'm also getting insanely apprehensive- I think the fact that I'm packing up and going to a foreign country for four months is finally setting in- but for the most part very excited. Preparations are continuing.

Anyways, that's actually about all for now- life has been pretty busy actually, and I've been having more than my share of computer issues in the past few weeks, and I've been working a lot. I hope everyone is well.

Crazy Classicists at the Olympics!

I have decided that I would like the Olympics a whole lot more if they were still run by a bunch of vaguely incompetent classicists with little to no athletic training and a knowledge of their sport derived entirely from reading the ancient accounts and looking at vase paintings. And then getting it wrong. And if the American team was still made of plucky underdogs, who made the team mostly because they were willing to go to Athens for a couple of weeks.

You might wonder how I came to this conclusion. It came from watching a very amazing movie. If ever you are looking for an exceedingly pleasant way to spend approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes, my suggestion would be to watch The First Olympics- Athens 1896. My mother found this fabulous movie at the library the other day, and my family has just finished watching it. It is wonderful. Also, it is very informative, since I think that the broad picture that it paints is more or less accurate, even if the details have been changed slightly for dramatic effect.

And what I learned was that the Athens 1896 American Olympic Team was really cool. They didn't have much of an idea of what they were doing, apparently- they were fine with shooting and running, but in terms of track and field events, I think they were pretty much making it up. And they made it up with classics. Apparently they didn't have a discus, so they found a picture of one on a vase and brought it to their local blacksmith, who made them a discus of iron which weighed 30 pounds or something. But, from this somewhat shaky beginning, they went to Athens and actually did really, really well. (And won the discus event. Sweet.) And, the next year, they ran the first Boston Marathon, because they ran a marathon in Athens and thought the symbolism was cool.

Anyways, this actually was a pretty good movie, which I enjoyed immensely. I'm quite serious. The acting was uneven, and the film was unabashedly sentimental and pro-American, but it was uplifting and pleasant and a nice mixture of funny and interesting. And it's not that I don't like the Olympics of the present day- I like the winter Olympics if only because it's one of the only chances one gets to watch curling on television- but I think they were sort of cooler when they weren't so regulated and high tech. And the people wore doofy shorts and shoes that looked like jazz shoes.

On the question of marathons, I am now extremely confused. Because in Herodotus, it seems pretty clear that Phidippides was an Athenian who ran to Sparta in two days, and saw Pan while he was running through the mountains, etc. But the movie pretty specifically said that he was the guy who ran from Marathon to Athens after the battle of Marathon, and died after announcing his message with a smile on his lips, etc. So what is going on? Specifically, where does this second story come from? I have to do some research.

I Would Stop Posting Pictures of the Animals...

...if they stopped being so darn adorable.

In Which Al Has Found A Cave

Bertie is combining his love of sitting in enclosed spaces with his love of sitting on the table and his love of looking sort of vacant. Isn't he such a sweety?

In Which Gabby, Our Fearless Defender, Warns Us About A Very Evil Log.

You can see the evilness from here.

I Have A Sister!

My younger sister came home from Germany yesterday! Yay! This is very exciting, since she left shortly after I came home from school and has been in Germany for nearly a month now. (She's been on an exchange program, like the one that I did in high school. Only I was in France, not Germany.) It is very nice. Gabby has her entire flock back, we once again fill up the car when we go places, and the table needs to be set with five place settings, not four. The animals are also celebrating. The home is full. It is very exciting.

Also, I need to share a gift that Kate got me while in Germany. It is a very cool poster. (Kate is clearly an intelligent young lady, and noticed my interest in classics. She's very observant.) Specifically, it's a whole bunch of the Greek gods from an altar, and I'm going to hang it up in my room as soon as I remember to bring up tape. Which will hopefully be soon. She got it at the Pergamon, which is a museum that I would dearly like to go to, and I would be jealous, but for the fact that I am going to Greece next semester, so I will get to see a lot of very cool museums. Kate also got a cool bag from a planetarium, which says "do not fill with hot stardust," but in German. Very exciting.

On an exciting Greece front, I have my first euros for Greece! Specifically, Kate came home with 26 euros and I traded American money for them. They're pretty nifty. Ha ha! I will get to Greece and have bills that are not in awkwardly large denominations!

And, in an even more exciting bit of news, I have realized that I will be in Greece in less than two months! Yay!

I hope everyone is having a lovely day.

In Which Caroline Reads and Various Cats Help

Note: this is what happened when I tried to read in my room this morning.
Why yes, that is Pink sitting behind my computer, threatening to knock things over if I don't pay attention to him right now.
And yes, that is Mr. George, lurking under my desk, also threatening mayhem if I do not pay attention to him in the immediate future.




