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I guess it's time for another Coraline post.

apparently the only picture I have of myself face on, not smiling is from 2007.

Here I am with button eyes, one of the many things you can do and look at on the Coraline website. I feel like I need validate why I'm excited about this movie. The main reason that I'm encouraged is how involved Neil Gaiman is with the promotion. You can really tell that he likes what Henry Selick has done with his book. I follow Gaiman on twitter, and his updates imply that he's doing a ridiculous amount of interviewing for this film and that's great. As opposed to other books that have been made into movies like the Harry Potter series it's apparent this was a joint effort between book and movie production. I think that, along with it not being a movie with real actors (that give books a celebrity factor that always leaves a bad taste in my mouth) are really going to push this film into the category of good-movie-adapted-from-good-book. Hopefully I won't have to bite my tongue when I see the movie after it comes out next week.

Kids Books, etc

Since I've been working at The Library for about three months now I can truly say that I'm fairly acclimated to the position. Although what I do is not considered rocket science, as they say, I enjoy each day and find each task I am assigned calming, stimulating or interesting. Because I spend almost all of my time actually in the stacks either shelving, pulling or maintaining I get to see a lot of the collection I would never actually choose to seek out on my own leisure time. This aspect of the job has quickly become my favorite part of working in a library.

Lately I've become extremely interested in kids books. Not picture books that only have a few words on each page, but the bigger, more chapter-y kind. Al doesn't really get this new interest of mine, although he'd deny it if someone asked. He probably thinks what most of the adult population believes. What could a book for kids give me (a very important, smart adult)? It's interesting, though, because the past few children's novels I've read have actually given me more to think about and digest than the Very Adult book (that contains very Adult Things like war, death and sex!) I am currently trying to sift my way through today.

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, in addition to constantly reminding me of The Decemberists (one of its major downfalls), deals heavily with themes of children being considered less-than-human because of their young-ness. This is not a new idea, and was most recently (heatedly) discussed here, but it is still one that doesn't get too much mainstream press or conversation. It's an issue that's hard for me too because I lack the social skills I need to interact with some of my peers let alone people who AREN'T LIKE ME (how DO you talk to a child?) but it is a great step to see it discussed in a very popular book for kids. Children need to understand that this uncomfortable vibe they're getting from the adults around them is legit and imporant in order for it to change. The funny thing about this type of agism is that the -ism really really obviously exists because of fear and I can only assume this fear lies completely in adult's ineptitude to discern the age, thought process or intellegence of anyone under the age of 15. This book surprised me in how intelligent it was throughout but I was very disappointed with the way-too-happy ending. It was the only part of the book that let its i'm-a-novel-for-kids-! flag fly. I console myself in thinking that if I were a 9 year old I would only be happy if a way-too-happy-for-real-life ending happened at the end of the book. Not everything can be as depressingly well done as the Lemony Snicket series.

Another book that I just picked up and have only read the first few pages is The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (yeah, the The Giver and Number the Stars lady) . Because I haven't even gotten far enough to know the true plot of the book I can't say much except that there are SO MANY GRE words even in the first few pages of this book. This is a book for 9-12 year olds and I've already read the words(after two pages): nefariously, ignominiously, irascible and indolent. Those type of words are never in my VERY IMPORTANT ADULT books and are those I would never ever find in a teen novel (Stephenie Meyer, I'm mean you. You've ruined a generation). Although it's fairly obvious what Lowry is doing, I find it admirable and can only hope these children who read this book and others like it actually remember the new words they've learned so they don't have to spend hours and days memorizing definitions for words that apparently are only ever used anymore in children's literature.

Although this passion for children's lit may die quickly (I'm honestly not too sure how many great kids books there are out there. There seem to be a ton more things like Pony-Crazed Princesses than there are Neil Gaiman books for kids.) I'm glad I found that there is quality in this genre. My hope is that the next book genre I find through my employment proves to be just as fulfilling.

Bookmill!

Today Al and I decided to finally check out the Montague Bookmill in Montague, MA. It's about a half an hour drive from our place and we'd both heard pretty good things about it from people that have lived in Massachusetts for a little long than we have. I generally enjoy used book stores as long as their filing system makes sense and i can easily walk around/find everything i want and the bookmill succeeded in this area. It's located in a building built in 1842 to be a gristmill giving it an interesting aesthetic quality including several different sized rooms, steep stairs and creaky wooden floors. The majority of books they carried were very well kept, many hardly looked like they'd been open. Probably 90 percent of their books were non fiction, mostly academic in nature topics ranging from gay and lesbian lit to graphic design. My main critique of the bookmill was the lack of books published after around 1992. This is probably something one could say about any used book store, but it seemed more prevalent than another bookstore i regularly visit.

What the bookmill reminded me of most is The Book Loft (warning: this is a poorly laid out website that includes a backing musical track that i think might be by enya that you cannot opt to turn off. actually, don't even go here, it's not worth it.) located in German Village, a subsection of Columbus, OH. This was always one of my favorite places to visit when i actually went into downtown Columbus while i was still living around there. I could literally get lost looking at all their book offerings within their maniacally laid out 32 room store. They were superior to the bookmill in many ways, but their best feature was being open until 11pm or midnight each night (as are many other things located in Columbus). Conversely, nothing in the pioneer valley is open past 9.

I don't want to dis the bookmill too much though, we didn't try out the cafe located next door that has a pretty sweet menu (yum, brie, apricot jam and marinated apple grilled sandwich!). Additionally, i did pick up two Margaret Atwood books for 3 dollars and some change. They are her first and second published works, The Edible Woman (published in 1969) and Surfacing (published in 1972). I've never actually heard anyone talk about these two books when they talk about Atwood which i guess either means they're really bad or really crazy. I have to admit though, the real reason i bought them (although at some point i will read them) was the hilarious quotes on the front cover of each.





It's kind of crazy that that kind of thing would ever make anyone want to buy a book. I really like how Surfacing is considered the most shattering novel a woman ever wrote and then touted as even better than The Bell Jar like Sylvia Plath is the only other woman author out there (maybe in the New York Times eyes she is-- all they probably recognize as literature are the Great Books anyway *puke*). Also-- was everyone afraid of flying back in the late 60s early 70s? Didn't they use to smoke on flights back then? I can only assume that flying fear had something to do with the stale, overused cigarette smoke recirculating through the air ducts on a long flight. I'm really excited to read these books to see if their cover hype lives up to whats inside. When i finish these maybe i'll have to go back to the bookmill to get some more reading...and a grilled sandwich.