Rant or Rave: The Godfather

A commonly held believe amongst avid readers and book lovers is best summed up by the catch phrase: "Don't judge a book by its movie." Movies rarely manage to capture the magic, richness and character development of books, and many movie adaptations of good books are mediocre or even dreadful.

Another popular and widely held catch phrase is: "It is the exception that proves the rule."

The Godfather, by Mario Puzo, is the exception that proves the rule-- the movie IS better than the book. Indeed, Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 epic film is widely considered one of the finest films of all-time, coming in at #2 at IMDB and at AFI, as well as being in nearly every "best of" movie list ever created. The movie deserves its kudos-- it is brilliant in nearly all of its facets. But what of the book that was its genesis?

Written in 1969, The Godfather is a very good book, but it is most definitely not a great book. Puzo, at his best, captures the Sicilian and Mafioso lifestyles and mindsets extremely well, and there are many aspects of the book that provide additional content and context to the movie. Unfortunately, there is also a fair amount of extra, often comparatively dull, material in the book.

While the majority of the book follows the plot line most of us are familiar with from the movie, roughly a quarter of the book deals with events in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. There, we follow the career of singer turned actor Johnny Fontaine, and also of Lucy Mancini, bridesmaid to Connie Corleone. Only briefly touched upon in the movie, these portions of the book often drag, and the characters frequently come across as more two-dimensional and stereotyped. Part of the difficulty with these parts may actually be that there is no film equivalent for them-- you can't picture Marlon Brando or Al Pacino saying the words.

A nice "extra" for the book is that it spends a little bit more time with Michael Corleone during his time in Sicily and provides more detail and back story to his whirlwind romance and wedding there. Additionally, the story of how Vito and the family finally manage to bring Michael home from Sicily safely is also intriguing and much more clearly defined in the book. And we spend a little more time with Kay and with Mama Corleone.

Overall, however, the book too often spends time on minor and even irrelevant topics, losing some of the pace and muscle of the movie. So, a qualified Rave for the textual version of The Godfather. It is certainly well-written and worth reading, both on its own merits and because it will help "fill in" some of the details that the film brushes past, but it is also most definitely the exception to the rule. The movie surpasses the novel in nearly all respects.

Online savings just a click away!

I have not used coupons much. It seems like a lot of trouble to scan the sale papers and cut out coupons. Half the time I am doing well just to find the scissors! But todayI saved five dollars with coupons I found on the internet.
I was looking at a report from a CAFE libraries workshop entitled "Handling House and Home in Hard Times" to see if the links would be useful to reproduce for our patrons, when I came across the website http://www.couponmom.com/ . The description was as follows: "Has coupons you can print, helps you find coupons, gives you strategies on how to use them to make them most effective, and a whole lot more". I always always ALWAYS check links before I recommend them to people and this one turned out to be a winner! You do have to register to make best use of the site, but I found it to be well worth it.

I have a copy of the report at the reference desk, which has dozens of other links to useful websites such as http://www.cheapcooking.com/ for information on food savings, http://www.gasbuddy.com/. where you can search for cheapest gas prices in your area, or http://home.ivillage.com/, which contains information on everything from home organizing to budgeting.

Sometimes it is worth the trouble to look around.......now, where did I put those scissors?

Family Film Night

Tonight we have a 6 pm showing of the recent animated movie about food raining from the sky and spaghetti tornados. Based on the well-loved children's book, the movie got good reviews and is a lot of fun, so stop in! Bring along a pillow and blanket, or sleeping bag, or even a bean bag chair if you wish.

Actual Reality TV

Full Disclaimer: There is nothing Library related in this post. Also, I don't watch a lot of TV and virtually no "reality" TV. Dabbled in the Amazing Race a few years ago, that's about it (except for a very strange diversion with the family one night when we watched "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" and all had a blast with just how crazy the games were). But I digress. To my sensibilities, the only actual reality based TV is... sports.