Essentially, reading in the house of Mahoney can be a difficult task, especially when you are in my room, which is the lair of multiple animals and also a battleground when they are feeling cranky. Which they often are.

While on the subject of cats, today my mom found a book at the library by the name of Kitty Knitting. It has a large number of cat-themed knitting projects in it, which are all very tempting. (Well, not all. But some of them are.) When I have finished with the cape of doom, I think we know what my plans are.

Crazy Thunderstorms of Doom!

It has been a great few weeks for thunderstorms.
The one today went as such. It was a lovely day, and I was up in my room. Then, it started. First, it went really still. And then it went really dark. And then, the heavens opened up and suddenly it was very loud and very windy and very wet. The thunder was terrible- and happening at just the same time as the lightning. Water was pouring in the windows and doors, and when you looked outside all you could see were sheets and sheets of it. The trees you could see were blowing totally sideways in the wind. Gabby was having a spaz attack in the laundry room. There were sirens somewhere off in the distance.
And then it stopped. And now it is sunny.
I hope everyone is having a lovely day!

Edit: Apparently, Cabot Street was knee-deep in water, which in all my years of working at the library I have never seen before. Dane Street? Sure, it floods every time there's a bit of a drizzle. But Cabot? Clearly, this weather is crazy.

Library Etiquette and Bookery

I would just like to say, for the record, that regular rules of etiquette still apply while you are in a library. If a librarian (or page) is helping another patron, this is not a good time to ask them questions and demand that they help you now. If you are waiting in line, it is not appropriate to cut in front of other people. If a librarian tells you that they're really sorry, but they can't renew your book, because you've renewed it too many times already and there are holds on it, it is appropriate to give the books up with grace, or keep the book and pay the fines like a man. (And this wasn't even a book they needed for research- it was a novel.) Seriously. You would think they were raised in a barn.

Thankfully, most of the time libraries are happy lovely places filled with books, which I generally really like. And, thankfully, my summer reading program has been going quite well. The book that I am currently reading is called Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: A Study in Survivals by John Lawson. It's sort of slow going, but very interesting, since he looks at a lot of beliefs in Greek villages and tries to connect them to ancient religion. It was written sometime in the early 1900s, and sometimes this is very obvious- I have a feeling that the observation, "The ordinary Greek of the mainland... is usually of a mongrel and unattractive appearance; and in view of the marked difference of the type in regions untouched by the Slavs, I cannot but impute his lack of beauty to his largely Slavonic ancestry" (27) would probably not make it into an academic work today.

For the mathematically minded among you, (or for anyone who thinks math is even vaguely interesting) I would reccomend Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture by Apostolos Doxiadis. It's a novel about two obsessions, a boy's obsession with the past of his mysterious uncle, and the uncle's obsession with number theory and, in particular, Goldbach's conjecture. It's a short little book- I started it yesterday after dinner, and had it finished by the time I went to bed, with time in there to watch the Colbert Report. It's also sort of light on plot and characterization- the math takes a much more central place than any of the characters other than the boy and Uncle Petros. But it's a really interesting portrait of mathematics and genius and obsession and failure. I think that this book is probably better if you understand the math involved, but I've taken Calc 1 and some basic number theory and never felt lost.

Interesting Facts for the Interested

Fact the First: Since I have started my summer reading program, I have encountered the word "autochthonous" 3 times. This would not be so shocking, except for the fact that before this week, I have run into the word autochthonous a grand total of one time. Ever. And that was in Ancient Greek class, when we were talking about English words of Greek origin. (For those of you who know Ancient Greek or were involved in this discussion, you might be less than surprised to know that the words "heterochthonous" and "allochthonous" also exist- and yes, they mean what you think they mean.) Maybe when writers are writing about Greece, they feel the need to use a word of Greek origin, instead of the more common, but Latinate, word "indigenous"? Maybe they just like cool words? (I like cool words.) Maybe they think that the letter combination "chth" looks really cool on paper? (It does. It really, really does.) This is a mystery.

Fact the Second: The yo-yo, it seems, originated in Ancient Greece about 3,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest toys.

Fact the Third: Another very old item still around today is, in fact, hummus. This appears to have had its origins in the ancient Near East, though we don't seem to know much about this. I made hummus this morning, and it is very good. I am proud of my homemade hummus, especially since I really only vaguely followed the recipe. (Where by "vaguely" I mean "not at all".) My feeling is, the Ancient Greeks didn't have recipes, so why should I?

The Cape, Part 3

The cape progresses! Note the second turquoise row at the top and the red and orange row, as well as the beginning of the big band repeat. Also note my crummy photgraphy skills, the part of my roof you can see, and the shadow from my window towards the bottom of the picture. I am extremely talented, guys, I tell you.

