End of another era?

I'm a little slow on this news. I was on the elevator this weekend and the woman who rode up with me told me that Olsson's Books has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. It seems like airlines go into and get pulled out of (by the government?) chapter 11 all the time, but DC's oldest indy book store seems to have really hit hard times, according to this Washington Post article. Admittedly, I don't really buy many books; the last books I purchased were yoga books, and I begrudgingly bought them online (okay, fine, I just did an online book search at the Olsson's webpage, and apparently I could have purchased them there...). But I've gone to some good book signings at Olsson's, and having those disappear would be a bummer. Sniffle.

Book snobs, or, as the New York Times calls, it, "It's not you, it's your books."

Due mainly to law school, I took nearly five years off from avid reading. In fact, 2007 was the first time in nearly a decade that I owned a library card. And even now, my "to-read" shelf on has some rather dubious selections like Nikki Sixx's and Slash's autobiography (which, if you have no idea who they are, probably speaks well of you). So, I'm not one to talk or write when someone tells me he's never heard of, I don't know, Proust, for instance. Or Vonnegut. Although, I did have a laugh when many years ago, a friend had the following conversation with a man she was dating:

Friend: I'm reading Slaughterhouse 5.
Guy, in all earnestness: Oh. How were 1 through 4?

So, with that in mind, I got a kick out of this New York Times essay about love and literary taste.

Book karma

Remember when I wrote about Bookcrossing, the book exchange and tracking website? Well, I've since "released" at least one more book, which I was sure would be snatched up and recorded quickly. Of course, I failed to realize that people at a yoga studio are not wont to semi-permanently snatching up books that don't belong to them, and so even though I released Nicholas Sparks' At First Sight while I was there for a class, the book is still there, albeit in a spot different than where I had initially left it. Alas.

Next time, I'm releasing a book at a college campus or something.....

The Fiction Gap?

Among the observations reported by NPR in its online BOOKS section is one asserting that a correlation exists between possessing the Y chromosome and favoring non-fiction books over fiction. This worries me to some extent: although my Goodreads bookshelf may betray this statement, I prefer reading non-fiction over fiction, particularly those of the summiting-some-peak or accomplishing-some-other-great-feat variety. This genre isn't always great reading, though. An "autobiography" of Cal Ripken Jr. that I read years ago, before he retired, was possibly the most poorly written couple hundred pages I made myself read. You'd think he could find a better ghostwriter, no?

More Social Networking for Book Readers

Coincidentally, perhaps, I was invited to join Goodreads today by another bibliophile friend, and I prefer it to Shelfari. Writes Goodreads founder Otis Chandler on the website's "About" page:

[Goodreads] is a place where you can see what your friends are reading and vice versa. You can create "bookshelves" to organize what you've read (or want to read). You can comment on each other's reviews. And on this journey with your friends you can explore new territory, gather information, and expand your mind.

In general, Goodreads's design is more sophisticated than Shelfari's. The first time I visited Shelfari, I felt like I was on Friendster, circa 2002. Shelfari's default "shelves" read like a cross between an ownership inventory, gift registry, and personal "bestseller" list. In short, it appears that it was created for social networking because the shelves were not labeled with a habitual reader in mind.

The default "shelves" on Goodreads are more intuitive. As anyone who calls him or herself a reader will tell you, there is a pile of books somewhere in the house, or a list of those books, at least, that he or she wants to get to. On Goodreads, the "to-read" shelf is a default tag, as is "currently-reading." And there's a place to record when the reader finishes the book. The site just seems more tailored to a reader. Finally, the Amazon infiltration isn't as blatant on Goodreads because a book's profile page contains links to several online retailers -- not just Amazon. Ha. No more vertical monopoly! Or whatever.

So, check out the Goodreads widget (there actually was a typo in the HTML code of the Goodreads-provided widget that took me about 15 minutes to figure out....) at the bottom of the left column to see what I'm reading.

Covert Amazon Infiltration

Recently, I was invited to join Shelfari, whose website says that it's the "first social media site focused on books." I'm miserable at online social networking - my friends and associates just aren't people who have caught the social networking wave. I've never sat down and actually counted the number of people I know, but I do know that it's more than what my social networking profiles represent. I'm, therefore, pretty lame when it comes to these things.

