Clean off your bookshelves!

Talking with a patron today, I was reminded of a movement that involved trading books. This patron said she bought our discounted books for trips and if she left them somewhere it did not impact her much.

(It is absolutely forbidden for anyone do this with books checked out from libraries!)

There is a website; BookCrossing, that was started to "make the entire world into a library." The idea is to read a book and then pass it on by leaving it somewhere in the open where another reader will most likely find it. It is considered the world's largest book club, even getting an entry in Oxford's Dictionary:

bookcrossing, n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. (added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in August 2004)

Scott Sorochak is the CEO but Ron Hornbaker started this community in 2001 and now boasts 562,714 members in 120 countries.

These are the rules (from the BookCrossing.com website)

The "3 Rs" of BookCrossing...
1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
2. Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records a journal entry for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

This provides infinite possibilities for connecting with others all over the world who are like minded readers. Through the website you can track your book as others pick it up, read it and again -pass it on. Membership in Book Crossing is free. They also provide cool kits to get started.

Ruth Graham Bell

As Mrs. Billy Graham, Ruth Graham could claim to be the first lady of evangelism. She was her husband’s closest confidant during his spectacular global career.

Ruth Bell, one of five children, was born in China, where her father worked in a hospital. The Bell family lived in China for 25 years.

Ruth Bell attended Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Ill. There she spotted a man from North Carolina. She married William Graham on Aug. 13, 1943. The Grahams have 19 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren. Mrs. Graham died today surrounded by her family.

Wyoming Book Festival!

For bibliophiles everywhere, this promises to be a fun event!

The Wyoming Book Festival will be held in Cheyenne, Sept. 14-15, 2007. It will celebrate Wyoming's rich literary heritage, promote Wyoming's books and support the state's authors, encourage reading, broaden people's reading choices, and provide educational opportunities for Pre-K – 12 students. More than fifty authors will be invited to read, discuss and sign their work; most will have lived in or written about Wyoming.

This will be the only major book festival within a radius of 120 miles: an area home to 3 million people, including two-fifths of Wyoming's population. Events will take place in downtown Cheyenne, both in indoor venues and outside. The festival goal is to generate an audience of 10,000 to 15,000 attendees and to reach beyond the core audience of avid readers to casual readers and even non-readers.

Wyoming Book Festival events will include:
Author readings, book signings and panel . An on-site bookstore will be provided through the Wyoming State Museum.
Author programs for Pre-K – 12 students that will support state education standards.
Hands-on activities and demonstrations.
Book-related movies
Book arts
A Wyoming Libraries booth that will offer local library information, library card sign-ups and a children's storytelling stage.
Wandering appearances by costumed book characters and PBS characters such as Elmo, Clifford the Big Red Dog and Leona the Lion from Between the Lions.
Poetry slams and writing workshops for teens.
Living history presentations.
Planned focus areas include history, Wyoming women, sports and outdoors, rodeo and ranching, home and garden, railroads and transportation, genre fiction, children's and young adult literature, poetry and literary fiction.

Why would anyone miss this?

(Click here for the list of authors!)

Dangerous Book for Boys

It is so exciting to find that a book you have chosen finds its way into the news. On NPR today author Conn Iggulden was on Talk of the Nation, speaking about his passion and his new book. He said he wrote it for fathers and their children to pass on the information and the stories he and his brother don't want to see forgotten.

Dangerous Book for Boys is a manual for for fathers and sons to connect over kite flying, fishing, camping and camp fire stories. It is a how to on building go-carts and tree houses, folding paper airplanes and tying knots, making bow and arrows and using correct grammar. To keep the librarians of us happy, there is even a section on 'books every boy should read'! Brothers Hal and Conn Iggulden believe that "in the age of video games and cell phones there must still be a place for knots, tree house and stories of incredible courage."

For all the fathers and for all the sons, for all of us interested in information, wisdom and how things work, Dangerous Book for Boys keeps memories and skills alive that contribute to the awesome nature of childhood, inspiration and wonder.

Question #2 Which book has the best father character?

In our new tradition of a question a week for one year, and in celebration of fathers, who is your favorite father in print?

There are many that come to mind; Atticus Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird, or more recently Chris Gardner of Pursuit of Happyness fame. Many of the same attributes stand out for fathers that also stood out for mothers: unconditional love, common sense or wisdom, deferred gratification and the ability to be admired. A great father gives us someone strong to look up to, someone we are proud of and someone we would like to be able to emulate.

Harper Lee modelled Atticus after her own father, her mother was something of a cold and unpleasable woman. Finch was quietly loving, while having strong beliefs and integrity in the face of overwhelming public dissent. Chris Gardner battled the odds, believed in himself and kept his eye on the prize.

Here are some other titles of interest to celebrate fathers; Father's First Steps : 25 Things Every New Dad Should Know by Robert Sears, MD.

Wisdom of our Fathers : Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons
by Tim Russert.


Keeping the Baby Alive Till Your Wife Gets Home : The Tough New 'How-To' For 21st Century Dads by Walter Roark.