Now, point shaving NBA referee scandals aside, sports are completely unscripted. Bizarre things happen. Games that everyone expects to be low scoring affairs wind up as offensive shootouts. And vice-versa. Superstars make boneheaded plays. People that nobody except their families have ever heard of make the big play to win the game. You never know what is going to happen next, and even sure bets sometimes aren't-- case in point, even the Detroit Lions are showing signs of being a legitimate NFL team!

A less snarky example is yesterday's painful, but incredibly entertaining, Packers game. This would be the script if it weren't an actual, live sporting event:

Team A commits several boneheaded errors early in the game, allowing Team B to jump out to a big lead. Team B is driving for another score, one that will pretty much put this game away early in the second quarter, then-- BAM! Team A forces a fumble and recovers. Not quite dead, yet. Time for scrappy Team A to counter-punch.

Showing plenty of grit and determination, Team A scores a touchdown and begins to chip away at Team B's lead, a challenge because not only are they already down big, but their defense is having a terrible time slowing down, much less stopping Team B. But they go into half-time down 14 and still hanging in there.

The second half is a crazy shootout. Touchdown Team B-- 21 point lead, game over? Not even close. Touchdown Team A. Onside Kick! Team A recovers! On fourth down, Touchdown Team A! Now it's only a 7 point game. Momentum is on Team A's side, right? Maybe not. Team B scores a touchdown in a minute and a half. Team A responds, goes 80 yards and scores a touchdown in 3 and a half minutes.

Finally, Team A stops Team B from scoring and gets the ball back, early in the fourth quarter, down by a touchdown. Three plays and less than a minute later, touchdown! Game tied! But wait, there's more!

Team B takes the ball and scores again, this time an extended, 11-play, 6 plus minute drive. Less than five minutes left. Team A takes the kick and goes 71 yards, touchdown! But, oh no! They did it too quickly. Team B still has nearly 2 minutes left and only needs a field goal. Bing, bang, boom-- they've driven it down to the 16 yard line with 14 seconds left, leaving only a chip shot field goal for the victory. Boom goes the kick and it's... NOT over! Team B's kicker pulls it wide left! Overtime.

Would anybody buy that? A TV exec would read that script and probably laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. No way Team A converts an onside kick AND a fourth and 5. No way the teams combine for 56 points in the second half. And ABSOLUTELY no way that Team B's kicker misses from point blank range to keep this craziness going into overtime. Maybe, if the kick were a long one-- 52 yards or some such-- but not a little 34 yard job. It's just too improbable.

BUT... if it all played out that way in a TV or movie script, you just know that Team B is now toast. After struggling all the way back from 17-0 down, nearly 24-0, Team A is now destined to win. They just have to-- it's what the script dictates.

And lo, so it seems it will happen. Team A wins the coin flip, and the play is there. First play in overtime: a deep middle post to Team A's big play receiver, who has two steps on his defender and is gone for the touchdown! Except that the pass was just a little off the mark, incomplete. Two plays later, sack, fumble and touchdown Team B!

Phew. Would anybody write it that way? Would anybody believe it if it wasn't actually happening? It was crazy, and nearly unbelievable. Sports is the best, and really the only reality TV. So-called reality shows have a goodly dollop of reality to them, but they are edited, and even directed in many cases. The people on the shows are selected by the creators of the show and many of the twists and turns that impact the people in the "reality" show are known and planned by the creators of the show. Not so sports. You never know if you'll get an epic upset (NC State over Villanova in 1983 anyone?) or boring old blowout (Florida destroying Cincinnati in this year's Sugar Bowl). Sports rule!

Now, since in the above example Team A was my beloved Packers and Team B was the "I'm okay with them, but not a fan" Arizona Cardinals, this was a deflating loss. But, I am curiously philosophic about the game-- it was the Packers' first post-Brent Farve playoff game. They are very young, learning a new scheme on defense, playing on the road against a team lead by a likely hall-of-fame QB who played one of the best games of his career. And they were THIS close to winning. They could easily have folded up their tents and slunk away into the off-season after two early turnovers and a 17-0 hole. They didn't. Rodgers played great, setting a Packers' post-season record for yards, and we should have a playoff contending team for several years now, hopefully longer if we can improve our offensive and defensive lines (they went from bad to mediocre over the course of this season, but mediocre still isn't good enough).

