Scarred for Life

I have moments in my job of children's librarian of genuine and furious anger. The parent who insists their child not read graphic novels, because they're not "real books", the teen who seem to think that telling me to f**k myself is somehow ok and warranted, the people who say they don't see the point of the library as an institution, because you "can find everything with Google". And I will say, that in the public sphere I am PHE-NO-ME-NAL at hiding this; remaining calm and professional when I really want to stare in disbelief and just say "No". What truly makes me mad though, is when I realize how the librarians in my own childhood failed me.  

Unsurprisingly, I read a lot as a kid. I haunted my local library on weekends. Spent at least one night a week there, from after school until my parents came to get me when they got home around 7, participating in summer reading yearly, and generally being a face the librarians and staff knew. In the 1990s and early 2000s when I was a tween and teen, I will admit there wasn't much in the way of Tween or Teen Literature. Beyond Goosebumps, Babysitters Club, and  "issues" books, there weren't many standout
 books that were appropriate for my age and reading level. Meaning that once I raced through Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine and Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman, there wasn't much else for me to fall in love with. So I moved onto adult books, with sometimes very little understanding of what I was actually reading and without the deep enjoyment that can come from reading about characters that you can relate to. Or so I thought.

Now that I'm a children's librarian I of course know about the amazing series and books that were available at that time, including the Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce, The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright, anything by E. Nesbit, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, or any other of a multitude of books that I found on my own or though friends and colleagues as an adult or older teen. And I ask myself why weren't any of these books put into my hands? I can honestly say that I can only recall one time that one of my school librarians put a book into my hands (The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, which I love to this day) and can never remember one of my public librarians suggesting anything to me.

And I'm sure I didn't ask, and that's ok. I was a shy kid, who was often teased and who was such a voracious reader, in part, because I didn't feel comfortable in my own world.  I've thankfully out grown that and see kids everyday who fit the same description. Which is why I approach those kids when I see them wandering in the stacks and ask if they've read this, that, or the other.  I take a note of who checks out a stack of books every week, and grab something and say that I thought they might want to give this a shot. I do this, because I recognize that such an important part of my job is to reach the reader. Especially the reader who wants desperately to be reached, but is too scared to ask.

Maybe it's me?

I've said before that I cannot claim to always have good taste and that I've come to terms with that. The opposite side of being ok with liking something that everyone else hated, is  feeling a little eh about something everyone else loved. This doesn't happen to me all that frequently, but occasionally something comes along that I just don't get. This is not a commentary on the book at all. Many of the books I haven't been able to like have been well written and well loved volumes that appear on "Books You Have to Read" lists all the time. It also doesn't say anything about my taste in literature as I can love something literary just as much as something that is not so much so. It could be that  a particular book just doesn't speak to my personality. It could be that I'm not in the right head space to connect with a particular kind of story.

So confession time. I didn't like Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. That sound you heard is YA lovers everywhere gasping in horror. All I have heard about this book have been flat out raves, many times accompanied by expressive hand gestures and declarations of love. For some it seems to tap into a very specific teenaged part of themselves, where you remember what it felt like to fall in love with someone you randomly were thrown together with and the anticipation and joy that you felt leading up to time with them. That 15 year old self that is still very much a part of us and a chance to connect with it through the characters we read about is why I think so many adults read  YA fiction. At least it's why I do. And that's what was missing for me from Eleanor & Park.

Logically, I recognize that it's a good book. The writing is done well, the characters are fully formed and sympathetic, and there were plenty of lines that I stopped at and thought how wonderfully written and absolutely spot on they were. In a lot of ways the novel read very similarly to John Green, in that it was literary teen fiction that focuses on the emotional side of the coming of age experience. But for me at least I never had a moment when my 15 year old self got chills and gasped and declared that this book could be her secret life story, that defined her in a way that no adult could ever understand because god-mom-you-just-don't-understand-you've-never-been-in-love-like-this! And that what I wanted. I wanted to feel like the characters could have been me at one time. That if I'd read this as a teenager it would have been my favorite book, at least until the next one. In all honesty I wish I'd had that for E&P, because I always wish I'll have that in any new book I pick up.

And again.

BAHAHAHAHA! I actually find this slightly hilarious.

Opps Again

Well this is just embarrassing.