So Shelfari, like BookCrossing, is about books. Unlike BookCrossing, Shelfari counts Amazon.com as an investor. The downside of this is that although there is a nifty bookshelf at the top of this blog showing the books that I allegedly own, if you scroll over a book on this shelf, it's easier to see the icon with a dollar sign and what is assumed to be a link to Amazon's site for the book. I've also had a bunch of technical problems with getting an appropriately-sized bookshelf onto this blog, and right now it seems like the links on the books and the Shelfari icon are broken. Don't blame me. I don't know any programming languages other than HTML, BASIC, and LOGO. Also, I'm confused about what my "goal" as a Shelfari member is. I'm not sure of what's supposed to go onto the bookshelf. All the books I own? The ones that I've read (but don't necessarily own)? I don't get it. My solution is to place on my bookshelf the stuff I've read since July, and then add on some books that reflect my personality. To that end, I am one of only one or two people on Shelfari that own books like the Appalachian Mountain Club's White Mountain Guide, Lonely Planet's Trekking in the Nepal Himalaya (no, I still haven't made it there), and Backcountry First Aid and Extended Care (my Wilderness First Aid certification expired in 2004, but all the information I learned kicked in when I had altitude sickness 2 years ago). Mostly, though, I dislike being a free advertiser for Amazon. This bookshelf probably will not remain here.

Snape-mania continues! (no spoilers)

J.K. Rowling's writing has either greatly improved, or I've finally just devoted a solid, un-distracted 20 hours (plus or minus a few hours) to read a Harry Potter book from beginning to end. She's managed to wrap up the story much tidier than many other modern storytellers, be they authors, screenwriters or television series writers. I am pleased. It was fantastic reading out on a shaded balcony, in 32% humidity weather. I know, dreadful humidity to those from Denver, but simply delightful to those of us who live in a city built on a swamp.

Right now I'm contemplating re-reading some Dickens, to see if some of what's discussed in Elizabeth Hand's article in the Washington Post holds true. The **article contains spoilers**. Rowling, like many writers, borrows from a panoply of writers, rather than just one, but there are a few themes that I think would be interesting to explore, like how orphans have fit in society. Oliver Twist, here I come.

Snape-mania arrives!

Exciting news arrived in my in box from the DC Public Library earlier this evening:

The item[s] listed below that you requested is/are available for pickup from the D.C. Public Library location whose address is listed above. Please inquire at the circulation desk with your Library Card to check out the item. After 10 days, the item[s] will be made available for the next customer.

Thank you for using CityCat 2K, your Library's online catalog.

Harry Potter and the deathly hallows / by J. K. Rowling ; illustrations by Mary Grandpre.

Even better: I have tomorrow off from work! I was supposed to run around and get errands done, but gah, now that my very own free copy of the final book in the Harry Potter series is sitting forlornly at the library waiting for me, my laundry will never get done, and I will soon be wandering around the city wearing grandma underwear. Ew. [EDIT: The library worker who sent out the emails did so inadvertently, so I will be receiving my copy with the proletariats tomorrow. Alas.]

I've actually never been able to make it straight through a Harry Potter book from beginning to end. While Rowling's images are vivid, I often find the descriptions really, really dense and detracting from the story. Moreover, I think the books have been marketed in such a way that does not give an incentive to read straight through. I mean, when you tell the reader that someone important is going to die, how many people are more interested in the how than the who? Wouldn't it be better to market the book like an episode of Grey's Anatomy? "The Grey's you won't want to miss -- Mt. Ranier awakens and spews ash, burying the interns alive in Seattle West!" The Potter corollary would be "The Deathly Hallows -- Potter and friends wander into Voldemort's trap....again!" But, maybe it's Rowling herself that needed to be muzzled instead for making statements about how killing off characters was tough for her to do but necessary for the story to evolve, blah, blah, blah.

Don't get me wrong. I'm able to get caught up in a well-told story. I saw the musical 1776 on Broadway, and during intermission I was concerned about whether the Declaration of Independence would be signed. Really. Nor is the length of a story the issue for me. I've read Little Women, which was the longest book I'd read until the Potter books were published (on the other hand, Catch 22 took me 2 years to read). This leads me to suspect that J.K. Rowling is, simply, not a good writer. She's got a great story, but the execution doesn't always do it for me. That's why I'll probably read one third of the way through, skip to the end to see who bites it, and then resume the book from where I left off.

This time, I'm also going to keep an eye out for Biblical imagery. That's right. I find it amusing that in light of the right-wing religious groups that have condemned the series for its witchery imagery, at least one religion reporter has considered Judeo-Christian imagery in the series, casting Harry as a Jesus-like figure, Dumbledore as a God-like figure, Voldemort as Satan, and Professor Snape as Judas. It's obvious that Harry has disciples and believers among the wizards and witches -- ooh -- we could even add a DaVinci Code-like element: Hermione as Mary Magdalene? Hmm. Now that I'm going down this route, a resurrection does not seem completely out of the picture, eh? Don't worry. I won't post any spoilers.