So, bravo to the 2009 Packers who played better than I expected and showed a lot of heart and talent despite losing yesterday. And I now become a New Orleans Saints fan and also look forward to March Madness. Go Saints, Go Badgers, Go Golden Eagles!

BBB Books: The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons

Monty Python's Flying Circus was, and is, a tour de force of comedy, satire, cultural insight, and good old-fashioned belly laughs. It was crude, it was rude, it was exquisitely funny and it was, perhaps above all, so quintessentially British (even though one of them was American). The Pythons: Autobiography by The Pythons is Big-- oversize coffee-table format and over 300 pages in length-- Beautiful-- chock full of photographs and screen captures from the show-- and, Bold-- could it be anything else, being Python?-- but is also an extremely good history of those six crazy lads from Britain (ok, four crazy Englishmen, one crazy Welshman, and one crazy American).

It is also a great history of their show and subsequent movies. How they actually wrote and performed the skits. The different influences each member had on the show. Terry Gilliam's recollections of how primitively he did his animations. Their transition to movies. The interactions of six brilliant, but radically different, personalities. The effect of fame and recognition on them. Outstanding.

On top of all that, this book really is in many ways an autobiography of Monty Python. Each of the members: Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Graham Chapman and John Cleese has a portion at the front of the book talking about their youth and family. Photographs from childhood and prep schools. There are recollections by each Python on how they met the other Pythons. Diary excerpts and interviews discussing how they got started, what the creative process was like, the impact of their growing fame on the group's dynamic.

Beyond the individuals, there is also a true autobiography of the troupe. The way Terry Jones and Michael Palin tended to write with each other, ditto John Cleese and Graham Chapman, with Eric Idle contributing on his own or to both of the other pairings and Gilliam's animation rolled into the mix as well. How they decided on what bits got in and which bits didn't. The filming process and how changes in their lives (various romances, Graham Chapman's drinking, etc.) affected the group.

Great stuff. Fascinating stuff. All of it simultaneously serious and completely irreverent, in typical Python fashion. If you are a Monty Python fan, you will enjoy this big, bold, beautiful book whether you read it cover to cover, sample bits and pieces, or simply browse the pictures and captions. It is in our Oversize collection with call #: 791.45028 PYTHONS

Upcoming and Ongoing Events

A heads up on a few upcoming events, plus some ongoing activities:
Upcoming

• Family Film Night, Tuesday, Jan. 12 @ 6:00 pm. Strange, food-based weather is the center of this movie (which, because of licensing restrictions we can't actually name) based on a well-loved children's book. Bring a pillow, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and some snacks!
• Origami Workshops, Monday, Jan. 25 and Friday, March 5 @ 3 pm. These workshops are open to 4th-12th graders. Previous experience is helpful, but not necessary.
• Wacky Winter Olympics, Thursday, Feb. 18 (Teens only, grades 7-12) and Friday, Feb. 19 (grades K-6), both at 3:00 pm. Not quite the bobsled or ice hockey, but we will have marshmallow shot put and potato hockey.
• Winter Wisconsin Winters with Books: Adult Reading Challenge. Enter each week starting January 18 and running through March 17. Weekly prizes. Full details here.
  

Ongoing

• Pop Open a Good Book: Winter Reading Challenge. Open to grades K-12, the challenge runs through February 13. It's not too late to come in and sign up.
• Magazine Title Scramble. Open to grades 7-12. Correctly unscramble a list of magazine titles for a chance to win a 1-year subcription to your favorite magazine (some exclusions apply. Value not to exceed $40).
• Guess How Many Kernels of Popcorn Contest. Guess how many kernels of popcorn are in a container in our display case and you could win the PASS THE POPCORN game. To be eligible, you must not go over the number of kernels. Open to students in grades K-12.

Rant or Rave: Rose Parade Edition

Watched much of the Rose Parade with my family yesterday. Great fun. My wife, Jenn, and I lived about three blocks off the parade route 12 years ago, and it was very cool to roll out of bed on New Year's day, walk a couple of blocks (with temps in the 60s) and enjoy the floats.

