Bryce’s Comments (group member since Jan 13, 2009)

Bryce’s comments from the UMF Mantor Library group.

Haven't seen many comments these days about Mantor. I just wanted to check in and inform you all that the latest round of Discoveries books have been added. We've got everything from Akira to Crumb to The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. Lots of variety this month--something's sure to interest you! Come on by, or tell us what you think of the latest additions!

Can you believe November is here already? We've added 12 more books to the collection, from Stephen King graphic novels to books about hackers. Check them out on our Goodreads bookshelf, or come by the collection and look them over in person!

We've got a slew of new titles for you this month. I haven't read any of these yet--have any of you? Any that you're particularly excited for? Do share. I for one am looking forward to the Last Olympian--that's a series I've enjoyed a lot so far, and they're about to adapt the first (The Lightning Thief) into a film. Always interesting to see what they do with adaptations. Final Crisis also looks like it's got potential. Too many books, too little time . . .

If I Stay
Sun in a Bottle The Strange History of Fusion and the Science of Wishful Thinking
Graceling
Adventures with Ari A Puppy, a Leash & Our Year Outdoors
The Last Olympian
The Legend of Sigurd & Gudrún
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
The Geography of Bliss One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World
The Likeness A Novel
Please Kill Me The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Olive Kitteridge A Novel in Stories
Thinking Straight
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Final Crisis
Art and Electronic Media

So summer vacation has come and gone, and we're all back at the grind of the school season. I thought I'd start a topic off with a spin on the classic "What I Did on My Summer Vacation" theme. What have you been reading lately? Anything great? Anything awful?

Those of you following me on GoodReads already know my answer to this--I've been rereading the Wheel of Time series, for better or worse. (Happily it was for better 85% of the time.) I'm excited for Book 12 coming out in October, and I'm now officially Caught Up. But I wish I could have had some time to read some new material, as well, and it feels good to finally be getting around to that again now.

Anything I've missed out on over the summer? Do tell . . .

And we're back! After a nice (wet) summer, it's time to start the Discoveries again. We've got some great ones to start off.

The Last Colony

Anathem

The Girl Who Played with Fire

The Ghost Map The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

What Was Lost

Promise Me

Twinkie, Deconstructed My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats

The Shack

Let the Right One In

We also added two DVDs, in an ongoing experiment to see if they're popular in that collection, as well: adaptations of Discoveries books (Let the Right One In, and Into the Wild).

So, what do you think? Any on here that you've already read, or have been dying to read? Any that you'd never even heard of before? I'll put in a strong plug for Anathem--yet another amazing sci-fi book by Stephenson. As with many of his books, it takes a bit to get into it--he takes his time setting the stage--but once you're in, you'll find it was well worth the effort to get there. I'm really looking forward to reading The Girl Who Played with Fire, as well--interested to see how that continues the series.

And last, but not least, if you swing by the Discoveries shelf, you'll notice we removed the books that had been on there for a year. One of the points of the collection is that it will be perpetually new--there's always something new to discover. To make it easier to highlight the new, you have to periodically take off the old. No fear, though: the old Discoveries have been put into the general collection, so they're still available for check out.

Happy Discovering!

Laurie wrote: "But, come to think of it...I have read Charlotte's Web more than once."

I've read that one multiple times, too. And of course watched the cartoon, although I have yet to watch the live action adaptation from a year or so ago.

I hadn't heard about Hunger Games until I saw it pop up on the Discoveries List--I'll have to give it a gander when we finally put it out tomorrow.

Here's a sneak peek at the upcoming books we'll be adding to our Discoveries Collection next month. Has anyone read any of these already? Have anything to say? Please share!

Pitch Black
Coraline
Life Sucks
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen The Black Dossier
A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants
A Supremely Bad Idea Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All
The Hunger Games
Skim
Daemon

I'll start comments off--the only book here that I've read is Coraline, one which I really enjoyed. I didn't get a chance to see the film (and I would have loved to have been able to see it in 3D, just for fun), but the book was fun and different. Very Gaiman. It's a fun fast read, and I recommend it.

Have I already asked you if you've read His Majesty's Dragon? Because it sounds like you'd love that series. I like historical fantasies, too--as long as they're not too slow moving. In some cases, I feel like I'm just trudging through descriptions and not getting enough plot. :-)

This year's On Our Minds book is Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. First off, have you read it? I finally had the chance to get to it last month, and I thought it was really impressive. As I've said in other posts, I don't typically read much nonfiction, but I was glad I read this one. Paul Farmer seems like such a remarkable person--and he's done so much good in the world. Actually, one of the emotions I found myself feeling as I read the book was guilt. Not guilt that I wasn't doing my part to help the people in Haiti, but guilt that I wasn't doing more to contribute to society. Here is this man who has devoted himself to making a change in the world, and here am I: librarian extraordinaire. Yes, I suppose my efforts at the library contribute to the learning of students, which can change lives on an individual level, but I hardly think that my efforts will ever make such an impact on a global scale as Paul Farmer's. I'm curious what other people felt as they read the book.

