Books

Jamie Schmidt, for The Carroll County (MD) Times, writes...

\"With Rowling works gracing billboards and commercials, Stacey Freedman, at the Carroll County Public Library, said an increased number of children have been asking for the fantasy books.\" More

According to a pair of features in today\'s Chicago Tribune, to cope with fears and concerns, kids are flocking to scary stories (like the Series of Unfortunate Events books), as well as to books about Afghanistan and parables about war.

\"Her hand is moving away from my knee and heading north. Heading unnervingly and with a steely will towards the pole.\"

Christopher Hart has won the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Full Story. See Also, or, See Also.

SomeOne passed along This ananova.com story on The winner of the Literary Review\'s Bad Sex In Fiction Award will be announced tonight.


The award is presented to the author who has written the year\'s worst fictional description of the sexual act.
This year\'s nominees include Jonathan Franzen, Simon Armitage and Adele Parks.

They\'re doing it again, this time in Missouri. Residents in the city of Cape Girardeau will all be reading John Grisham\'s book, \"A Painted House.\" The program is called United We Read. Discussions are to begin on February 1, 2002.More

Daniel Traister has written an interesting Look At Books, specifically, preservation and collection. He says his effort is to think about a set of interrelated questions:
what libraries collect;
what libraries don\'t collect;
why libraries make the decisions about what to collect they make;
and why libraries are (and, obviously, whether they should be) so devoted to impossible ideals of universal preservation (the goal of universal acquisition having been effectively, although not intellectually, abandoned long ago).

\"I think we need realistically to come to grips with limits. I think we need to come realistically to grips with mortality. I think we may even need to admit that, counterintuitive as it may seem to \"us,\" there are not only some books that will die, but also some that should. And then start choosing.\"

From The Washington Post.

\"For adults who think the national anxiety about terrorism and war have driven children to seek comfort in cheery stories with upbeat endings, a popular eight-volume series of stories with titles like \"The Vile Village\" and the \"Miserable Mill\" may come as a shock.\" More

From The Chicago Tribune...

\"More and more children\'s books appear to be incorporating different ethnic races into their stories. From one page to the next, black kids interact with Hispanics, hold hands with white kids or play together with Asians. \"It is self-evident that the need is there because the country is getting more diverse,\" explained Philip Lee, co-founder and publisher of Lee & Low Books, an independent children\'s book publisher in New York specializing in multicultural themes. Lee said schools and libraries make up more than half his clientele. \"We get a lot of requests because bookstores are not necessarily located in communities of color, but obviously schools and libraries are everywhere.\" More

From The Monroe Evening News.

\"Children younger than 12 with overdue books at the Monroe (MI)County Library System can now buy amnesty for $1.
The library system, through its circulation task force, has initiated the Kids Care Program, which allows anyone younger than 12 to return overdue books and materials for a $1 donation to America\'s Fund for Afghan Children.\" More

stuart yeates writes \"

A black Harvard scholar,Randall Kennedy has published a book on the word nigger.
\"I think it is pretty fun,\" Mr. McDonald said, imagining customers asking a bookstore clerk, \"Can I have one `Nigger\' please? Where are your `Niggers\'?\" He added, \"I am not afraid of the word `nigger.\' \"
The story is here\"

He said he had come up with the idea for the book, which grew out of a series of lectures, after idly typing the word \"nigger\" into a database of court cases.

The Guardian has a Nifty List of the top 10 most popular sport books in the UK this week.


1 The European Football Yearbook 2001/02 ed Mike Hammond

2 Boys of \'86 - The Untold Story of West Ham United\'s Greatest-Ever Season by Tony McDonald & Danny Francis

I wonder if a soccer book has ever been a best seller over here?

See Also the entire list of top 10\'s in the UK.

Washington Post author, Carol Morello, writing from aboard the USS Roosevelt, shares a story about sailors reading bedtime stories to their children at home. The ship\'s library contains a collection of children\'s books that parents can read aloud on videotape and send home to their families. The activity is part of the United Through Reading Program, launched some years ago, in order to keep parents stationed offshore connected with their children. More

stuart yeates writes \"
Yahoo is carrying a story about a modernised, sanitised version of Ulysses being banned for copyright resaons.
\"

A High Court judge in London, ordered that undistributed copies of a ``Reader\'s Edition\'\' of the book published by Picador under the Macmillan imprint be handed over to the trustees of Joyce\'s estate.


He said it breached copyright because it contained words not published in Joyce\'s lifetime

Clifford the Big Red Dog will be visiting the home of every first-grader in Baytown, Texas this Christmas. In an effort to get kids reading, librarians and school teachers, with the help of community members, have purchased thousands of Clifford books to be given away to the kids as gifts. The program is in its second year. More

For The Palm Beach Post, Frank Cerabino writes...

\"In March we\'re all supposed to be reading the same book. It\'s a fad: Seattle did it. Chicago did it. Now, Palm Beach County is going to do it. What book? We don\'t know yet. Of course, March is when the new Shady Palms story will run -- the serialized third installment of my novels set in a fictitious Boynton Beach condominium. But it would be graceless for me to pitch my own stuff.\" More

Inspired by that writer who dissed Oprah, today\'s Chicago Tribune has an article which looks at the supposed differences in men\'s and women\'s choice of books. The manager of reader services at a suburban PL is quoted.

Of course, the article was printed in the "WomanNews" section, so there probably weren\'t many men who saw it.

Now that reading has again become interesting to kids, Carol Schubert of the Appleton Classical Charter School is suggesting that children be introduced to other forms of literature, including the classics. She\'s compiled an
age-specific list of recommended titles. “Yes, Harry Potter is wonderful. Now look at what else is out there. They don’t just have to read the books that came out yesterday. Read books that have been around for awhile.\" More
To visit the Appleton Classical Charter School\'s List of recommended reading, Click Here.

Nominations have closed for the 2002 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The winner will be announced in May, 2002. Of the 123 nominees, 39 were writers from the U.S. The nominations are made by libraries throughout the world. Participating libraries can nominate up to three novels each year. Last year, the prize was won by Canadian author Alistair McLeod for \"No Great Mischief.\" This year\'s most popular nominee is Margaret Atwood\'s \"The Blind Assassin.\" More
To visit the IMPAC site, Click Here.

In a wave that seems to be sweeping the country, citizens of Auburn, NY have been asked to read the same book. The chosen title is, \"A Lesson Before Dying\" by Ernest Gaines. The objective of the program, according to the chairwoman is \"to get people talking about a common experience. This will bring individuals, who might not have ever had the opportunity to meet each other, together to share their feelings and come to know each other in a relatively neutral setting while talking about the same topic.\" Some other cities around the country who have started this type of program include Chicago, Seattle, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and more. More

There\'s a new library program that\'s being promoted across the country. It involves children, books and dogs. The program is designed to strengthen children\'s reading skills by having them read aloud to man\'s best friend. More