Of course, we lived towards the end of the route and things are a little different there then at the beginning where the TV cameras are. At the end of the route, the floats are a little less... dynamic than at the beginning. The trucks underneath the huge, floral creations breakdown causing large breaks in the flow. As I remember, the longest break we had was about 45 minutes long.

On top of that, many of the floats with moving bits are broken by the time the parade is over. One of the floats we saw was a bee, with moving arms and antennas-- very cute and cool. Except that by the end, two of its arms were dangling by its side, completely useless, and one of its antenna was just kind of spastically twitching, instead of swiveling smoothly.

So, a rave for watching the Rose Parade-- good fun, and the announcers aren't too horrible (unlike the New Year's Eve hosts/hostesses). But, an even bigger rave for attending in person. You get to hang with the other New Year's Day celebrants, watch some cool floats, and see some cool floats fall apart. As an additional plus, you can also go see the floats being constructed days in advance of the parade at the Rose Bowl, which is really cool. It's an amazing process.

Some day I hope to go back and see another parade in person. Ideally, I'd like to take my kids with me.

Happy (almost) New Year!

2009 was a good year. A lot of progress was made on the expansion front, both in “concrete” terms—building plans, drawings, cost estimates, etc.—and in “soft” terms—building connections to the community. We are always looking for suggestions and other feedback, so please let us know your thoughts on expansion!

Visits and check-outs were both up and demand for the library’s computer stations was up significantly. We had some terrific programs during the year, and another hugely successful summer reading program. The Winter Reading Challenge is in full swing right now, and plans for the Summer are already in the works.

Our collection was further weeded in 2009, a process begun in December of 2008, and nearly all areas of our holdings have now been weeded. While still short of stack space, the weeding has allowed us to add new titles and formats to our holdings and even provide us with a little space to grow into until the expansion is ready.

Thanks to the generosity of many of our patrons we are closer than ever to our fundraising goal, plus we have some new CD racks, a beautiful “Tree of Giving” in the lobby and will soon have wireless printing. It’s been a great year, and we’re looking for even better things in 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

Rant or Rave: Treasure Island

I've been going old school lately, catching up on some of the classics I know I should've read when I was younger and never quite got around to. Hence, my last entry, Around the World in Eighty Days, and the current Rant or Rave title, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. I've seen a variety of Treasure Island movies, including the muppet version (awesome, as nearly all things muppet are) and Disney's animated SciFi version Treasure Planet (not bad, with an interesting twist), but I had never read the actual book.

A big rave for the book for this simple reason: If you want to know how to talk like a pirate, THIS is your book. The parlance of the pirate is pretty good in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but the lingo is better in this one. Far more authentic feeling, perhaps because it was written at a time when there really were still pirates around, not a hundred plus years after the fact. Indeed, much of what makes the Pirates of the Caribbean series so much fun was done first in Treasure Island.

Beyond the dialog, this is just a fun read. Full of adventure, danger, treasure and all the fun things of youth with a dollop of coming-of-age, morality and the search for a father figure thrown in for good measure. The novel is a fairly quick read, but it is fun throughout, with enough variation from the subsequent versions I have seen that I wasn't even certain how the plot line would unfold or the story conclude. Treasure Island is a terrific book for anyone over the age of eight, or thereabouts, who likes a good adventure story or wants to learn how to really talk like a pirate.

For an extra special treat, listen to the audiobook of the novel, read by Michael Page. It is a terrific piece of narration, one that really captures the cadence and quality of the pirates' language.

School's Out-- Come In to the Library

We hope everyone enjoy's their break and has a wonderful Christmas. With school out next week, stop down to the Library. You can sign up the kids (grades K-12) for our winter reading program, Pop Open a Good Book; every reader who completes the challenge will receive an ice cream coupon and a raffle ticket for a chance to win the Grand Prize. Enter the "Guess How Many Kernels of Popcorn" contest while you're here for a chance to win the Pass the Popcorn game.