Since this is the obligatory knitting/soccer post, I feel I must mention that the last two semifinal games, Netherlands-Russia today and Croatia-Turkey yesterday, were very exciting. Dear good Lord, Turkey manages to pull off the most amazing last minute wins.

Otherwise, things are going well. I am continuing on with my summer reading plan, and am currently wading through Dinner With Persephone, by Patricia Storace. I have extremely mixed feelings about the book so far (I'm probably 2/3 of the way through). The prose is really nice, which is pretty much why I have kept reading it, and she does share some interesting bits of history that I didn't know before. Also, it's really interesting to read about a non-Greek living in Athens, since, oddly, I have an interest in this topic. Unfortunately, I think there are some things that she isn't handling as well as one might hope. I feel like she spent a year in Athens and now assumes she understands the Greek psyche, which I think (and the amazon.com reviewers agree) is probably not really a good assumption. Seriously, I think the Greek psyche is most likely very complicated. She also is very interested in dream interpretation (not my thing), and spends a lot of time with introspective ramblings, which I am not interested in. Seriously, how did a man's amulet to ward off the evil eye lead to a philosophical observation that murderers are afraid of the people they murder? I hope that the next book on my list is better.

However, I still love Cavafy. Just thought you ought to know.

Tahini Quest

The scene: A grocery store, 9 am on a Friday morning. Caroline approaches an employee of the store.

Caroline: Excuse me, sir, do you know where the tahini is in this store?

Employee: The what?

C: Tahini. Also known as tahinia. Or possibly tahina. It's a ground sesame paste.

E: Ah, of course, tahini. Have you checked the peanut butter aisle?

C: Yes. It's not there.

E: How do you spell tahini?

C: T-a-h-i-n-i, or possibly t-a-h-i-n-i-a.

E: (looks confused)

C: It's been transliterated from Arabic- there are multiple accepted spellings.

E: Oh, Arabic. You should have mentioned it- I thought you said you were looking for almond butter. It will be in the ethnic foods aisle.

C: That's the first place I looked. It's not there. You have hummus, you have taboule salad mix, you have baba ghanoush, you do not have tahini.

E: Well, what does this tahini look like?

C: I don't know- it's an off-white paste made with sesame. It's probably in a jar. Though I guess it can be dried too.

E: We have sesame seeds in a jar. And sesame-ginger salad dressing.

C: Yes, I found those.

E: We have halva!

C: I noticed that. But I want to use it to make hummus- I don't think halva would work. Or sesame seeds, or salad dressing.

E: Hummus! Why didn't you say that before! Our hummus is in the cheese section, just next to the deli!

C: But I don't want hummus! I want to make hummus, which requires tahini!

E: You can make hummus?

C: Sure. It's really easy, you just mix together chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, and some spices. Nothing to it.

E: We have chickpeas!

C: Yes... but where is your tahini?

E: The frozen food section?

C: That's it, I'm going to Shaw's.

E: (as Caroline leaves) We do have hummus! And almond butter! And lemons!

Caroline Has a Reading Plan for the Rest of the Summer!

I realized last year that while I know a decent amount about Ancient Greece, and some about the Byzantine Empire, I know extremely little about Greece in modern times. What little I know goes something like this:

1453: The Byzantine Empire falls (what this means, I'm not sure)- Ottoman rule begins.
1821: The Greeks declare independence.
Several years later: The Greeks actually become indepentdent.
WWI: The Greeks side against the Central powers. They get land in Asia Minor after the war ends, which sets the stage for...
The Greco-Turkish war: which happens in the 20s, and has something to do with Greeks immigrating from Turkey and rebetiko.
WWII: Greece is occupied by the Nazis. Things go badly.
After WWII: The civil war. The UK and the US were involved, and communists. My knowledge is limited.
1967: Coup d'etat. A military junta is in power, and stays there until 1974. I think the US was involved.
The 1970s: A mess with Turkey over Cyprus, at some point democracy is restored.
After that: Greece uses the euro? They're building a new Parthenon museum? Is this really history?

So, essentially, my knowledge of modern history in Greece is nil, my knowledge of modern Greek literature mostly is limited to Cavafy, Seferis, and Zorba the Greek, and my knowledge of modern Greek culture is based on a mixture of what my mom tells me and what Prof. McKirahan has told my class. I think that this is sad (pathetic, really) and I want to fix it. Conveniently, CYA has sent a list of suggested reading! So, I want to work through this. But if anyone else has any ideas, they should definitely share them. Because I'm open to suggestion.