Oops

I never claimed to be able to keep this updated consistently. I will, however, promise to try a bit harder in the future to update at least weekly, if only with book reviews. Watch for a book review tomorrow and a program review later in the week.

Book Club Love

I love book clubs. A venue whose entire reason for existence is to sit around and discuss a book that everyone in the group has read. Sign. Me. Up. Bonus points if snacks are provided and please be prepared to have to ask me to leave your house if there is wine provided. Now the book club model is pretty simple and something that doesn't require a whole lot of explanation. I, however, do love to complicate things and dream of themed book clubs. Here are some of them:

1. A Non-Book Discussion Book Club: This is weird one and honestly, I'm not even sure I would be able to figure out how to make it work in a sustainable way. The basic idea is that everyone reads the same book, but instead of talking about the book: characters, writing style, story, etc. and, they can talk about things that might be related to the book.  For instance, if the book was The Paris Wife, you can talk about high school and college romances  featuring horrible partners that were endless fascinating at 16 and now sort of make you want to smack your younger self.

2. A Young Adult Book Club for Adults: I have previously said that I love me some young adult literature. I have also very lightly touched on the fact that it is, at times, not as highly respected as I feel it should be. I feel like a book club for adults would give adults a venue to seriously discuss pieces of literature that are ignored as 'literature' simply because their genre contains the word 'young'. Despite the word 'young' these are works with incredible depth and emotional range, with a focus on a time in life that most people remember as transformative and meaningful, whether they were great or sort of miserable. Discussing these titles from a perspective of adult experience inspires a completely different discussion of what the story means than it may from the perspective of a teenager. I think teens should absolutely have their own book clubs as well, but I think adults who enjoy the young adult genre should also be have an opportunity to discuss their reactions.

3. A Wine Tasting Book Club: Enough said. If this requires explanation, either for format or why it would be amazing, I have to doubt your creativity, commitment to being awesome, and general intelligence.

4. A Read Anything Book Club: This is my dream. No really. DREAM. Basically, it's an opportunity to hang out and discuss what you've read lately. I particularly like this idea, especially for a library setting, as it would not require any type of preparation on the part of patrons, which I think would be an attraction for people who think they're too busy to commit to a book club (a claim I take issue with and will no doubt address at some point). I also love this idea as it would work for any age group and could be formalized and made more relaxed as would work in your library. For example, in a book club for children the theme could be siblings, and all kids had to do was find a book whose main character had a sibling. This would allow children to become comfortable talking about books and stories, something I think that increases pleasure in reading, as well give then an opportunity to find something new to read from their peers.

I myself am part of two book clubs currently and could definitely see myself joining more in the future.

Program Anxiety

I haven't been working in library very long. Just over 6 months in fact and although there are parts of my job I feel fairly comfortable with and confident that my response will be the right one, I am still struggling with nerves in regards to other responsibilities. The number one part of my job that is causing me stress is program planning.

Now for anyone familiar with current library philosophy you know that the library is no longer the temple of scholarship and silence it once was. In fact the library of today is downright noisy with singing from story time, questions from patrons about job searches and computers, and applause from lecture series. Part of my job is to provide the impetus for this noise in the form of programming. The nice thing is that a program can be almost anything and that my direct manager is all for trying new things. The point being that you never know what will work and will thus bring people to the library as a community center, but also that the worst you can do is fail.

And there's where I get caught- the possibility of failure. I really can think of nothing I fear more than the possibility of failure. I've done a few programs so far and most have been ok. At least one has been great (A Hunger Games Trivia Tournament). But my most recent one can be described as nothing but as failure, as no one came. Not one. single. person. It seemed like such a slam dunk too! It was Wii! For teens! I had chips and dip! Honestly, I would have gone, you know if it wasn't my program and further more deeply creepy for an adult woman to attend a library program aimed at teens. There were reasons the normal crowd of kids I get at my programs weren't there, including choir practice, first week back from spring break attributed lethargy, and a heavier than normal homework load,  but the fact remains not one kid played.

Now I feel shaky. I have another program this week that I know won't be popular (book spine poetry). I've questioned whether I should cancel or just do something like Wii, that I think will be more popular.  Maybe that's the smart thing to do. Truthfully, I've never been accused of being smart all the time, so I'm going to stick with my book spine poetry. In part because I think it will be so much fun to do, but further because although the library is a community  center, and a place for lectures, and games, and even the occasional game of Wii with some chips and dip on the side, at its core I do believe the library is still a place of scholarship and even more important than that a place where literacy and awareness of the larger world can be fostered. Even if my book spine poetry goes over like a lead balloon and if the book clubs for teens and college age students I'm thinking of starting have similar fate in the future, I'll keep trying the literacy based programs, because one is bound to work sometime. Until then I have trivia tournaments, Wii, and crafts to sustain me.