Catch and Release, part deux

So after much thought and wandering around DC, I "released" (see Catch and Release post) the book Love in the Present Tense in the courtyard behind 1616 P St., NW. For a better look at the location, take a look a this map. Seek, and ye shall find. Hopefully, the book will not wind up in a dumpster.

The book, incidentally, reminded me a lot of John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.

Catch and Release

I went fly fishing for the first time two summers ago. I got to see the catch and release ethic up close and personal, as I managed to catch (and release) two river trout. This is the extent of my knowledge about freshwater, or any water, for that matter, fishing. So instead I'm going to write about the journey of books, but not in a "How are books made?" PBS-special kind of a way. More in a quasi-Big Brother-esque kind of a way. Sort of.

Several years ago, a work colleague was cleaning out her bookshelves at home in anticipation of a move. I was a beneficiary of the spring cleaning and came into possession of Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran. It was registered with something called BookCrossing. BookCrossing turned out to be something that a geography geek (aka, me) could love. It starts with someone registering a book and receiving a book ID. Then, when that person is done with the book, it gets "released," either in a "controlled" manner or "into the wild." The location of the release is supposed to be documented on the website. A controlled release occurs when you know who is going to receive the book. It can be as easy as giving it to a friend or to the next person on a list of people who have said they'd like to receive the book -- a "book ring." I haven't figured out what motivates one to join a book ring, other than to get unexpected mail one day consisting of the book. Concededly, real snail mail is pretty fun to get -- all I get are Pottery Barn catalogs and invitations to weddings that I've known about a year in advance. Regarding book rings, as far as I can tell, the public library tends to be a little more efficient (even in DC) when it comes to the so-called "catch and release" of books. What's more interesting are the releases into the wild.

A release into the wild is, essentially, just leaving a labeled book somewhere for someone to hopefully find. BookCrossing strongly discourages the release of books in airports and on planes for "security reasons." Obviously, the folks that run that website have not lived in Washington anytime recently -- throwing out trash in a Metro station was a security risk until earlier this year, when the trash cans (in a new and improved bombproof design) returned. Public address announcements constantly warn passengers not to abandon belongings on the trains and buses. Like that would really make a difference to someone intent on carrying out a terrorist act. But I digress.

So, a book is released. Hopefully, someone "catches" the book after it is released, logs onto BookCrossing and then documents how and where it was received, maybe how the reader felt about the book, and whether it will be released or join someone's permanent collection. The end, unless you're like me and intrigued by the physical journey a book could take, especially if its journey is not preplanned. The idea that a book I left at the Jordan Pond House Restaurant in Acadia National Park in September 2006 could be picked up and travel to Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, go to Madison, and wind up in Springfield, Illinois, is intriguing to me. Unlike books passed around via book rings, where book recipients are at the very least connected by a mutual interest and diligence in participating in, I assume, some sort of BookCrossing-created virtual social network, books that travel by releases into the wild have a less certain fate and may wind up in the trash after one reading. The rewards, I think, are greater, though. If a book forwarded outside a book ring is picked up by more than one reader, the book's journey is one that reflects the interconnectedness of humans through everyday actions. And that's pretty rad.

Recently, I hunted around BookCrossing to review the histories of the most-traveled books. Sadly, it appears that the most-traveled books are in book rings, suggesting that books that are released into the wild are either forever lost or retrieved by those with little interest in participating in BookCrossing. When one releases a book into the wild, one may update the book's online presence with notes as to where and when the book was released, and a fellow reader may then go "hunting" for the book. As of this post, 48 books were released in DC within the last 30 days; the most recent release was 5 days ago. Someone released 10 of them in his or her back alley....uh, I'm unlikely to go into a back alley to find a book. After some more clicking, I found that this particular bookcrosser has left also left books in the ladies room at work....and someone else "caught" the book. Now, the restroom at my office isn't exactly a Superfund site, but I'm not sure I'd pick up a homeless book from the loo. Regardless, you get my point that many of these books released to the wild have a greater chance of making it to the landfill than to the hands of someone amenable to the BookCrossing concept.

With such little chance of randomly making it into the hands of someone willing to log a book into BookCrossing, what is the motivation for a wild release? Eternal optimism? Geography geekdom? Receiving a free, non-gifted book? For me, yes, all three.

I'm curious about the fate of the copy of Reading Lolita in Tehran that I caught and released in Maine. I wasn't registered with BookCrossing and the time and have since lost the paper on which I wrote the book ID. Maybe I'll have the chance to redeem myself. An advance reading copy of Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde and published in 2006 was laying on a table in my building lobby. It's now sitting next to me, with its new BookCrossing ID number and a brief message written inside the front cover. After I read and release it, we'll see if we ever hear from it again. I'm betting no, but one never knows...