Gershun Posted April 2019
What are you reading right now?
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If your care giving duties allow you time to read.....................I'm interested in what book you are in the middle of or just finished or have waiting on your bedside table.
I'm reading "Total Control" by David Baldacci
It's a crime/thriller drama. Quite compelling.
If you can't find the time to read, you should try. It helps to escape from it all in a good book.
Similarly, the public library was sectioned into a juvenal and adult sections. When I wanted to check out a biography on Hilter when I was about 11, my mother was required to give her permission.
TN has passed legislation to have certain books "banned" from elementary libraries and some others from high school libraries too based on content. There are no restrictions on purchases for public libraries or what bookstores can stock and sale (although pornography can not be displayed).
I do not consider this "banning" books. If you want your child to read about alternative lifestyles you can purchase or borrow those books for your child. I don't consider it a big issue that porno mags are displayed so you can see the title but not tge cover picture.
To me, banning books is making it illegal to publish, own or loan certain books. Not protecting young minds from exposure to all the world's evil (hilter's solution or the US calvary's slaughter of Native Americans) or somewhat crazy ideas. Time enough when they are older - either adults themselves or with their parents' permission.
In the past it's been right wing Christian groups opposing sex and language, lately there has been an effort by ethnic minorities and indigenous groups to remove items they find offensive.
It’s interesting that many of the books that I read are now banned. Plus, many of the books that our children have read are also banned. I can’t imagine how many more books will be added to the ‘banned’ list.
Another interesting thing is, I remember seeing religious articles in certain publications that stated a list of movies that weren’t appropriate for people to watch.
All this did was make people curious about the content of those movies and they rushed off to see them. I think the same thing applies to books. Those books are going to sell more copies than if they weren’t banned.
Now I mostly use the digital libraries to get books and magazines for my kindle. The libby app lets you browse by category or search by author or title. When I check out a physical book, I reserve it through the online library website and pick it up after the librarian has pulled it for me. I used to browse through the library looking for books but I guess I gotten spoiled.
We have a great system also for simply asking online for any book. They will get it for us and deliver it to whatever branch we care to get it from. I am walking distance to 4 library branches in my city, each one just lovely and two of them very historic. I am such a fan of how our city handles the library system, if of little else it handles (hee hee).
I've just had a thought - I've never tried searching specifically for this in the online catalogues, since they separate all of the fiction by genre I wonder if they do the same with non fiction? That would be awesome!
A classification system (like Dewey Decimal or Library of Congress) is like an address book for the contents of a library. The call number on the spine is the "address" of the book. How on earth do the librarians find anything for patrons?
Then about wildlife rescue in Bolivia "The Puma Years". By Laura Coleman. Think Walnut size worm nesting in your kneecap sort of thing. Amazing book.
Now read by break into The Art Thief: a True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession. Michael Finkel wrote this one.
As I tell the boys, if you think genocide is a unique failing of the mankind, just read about the Punic Wars, subjugation acts of the British Empire, our Civil War, the Indian Wars, WWI and WWII, Croatia, and the Middle East (both the "civilized" Europeans and the Infidels)...
Man's inhumanity to man... a universal theme across the ages. I wonder if the civilizd college kids who protest with such certainty of their views would have that same certainty if they lived in a land that had experienced a real war (I don't count WWII for many of these - our soliders kept the fighting out of our country, the war was mostly shortages and many living today do not appreciate what it is to kiss a solider good bye and never see him again). America gave her blood and treasure in WWII, our families (except in a few territories) never lived under the danger of bombs or an occupation.
Sounds interesting . I’m not the cruise type either . I like access to the beach everyday . My parents got very sick along with many others on a cruise years ago . It was their first and last .
As stated it is not lighthearted in the least but truly gives a perspective of certain front lines during that time. Lying on my couch eating too many ice cream bars ( really no such thing as low fat there ) seems incredibly mild in comparison.
I am not the cruise type and after reading this I know why I prefer boats framed on my walls.
Reading is the best escape ever from the real world, so I often stick to fiction, but if anyone is interested in the Big Five MASS extinctions that have taken place on the earth with global weather changes I sure recommend Peter Brannen's The Ends of the World. It puts solidly in your mind how recent we are as compared to other species, what a teensy bit of time we have been here, and just why we won't last as long as the dinos were able to. There's a reason you are digging river rocks out of your desert back yard. And a reason that PNW I so enjoy visiting was a sea of lava for more than a few years. It kind of all makes me "know my place" and sets my sense of any importance reeling.
Compulsory cannabalism - everyone has to eat anything they kill!
Both books are very interesting and prove there is nothing new under the sun.
Read it myself in 1983 to see what Orwell thought we were in for. I was so naive back then.
I had to read “1984 “ in high school , I think it was 1981 when I read it
We also had to read “ A Clockwork Orange” also an early accurate prediction of how life is now , particularly the violence / gun culture.
“In the central portion of the great North American Continent there lies an arid and repulsive desert. From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska, and from the Yellowstone River in the north to the Colorado upon the south, is a region of desolation and silence. Nor is Nature always in one mood throughout this grim district. It comprises capped and lofty mountains ….(etc on landscape)...They all preserve, however, the common characteristics of barrenness, inhospitality and misery. There are no inhabitants of this land of despair”.
Do any of you live there? Despairing? Miserable? Yours, Margaret!