Guilty Pleasures

As a library school graduate and a lover of books, I'm sure I should be advising people to elevate their lives, morals, minds, and whatever else with educational nonfiction and literary novels, but the fact is I just can't. As interesting as those types of literature can be and as important as those books are, sometimes you're just in the mood for something not that challenging. Everyone's reading related guilty pleasures are different but here are mine:

1. Children's Books: I'm 27, so I have not been the target audience for children's authors for quite some time. This has not stopped me thoroughly enjoying their efforts. It should come as no surprise that there is something inherently soothing about rereading one's favorites from childhood, for me mimicking the kind of comfort that generally comes from being with my parents or sleeping in my childhood bed. For most of my adult life this meant occasional forays into the children's section for specific or pulling out my own well-worn copies of books with which I'd had a long relationship. Since beginning work in a public library setting I have branched out to newer children's titles and have also rediscovered a love of several forgotten favorites. I also cannot minimize the impact of children's nonfiction as the more sophisticated items are many times very engaging and informative. Some of my picks: Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Ramona, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Harriet the Spy

2. Young Adult Ficiton: OH YA LIT! HOW I LOVE YOU! While YA has been around for years it is only within the last 5-10 that it has become the phenomena it now is. Beginning with the Harry Potter craze, titles for young adult readers are more prolific than ever, and a welcome change from my own teen years when I jumped right for Newbery Medal Winners and lighthearted series directly into deeply inappropriate for a 13 year old, but still entertaining romance novels.  There is currently some debate as  to whether adults should be reading young adult novels which I truly don't understand. If the point is the situations are not relevant to adult lives, well I also don't plan on hiding my crazed spouse in the attic, but no one would judge me for reading Jane Eyre. If the concern is the quality of the writing, first I question why are we allowing our children to read something sub-par and second I challenge someone to read a John Green novel and to question the quality of his prose. Finally, if its a question of literary merit, there are plenty of extraordinarily literary YA novels and even if I'm not reading one of them I am not going to read just one novel for the rest of my life and probably not even for the rest of this week.
Some of my picks: The Hunger Games, Graceling series, Ashfall, Vampire Academy, and anything by John Green

3. Romance: And I'm not referring to something like Ian McEwan's Atonement or Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I'm talking trashier the better bodice rippers, bonus points if it includes the words pirate, rouge, or rake in the title. I can't help it, I just love to turn off my mind sometimes and enjoy absurd situations. In all honesty, I usually skip the sex scenes as they generally distract me too much the patently obvious fact that it's actually nothing like the writer's imagination.
Some of my picks: Johanna Lindsay, Nora Roberts, Beatrice Small and Mary Jo Putney are some favorite authors

4. Graphic Novels: Working with children I frequently find that many parents are reluctant to let their children check out too many graphic novels as they identify them too much with comic books. Even in the cases where that's true I am of the mind that no matter what a child is reading, it's just important that they're reading. Besides you never know what someone's "gateway drug" book will be that causes a love of books to all of a sudden click. Beyond that concern there are some wonderfully written and beautifully illustrated graphic novels that can be considered nothing but classics, due to their long lasting effect on the reader. Honestly, this is a genre that I am still discovering, as I myself held comic book prejudice. As a teen I read, and thoroughly enjoyed Maus, which I view as one of the first of the modern graphic novels.  recetly rediscovered the genre through the Walking Dead series and am excited to learn more.
Some of my picks: As I said I'm new to this but right now I have Persepolis, Fables, and Sin City on my reading list.
 
5. Humorous Memoirs: I don't care if it's one person's opinion and if generally it's an actor or comedian with their own agenda. They're engaging and viewing the world through someone else's much funnier  viewpoint often allows me to laugh at myself, an absolutely invaluable skill.
Some of my picks: Tina Fey's Bossypant and Mindy Kalings's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Well that went on much longer than I thought! Please keep in mind that most of my picks are generally what I have read recently and will probably change by the end of the month.