On Tuesday, Dec. 29, we'll have a movie double feature. At 2 p.m. a group of guinea pigs-- with the aid of a fly and a cockroach (no, really)-- will attempt to save the world (naturally-- it's amazing how often the world needs saving). Later, at 6 p.m., a teenage wizard and his friends (who could they be?) will have to... wait for it... save the world! This is movie #6 in the series, and it is quite good, so bring a pillow and blanket, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and snuggle in for the show. As a bonus, there's no school the next day! Extra double bonus-- popcorn will be served!

Wednesday, December 30: FWii 4 All!

No school—come play! Everyone is invited to Wii with us from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Some great new games will be available to “test drive” including New Super Mario Bros. Wii andLego Rock Band. Traditional favorites like Super Smash Bros. and Wii Sports Resort will also be available.

BBB Books: Stalag Wisconsin

Did you know that Wisconsin was a popular destination for WWII German Prisoners of War? Neither did I up until about two years ago while I was doing research for my history of Caledonia and I came across this book:

There were PoW camps all over the place!

It was pretty common for the German PoWs to be "hired" out to local farmers to help cultivate and harvest crops-- something there was a high demand for since most of the able-bodied men of the country were off fighting in Europe or the Pacific. The prisoners were low-risk, no SS or high-level Nazi officers, and many of them were highly educated individuals, often professionals. Guards from the PoW camps would go along to keep an eye on the Germans, but they rarely caused any trouble.

It is a fascinating and little known chapter in Wisconsin's history, but one well worth checking out. Waukesha County had a PoW camp in Genesee, where 280 prisoners were held in two barns (p. 132-137). Stalag Wisconsin has over 75 photographs (says so right on the cover, so I know it is true!), and some of them are quite cool (see p. 85-88). The book is available in our non-fiction area under the call#: 940.5472775 COW

Fun Sites for the Holidays

Here are a few websites to visit for some Holiday frivolity:

• Elf Yourself. From the clever folks at JibJab, with underwriting by OfficeMax to keep it free, elfyourself.com is a fun, and surprisingly easy (they've really improved the interface from last year) way to send funny holiday emails to your friends and family.
• Chin Carolers. They don't sing the entire song, unfortunately, but they do know the refrain from an awful lot of holiday tunes. (Hat Tip: Lois Duckey)
• Tracking Santa Claus. NORAD tracks Mr. C's progress around the world.
• Design Your Own Gingerbread House. Pretty intuitive and inventive. Allows for truly artistic creations, or just plain silly stuff, like adding a fish to your gingerbread house.
• Christmas eCards. A variety of cards are available: some funny, some religious, some animated. 123greetings also has non-Holiday cards-- all for free.
• Christmas Screensavers. If you want to make your computer more festive, this is a good website for you.

Most of these sites have advertising of some sort or other, which is why they are free, but the intrusion level isn't too bad. Have fun!

Upcoming Events

Tonight, Tuesday, December 15: Expansion Open House

At 6:30 this evening there will be an open house regarding the library's expansion plans at Village Hall. Please join us for an informative and exciting look at where we're heading. At 7:30 there will be a village board meeting which will include a further discussion of expansion.

Monday, December 21: Pop Open a Good Book

The start of our winter reading challenge "Pop Open a Good Book". Registration begins on the 21st and every reader who completes the reading challenge will receive an ice cream coupon and a raffle ticket for a chance to win the Grand Prize.

Tuesday, December 29: Harry Potter for the Holidays

Join us Tuesday, December 29 at 6 p.m. for a showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bring a pillow and blanket, sleeping bag or bean bag chair and snuggle in for the show. As a bonus, there's no school the next day! (Though there is Wii play at the Library)

Wednesday, December 30: Wii Play
No school—come play! Everyone is invited to Wii with us from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. and 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Some great new games will be available to “test drive” including New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Lego Rock Band.

Bold, Bizarre, Beautiful Books

This will be an ongoing, occasional series of posts highlighting some of the cool, strange, and beautiful books we have at the Mukwonago Community Library that most of us don't know exist. No particular criteria for inclusion other than I found them to be intriguing and/or fun and want to let others know about them as well.