What characteristics make your favorite literary dad great?

Award Winning Wyoming Author - CJ Box

Winner of the Anthony Award, Prix Calibre 38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, and an Edgar Award and (Whew!) L.A. Times Book Prize Finalist, CJ Box's newest Joe Pickett mystery hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Our Cheyenne, Wyoming author created a character who tries to do the right thing, be a good husband, father and man yielding common sense and his game warden badge. His stories revolve around the life of Joe Pickett, his job and his family, possibly similar to Box's own experiences traveling, fishing, hiking, working as a ranch hand, a surveyor and a newspaper man.


The series starts with Open Season, Savage Run, Winter Kill, Trophy Hunt, Out of Range and his newest award winner: Free Fire. In Free Fire, Joe has been fired from his job as game warden, and the politics are daunting. The Wyoming governor is faced with public critisism with the murders of four campers in Yellowstone by an attorney. Something profitable and dangerous is going on in Yellowstone so the governor offers Joe his badge if he will investigate without credentials.

Look for the next Joe Pickett mystery Blue Heaven in 2008.

Kindness Goes Unpunished by Craig Johnson

Craig Johnson's newest mystery Kindness Goes Unpunished, is out!

Craig Johnson writes of Wyoming; of Wyoming characters with Wyoming voices. It makes for a fun read; the characters speak like people you are, or have met, that live in Wyoming and live the life. Johnson runs a cattle ranch out of Ucross, Wyoming and writes to "get this out of his system". He claims to have a rich barrel of inspiration from living here and knowing eccentric characters.

Johnson spends a lot of time on the road, loves to talk about book with folks who don't like to read and convinces his horses and dogs that he is John Steinbeck. His background is in law enforcement, hence his main character: Walt Longmire the town sheriff, but I get the impression that he enjoys having fun and loves what he is doing.

Different from his first two books: Cold Dish

and Death Without Company,

Johnson takes Sheriff Longmire out of his comfort zone and to Philadelphia to help his daughter when her boyfriend is murdered. Sheriff Longmire plays the fish out of water well and even with stereotyping local personalities the intrigue, mystery and Wyoming humor stand out.

Music Fun

For all those library users who always need a song, here is a fun site I came across.

Josh Hosler has created a database, user friendly, that allows you to find THE #1 SONG ON THIS DATE IN HISTORY. I checked out my birthday and dates of members of my family's birthdays. You could look up the day you were married, the day you graduated high school or some other date of significance in your life. It goes back to 1890 so it is not just for the YA crowd.

My song on my date of birth is "Don't/I Beg of You" by Elvis Presley. Funny, I don't remember that one.

Library Rave by Ben Macintyre

I came across this article: Paradise is Paper, Vellum and Dust, Libraries will Survive the Digital Revolution Because They are Places of Sensuality and Power, which is a little dated having been published in 2004 but still very cool. It is in praise of libraries in light of the controversy that the Internet will make libraries obsolete. Ben Macintyre, the author, writes:

"I have spent a substantial portion of my life since in libraries, and I still enter them with a mixture of excitement and awe. I am not alone in this. Veneration for libraries is as old as writing itself, for a library is more to our culture than a collection of books: it is a temple, a symbol of power, the hushed core of civilisation, the citadel of memory, with its own mystique, social and sensual as well as intellectual. Even people who never enter libraries instinctively understand their symbolic power."

The entire article can be seen http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/ben_macintyre/article403760.ece and was published by the Times Online in the UK, December 18, 2004.

Obviously I, and the staff of our library system, love books and libraries and technology and feel similar to Macintyre in his reverence for the institution. How about you, do libraries fill your reading and information needs? What would you like to see the library offer you?

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini , author of The Kite Runner, has allowed us another look into the the hearts of the Afghan people. From a country with a proud and rich culture to a war torn and crumbling society he takes us through the disintegration and hopeful rebuilding through the eyes of a family. I am always surprised to find a novel written well by a man from a woman's point of view. While I don't think he entirely masters the complexity of consciousness of a woman's soul, his effort is commendable. With the characters of Mariam and Laili, he gives us the gut-wrenching efforts of two women and their survival, loyalty, motherhood, friendship, integrity and endurance during the jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny of Afghanistan.

Marian is the scorned illegitimate harami daughter of a wealthy but conformist businessman, raised by a defeated mother and forced to marry a brutal 40 year old man at the age of fifteen. Laili is the daughter of a dysfunctional and grieving mother and an intellectual but accepting father with high hopes for her college career and future. Twenty years after Mariam and Rasheed's marriage and after Laila's family and friends are killed, Laili's choices in the war torn country are starvation, prostitution or to accept being the 14 year old second wife of Rasheed and the housemate of a scornful Mariam. Rasheed's violent misogyny is a tough read but is reflective of and supported by the Taliban rule. A Thousand Splendid Suns shines a light on the history of the country and the repression of women represented by the burqa and their invisible lives under a veil.

At Khaled Hosseini's request, please visit UNHCR, the United Nations High commission for Refugees where Hosseini volunteers as a US envoy.