VERY GOOD NEWS <\/b><\/p>\n
Libraries are unbanning books!<\/b> Of special note is the Unbanned Books Program of the Brooklyn Public Library.<\/a> BPL is issuing an <\/span>e-card to ANY TEENAGER who applies, and with that card any user has access to the 500,000 e-reader titles, free of charge. <\/span>New York Public Library <\/span><\/a>is making books available through its <\/span>SimplyE reader app<\/span><\/a> in a campaign called <\/span>Books for All<\/span><\/a>. The app is downloadable without a library card.<\/span> Thank heavens for Ellen’s good work with technology and networking in NYC classrooms. And <\/span>Seattle Public Library is encouraging<\/a> everyone to read banned and challenged books in order to show support for reading, authors, and access.<\/span><\/p>\n CIVIC DUTY ALERT! <\/b><\/p>\n Ode to beings that blossom in the Fall: We are many, are we you?<\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n What is a book lover, who values freedom to choose and use, to do? 1.<\/b>Run for your local library board, or guilt other good choices into doing so. <\/b> Andy Borowitz accepted an invitation to join his local Library Board<\/a> in Hanover N. H. As he explained, \u201c<\/span>I realized that libraries are now political because people want to keep certain books out of our children\u2019s hands, so if I really want to participate in democracy and not just talk about it, then I had to say yes.\u201d<\/span> My niece, Susan, in suburban Boston would be great on the Library Board, as would Scott, who is already busy with the Historical Society, Brian, Steve after he moves, or Ann in St. George. <\/span><\/p>\n [An aside: With my Kindle 1-click ordering, which Charlie threatens to dismantle, I just bought <\/span>Andy Borowitz\u2019s new book, \u201cProfiles in Ignorance: How American Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber\u201d <\/b>which I will read as soon as I hurry through <\/span>C.J. Box\u2019s latest Cassie Derwall mystery, Treasure Chest,<\/b> which is good, but not as much fun as the next best thing promises.]<\/span><\/p>\n 2.”Intrude\u2019\u2019 everywhere, anytime, to highlight the infinite potential that free access to libraries makes possible<\/b>. Putting it less delicately, \u201cbutting-in\u201d is one of my major superpowers. Some examples: <\/span><\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> Millie\u2019s excellent grandson, Magnus, is running for Freshman Class President, using as his platform, a Socrates\u2019 quote: <\/span>\u201cDemocracy is only as good as the education that surrounds it.\u201d I immediately emailed Millie<\/strong> to be sure that Magnus remembers to note that \u201ceducation\u201d means \u201cintelligent voters,\u201d or people who ask questions [Socratic method alert!] and search for answers [in libraries, etc.], before and after voting. Surely, Socrates would have agreed if he had lived 200 years later, when the Alexandrian Library thrived. No reply, yet, from Millie.<\/span><\/p>\n Example:<\/strong> Charlie, lifelong friend Ben, a reader and lifelong party to my suggestions, his excellent daughter, Margaret, and I met just before she became a freshman at Montana State University in Bozeman. I dived right in and asked her if she used libraries<\/strong>. She said \u201cNot really,\u201d which I think is polite teenager-ese for \u201cNo.\u201d I gasped, took a moment to recover, and suggested she might want to get to know the Bozeman Public Library, in case the Montana State U Library runs out of what she needs [as Marquette U\u2019s Library did when I needed a Shakespeare play. So I went to the Milwaukee Public Library and checked out <\/span>Troilus and Cressida,<\/b> not Shakespeare\u2019s<\/strong> best, — okay, it was the only one left on the shelf — and finished the assignment on time.]. And being totally with it, I noted that the Bozeman PL has ebooks. I casually<\/span>. mentioned I would email her some irresistible book suggestions She looked pleasantly unenthusiastic. I liked her a lot and suggested: Two of my favorite memoirs: Hope Jahren\u2019s Lab Girl<\/b>, because Margaret was working in a lab and loving it, and is a probable STEM major; Leanne Shapton\u2019s Swimming Studies,<\/b> because she is a swimmer; and two good mystery series set in or near Bozeman: Jamie Lee Harrison\u2019s<\/b> 4 murder mysteries, set in Blue Deer, MT, near Bozeman. Edge of the Crazies<\/b> is the first; and C.J. Box\u2019s Cassie Derwall, PI mysteries: The Bitteroots <\/b>and Treasure Chest,<\/b> both with her office set in Bozeman. Follow-up at Thanksgiving, maybe.<\/p>\n UNBAN THE BOOKS! FREE THE IDEAS! Read a book. Be all you can be.<\/p><\/div>\n Example:<\/strong> At the Poetry Club meeting, I handed out \u201cUnban the Books\u201d bookmarks<\/strong> [Handmade, thanks to Amy.] to a very modest reaction. Reilly thought his bookmark said \u201cUrban the Books\u201d<\/strong> [He was once an urban researcher.], which was not okay as it excluded my rural roots. So we compared who read the most-challenged book while we were in HS. Well, nobody beats his<\/span> [D.H. Lawrence\u2019s] Lady Chatterley’s Lover,<\/b> but I\u2019ll argue that<\/span> Alan Paton\u2019s Cry the Beloved Country<\/b> was more dangerous. So there. And no one left a bookmark on the table, which I consider a good sign.<\/span><\/p>\n Anne, who is in the Poetry Club and convenes the Shakespeare Reading Group, works with Seattle PL to get copies of the chosen play, albeit in different editions, but hasn\u2019t yet run into the banned book issue. I offered to try to get Shakespeare banned, or at least challenged<\/strong>, at SPL so she and her group could do their civic duty, and read a banned or challenged book. I lost her halfway through that idea. But the next day, she casually put her \u201cUnban the Books\u201d bookmark on the Ballard HS Librarian\u2019s desk,<\/strong> not knowing that Susan, who convenes the Book Club, was both looking at Seattle PL’s list for Book Club choices and working with the Ballard HS Librarian on a project to have Ballard HS “teenies” and Landmark “oldies” read the same book and react to it. Good work, Anne. I gave Susan my last, first run. Unban the Books bookmark<\/strong>. Clearly, we are weaving an untangled web. Any suggestions? <\/span><\/p>\n OTHER CIVIC DUTY<\/strong><\/p>\n Which is the Nordic Swan? Only one is made of plastic bucket lids.<\/p><\/div>\n On the way to the Lockspot’s cinnamon roll, <\/span>I rolled on the smoothly black-topped bike trail to familiarize the bicycle riders with the growing number of happy rollers of an age out and about in Ballard and the world. Okay, there was one little incident. I mean, who could hear the little ding-ding of the bicycle horn? Especially with street traffic to my right. Charlie said I was in the middle of the two bike lanes and wiggling. I explained it all. He\u2019s threatening AGAIN to get an air horn, mostly for my mask violations.<\/span><\/p>\n So many civic duties to do, so many a “that’s illegal” from Charlie. What’s a civic duty activist mother to do?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" VERY BAD NEWS The ding-dongs are at it again, banning books they don\u2019t like and may never have read. Stephen King brings it home with a great review of Celeste Ng\u2019s new dystopian novel, \u201c Our Missing Hearts,\u201d in which, … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/roseledgebooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_20220922_112613229_HDR-600x450.jpg\")
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