Reader Roundup

So, the other day I was reading and listening to music simultaneously—because recreational multitasking is the only kind of multitasking I do—and the strangest thing happened. The book was, as I’ve mentioned, Daniel O’Thunder. The music was Kaiser Chief’s 2007 album Yours Truly, Angry Mob. And then the book and the music aligned. I won’t get into spoilers, but fictional Victorian London erupts into…an angry mob, complete with outbursts of violence, property damage, and many a well-meaning idealist spiraling out of control.

As the Kaiser Chiefs describe such scenes:

You can try anything

And no-one would know apart from you and me

You can stop anything

It starts with just one and turns to two then three

And now I will forever associate that band with 18^th century London drubbings.

More recently, I started reading March by Geraldine Brooks. I was reading Caleb’s Crossing not so long ago, and I’ve read People of the Book, so this makes it a Brooks trifecta. I’m ecstatic to be own a postmodern version of Little Women. I read Louisa May Alcott’s novel repeatedly as a tween. March is obviously much darker, mostly because it explores the perspective of the March family patron as he witnesses the American Civil War. Of course, I still squeal like a 5^th grader on pixie sticks and pop-rocks every time he mentions his daughters.

I’ve also started Albert Hourani’s History of the Arab Peoples, which seems relevant, no? This one is textbook sized, so it will take me a while to get through it. My sister, an Air Force Reservist, is being deployed to Kuwait soon. I therefore think it’s important to get myself a bit more familiar with the culture.

Meanwhile, I would really like to see The Interrupters, a documentary about the former gang members involved in CeaseFire, an organization on a mission to end pervasive urban violence. From what I’ve read, the doc is no propaganda piece, unrealistically optimistic and thus totally inaccurate.

At the blog In the Library with the Lead Pipe, Gretchen Kolderup wrote about the experimental developments in Young Adult literature that have transformed the literary “category”. Indeed, such categorization should never be proscriptive. Right what you like, people. Especially if what you read deviates from the standard formula.

I also enjoyed this piece over on the Information Tyrannosaur blog about the Tao of Librarianship. It inadvertently reminded me of the Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. Literature and Taoism! Meant to be? Probably.

Finally, The Chronicle of Education informs us that many universities are trying to extend their broadband service to surrounding communities. That is so sweet.