Anyways, wish me luck. For my first book I'm reading Freedom or Death by Nikos Kazantzakis, which I chose mostly because my library had a copy of it and because one of the bits I do know about modern Greece is that the statement "Ελευθερία ή θάνατος" is the motto of the country and that it has something to do with the stripes of the flag.

I hope that everyone is well, and I apologize for the boring-ness of this post.

The Cape of Doom, part 2

It's been chilly out, and so I've worked more on the knitting project du jour. Specifically, I finished the first big band and am now about halfway (ok, a bit less than half, but it's close) up the back of the main body of the cape (ie, if you discount the borders.) It's actually getting easier as I go up- I think I'm remembering how to do colorwork, which I hadn't done in a while- but it's getting much wider, which means that every row takes forever.

Back to soccer (because soccer and knitting seem to go together on these posts- perhaps because I knit while we watch the games), what a win for Turkey today! It was very exciting. Granted, the next game is going to be a bit dicey, considering that they don't have a goalie, but still- coming from behind like that in the last few minutes was really, really exciting. Unfortunately, Greece was out as of yesterday, when they lost to Russia.

Anyways, I hope that everyone is having a lovely day, and that those of you who are still in California are warmer than I am now. It's really chilly!

Herodotus! (And Neil Gaiman)

So, I was at work last night, and during a quiet period at circulation, I noticed that there was a copy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods on the cart of books to be shelved. Since I have several friends who are fans of Mr. Gaiman's works, I took it out, and when I was reading this morning, I made a very exciting discovery.

On page 5, there is a reference to Herodotus.

This was far, far too exciting for me, since it lead to my dancing around my room in quiet glee for several minutes. But seriously, how often does Herodotus come up in popular fiction? (Answer: not as often as he really should). Best part? The Histories are described as "not boring" and "cool." "Not boring"! "Cool"! Clearly, this means that all my Neil Gaiman loving friends should go and read Herodotus. And that everyone else that I know should read Herodotus.

And that no matter what the rest of the book is like, I think that it was worth picking it up from the circulation cart. Especially since it was free.

Also, I have plane tickets to Greece. Yay!

Knitting the Cape of Doom, part 1

It's pretty, isn't it? I haven't been working much in the past few days- it's awfully humid, for one thing, and really too hot for me to want to knit with wool yarn- but it's actually progressing pretty well. The swatch that you can see here is several inches long, and already includes all of the colors that will be in the finished piece. It also very much deserves its nickname- I'm more than a little afraid of it. Afraid, but entranced. It's pretty cool.

This post was brought to mind when I was watching the Euro 2008 soccer match of Turkey vs. Switzerland. (The name of the pattern, to be all technical, is in fact the "Turkish Cape," not the "Cape of Doom." Though I really do like the ring of the second one.) Greece, the defending champion, has already lost its first game, which was against Sweden on Tuesday. Hopefully the game on Saturday will go better.

Have a nice day!

Adventures at the Rosicrucian Museum!

Hello! In light of the fact that there are people out there who haven't seen these photographs yet, I thought that it was worth posting it to my blog. These are two pictures of my friend Maria at the Rosicrucian museum in San Jose. It is a fabulous place, especially the planetarium, which is very informative. In the picture to the left, Maria is practicing her imitation of Akhenaten, which perhaps still needs some improvement.
On the right, she is posing in front of some tomb paintings, in the very nifty fake tomb that the museum has. It was a lovely fake tomb, as such things go, I guess, though I've never actually been in a fake tomb before, so I suppose that I don't have much of a basis for comparison. However, it certainly seemed nice at the time, and Maria looks happy enough.

On an unrelated, but slightly less off-topic note, today I sent off a whole lot of forms. I'm one step closer to getting my visa! Very exciting!

I hope that everyone is well and having a lovely day.

Why is Caroline Keeping a Blog? And Other Important Questions

Hello and welcome!

As you may well have heard, I am going to be spending next semester in Athens, Greece, and since I am expecting to have all sorts of crazy (or, um, charming) adventures while there, it seemed like a good idea to keep a blog to record them in. This is that blog. Welcome.

At the moment there are no terribly exciting stories to tell, since I am not there yet, and mostly I am working on getting a visa and thinking about packing. For those of you who have asked, here is a map of Greece. I will be living in Athens, which is marked with a large red star. At the moment, it seems that I am going to Crete (that's the large island to the south of the mainland), Argolid (south of Corinth on the map) and Delphi, which is north of the gulf of Corinth, or sort of west-north-west of Athens. This is quite exciting.

The real bloggery will not occur until somewhat later in the summer, when I am considerably closer to leaving than I am now. Any posts that happen before them will most likely be me experimenting with blogger, since I have no idea what I am doing. Be warned.

Anyways, I hope that everyone is well. Have a nice day!