BBBB #1: Skyscrapers

Over a foot-and-a-half in length, this book is a terrific photographic and historical review of skyscrapers and our fascination

with them. While this tall, but narrow, volume would serve well in a "coffee table" capacity, it is also chock full of fun details and intersting narratives about the quest to build the tallest buildings in the world. Why do we build up? What is our fascination, and sometimes dread, with being high up above all else?

This book examines those questions as well as providing some terrific photographs. It both eye-candy and history, rolled together with a little societal examination and exploration of human nature.

Particularly poignant is the section on the World Trade Center, pages 66-67, which opens with the following passage:

At 12:18 p.m. on Friday, February 26, 1993, everyone's worst urban nightmare came true: a bomb exploded in the World Trade Center (WTC), collapsing walls, igniting fires, and leaving 50,000 workers and visitors gasping for air and stranded in darkness in the shafts of the 110-story towers.

Of course, it turns out that wasn't the worst urban nightmare, only a foreshadowing of a far more horrific and tragic event.

Overall, though, this is a fun book and an informative one. It begins with ancient "skyscrapers" like the pyramids of Egypt and the Mayan temples in Central America and follows mankind's desire to build up all the way to the partially completed Kuningan Persada Tower in Jakarata, Indonesia.

Skyscrapers can be found in the oversize materials section, near the reference collection, under the call # OV720.483 Dupre.

Expansion Open House: Dec. 15

Join us in one week at village hall for a look at the preliminary plans for expansion! On Tuesday, December 15 from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the village hall board room, the library and our architects will have drawings of what an expanded library might look like and how it might be arranged. Del Wilson, of Uihlein-Wilson Architects, will be available for questions, as will the Library Director and Library Board members.

Stick around at 7:30 for a Village Board meeting which will include a presentation about the expansion and a Q&A session with the Village Board members. As we head into a new year, it is time to get excited about all the terrific things an expanded and renovated library can offer the community!

Come on down to village hall, Tuesday, December 15 and see how our plans are progressing.

Mukwonago Community Library: Rooted in the Past, Growing for Tomorrow.

Rant or Rave: Around the World in 80 Days

Though I have seen movie adaptations of Jules Verne's classic story, and read some variations on the theme, I had never actually read Around the World in Eighty Days. This hole in my reading was recently addressed, and I must say in a most enjoyable fashion. As is usually the case with these things, this post will be a rave.

In and of itself, the story is a good one and Verne tells it very well. His characterizations of the unflappable, proper British gentleman, Phileas Fogg, and his overly emotional, volatile French valet, Passepartout, is both amusing and reflective of 19th century norms and mores. Their trip around the world is fascinating and fun and there is enough tension to keep the reader engrossed from beginning to end, even when knowing the ultimate resolution of the journey (as I did).

Beyond the story itself, however, was the great fun of being taken back in time by Verne. Though his contemporary, H.G. Wells, wrote The Time Machine, Verne's work most definitely serves as a trip backwards in time, to a different world. The flavor of a world deeply imprinted by British imperialism is clear throughout the book, and so to are Verne's depictions of 19th century India, China, and the American west.

Today's world truly is smaller than ever before, but a sense of the vastness of the earth for 19th century travelers can readily be found in Around the World in Eighty Days. Ship journeys took weeks, not days and transcontinental railways could be interupted by buffalo herds-- or require disembarkment because the rail lines haven't been completed (despite advertisements to the contrary).

So, a big rave for Verne's classic-- it holds up well more than a hundred years later. It is fun and it is fascinating as a travelogue of the past.

Reading List

Facebook has tons of little games, apps, notes, quizzes, and widgets flying around it. One that caught my eye was this one: "The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?"

Interesting question. Well, here's the list-- the ones that I have read have an X after them. How does your reading compare?