Of course, if there's another topic about the book that you'd like to discuss, feel free to bring that up, as well. Basically, I'd just like to start a discussion of the work, and see where it takes us--sort of like an online book group. Any takers?

One mystery I read a few years ago that still stands out in my mind is The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a book which is set in Africa. I think you might like it, since it doesn't just do the mystery thing, but also shows some of how life works in Botswana. I really enjoyed this one.

That depends--what sort of fiction do you want to read? Literary? Fantasy? Mystery? I'd hate to recommend something that doesn't go over well, just because it was the wrong genre to start with . . .

I always get a kick out of the fact that a lot of the people I went to grad school with didn't like to admit that they read "genre fiction." Of course, I was in an English masters program, so I suppose something like that was to be expected. Still, when I started to work at the public library in town, I began to see how many people really did read genre fiction. Seems to me that a lot of people like to put it down as being "junk reading" or something like that--but why not embrace it? I read heavily in fantasy, particularly YA fantasy. I also dabble in thriller, mystery and sci-fi.

Why is YA fantasy my genre of choice? Well, besides the fact that that's what I write, it lets me read fantasy a lot faster. Don't get me wrong--I love epic fantasy. In middle school, I used to go to the library fantasy section and pick books based on their length alone. But these days, I don't always have the time to read a good epic. YA plots are tight, fast paced and fun. The magic is usually pretty solid, and the characters are spunky. What's not to like? Right now I'm thoroughly enjoying Nation.

So what about you? What's your favorite genre, and why?

Nope. No foaming here. :-)

So it seems like a large part of the non-fiction/fiction divide might come from why people are reading in the first place (which is probably a "no kidding" conclusion). This actually dovetails into a pet peeve of mine: the tendency of some to discount someone else's reading habits as "not reading" because they are different reading habits. (Note--this comment is aimed at the public at large, not at Kimberly or Janet). My wife, for example, doesn't feel like she's much of a reader, even though I say she reads quite a bit. She's big on books about gardening, parenting and other crafts, and she loves reading magazines. Unfortunately, at some point in time she got in her head that "real" reading was reading books with a plot. I'm trying to dissuade her of that notion. When I typically read, I read for pleasure. If I learn some along the way, all the better, but for me, it's a way to wind down. (Of course, since I also do creative writing, it's also an opportunity to see what else is being written--something I find fascinating).

In any case, this post has gotten rambling enough as it is. Suffice it to say that I'm interested in why other people read. I don't find it better or worse than my own motivations, and I just frankly wish more people would be accepting of all kinds of reading. It's when people start looking down their noses at genres or forms as being "lesser" that my hackles rise and I start to foam at the mouth. :-)

Just a general curiosity question: which do you prefer to read, fiction or non-fiction? I enjoy both, but I find myself reading much more fiction than non, just because I can get through a lot more of it. Don't get me wrong--I love non-fiction, and I'm usually very glad once I've read it, but to me it's sort of the same kind of gladness I get after I've exercised, or after I've gone on a long hike. For example, I'm reading our On Our Minds book right now (Mountains Beyond Mountains The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World), and it's taken me a week or so to get 2/3 of the way through. I love the book, and I find it fascinating, but it frustrates me that it takes me so long to read it. In this same amount of time, I likely would have finished two or three fiction books at least. (Which is probably why I like YA fiction so much--I can really blaze through that.) Anyway--I'd like to hear other thoughts on the matter. Looking over some of your bookshelves, I see a lot of non-fiction. Convert me. :-)

I've never even heard of When We Were Young before--thanks for bringing it to my attention!

I'd never thought of that aspect, and it's a good point. I just finished reading The Dark Knight Returns, and at the end of it, they have an afterword that's a written version of the final plot, provided so that you can contrast it with what's actually on the page. When I read it, I was surprised by how much easier it was to understand--and how much I had missed in the actual graphic novel. I suppose I just see all the pictures and stop paying as much attention as I ought.

After having read ten or so graphic novels now, I have to say that I'm enjoying them, over all. However, they don't feel like books to me, in much the same way that I feel that a movie is different than a television show. So my question to you is: are graphic novels "novels"? Why or why not? To me, the story content is there just as much as a novel, but the depth and manner of conveying that story is much different. In many ways, they seem to have more in common with movies than they do with books. Thoughts?

Sarah wrote: Absolutely! I would even be happy to lend you my copy when your ready.

At this point, though, it's almost a badge of honor. I made it through life without reading Jane Eyre. :-)