1 Pride and Prejudice -
2 The Lord of the Rings - X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte -
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - X
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - X
6 The Bible - X (much of it. I know I haven't read all of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte -
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell - X
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman -
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - X

Section 1 = 5

11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy -
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - X
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - (complete!?! Nope. A lot of them, but... wow)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier -
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - X
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk -
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - X
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger -
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot -

Section 2 = 4

21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell -
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald) - X
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - X
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy -
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - X
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky -
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - X
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - X

Section 3 = 6 (what a weird mix)

31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy -
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - X
34 Emma - Jane Austen -
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini -
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres -
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden -
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne - X

Section 4 = 4

41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - X
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving -
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins -
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery -
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood -
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan -

Section 5 = 3

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel -
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons -
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen -
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth -
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon -
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley -
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon -
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez -

Section 6 = 2

61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov -
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt -
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold -
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - X
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy -
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding -
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie -
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville -

Section 7 = 3

71 Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens - X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - X
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson -
75 Ulysses - James Joyce -
76 The Inferno – Dante - X
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome -
78 Germinal - Emile Zola -
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray -
80 Possession - AS Byatt -

Section 8 = 4

81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell -
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro -
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert -
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry -
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom -
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - X
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton -

Section 9 = 3

91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - X
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks -
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - X
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - X
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute -
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - X
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare - X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - X

Section 10 = 7

Total = 41

Cool-- now I have some more books to add to my reading list. And some of these I only vaguely remember, having read them in high school and college.

Libraries Are a Bargain

First of all, I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. For myself, I believe I am fully recovered from the food coma that was Thursday. The Packers smoking the Lions helped.

Now onto more mundane stuff-- it is difficult to pin down the exact economic impact of libraries, but recent studies indicate that it is significant. In Wisconsin, a study done in 2008 indicated that for every tax dollar spent to support libraries, the state's residents got back over $4 in goods and services. The full report can be found here, along with links to other studies.

This echoes findings found in the rest of the country, as well. Studies done in Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Washington show similar results. In Ohio, a study showed that nine public library systems generated an annual economic impact of nearly four times the amount invested in their operations.

Libraries draw people to a community, bring people in to shopping districts and downtown areas. We offer job training and retraining help in difficult economic times, and help to those learning the vital computer skills so important in the 21st century. We connect individuals and groups and offer a backbone of knowledge that benefits not just our patrons but everyone they interact with before and after their visits.

The Wisconsin Library Association had a catch phrase a few years back that I think sums it up well: If knowledge is power, than libraries are power plants.

And we are-- efficient, highly flexible and adaptable power plants.

Thanksgiving Hours

Well, there aren't any. We're closed tomorrow. But we are open on Friday and Saturday for our normal hours (9-5 and 9-4 respectively).

Happy turkey day everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a remarkable holiday—one dedicated to appreciating all of our blessings and good fortune! I mean, I like all of our holidays-- celebrating Christmas or Valentine's Day or our Presidents or brave soldiers is all good. And the candy and costumes on Halloween is cool. But Thanksgiving is one that really invites us to take a step back and take stock of all that is good and right and, yes, lucky in our lives. It is easy to get lost in the nitty gritty of daily life and lose track of the important things-- family, friends, helping others, appreciating life in all its joys and tragedies-- so having a day dedicated to appreciating all that we have is a tremendous day indeed.

The library is thankful for all of the wonderful volunteers and donors that help us year in and year out. We are lucky to have such wonderful and dedicated supporters, willing to give of their time, talent donors that help us year in and year out. Truly, the library would not be the wonderful, community jewel that it is without the help of the people and businesses that support us year ‘round.

As director, I am thankful for the wonderful staff here at the library—day in and day out they provide great service and do all they can to make the library the best it can possibly be. I am also thankful for the opportunity to serve the wonderful community of Mukwonago. Seeing the range of people who use the library for personal growth, family entertainment, interaction with friends and neighbors... well, it's a wonderful and satisfying feeling.

And there's more to be thankful coming up-- Midnight Magic is next week! Lots of fun family activities, including Applebell the Imp on Tuesday night, the annual Tree lighting on Wednesday night and a variety of great things to do on Saturday, December 5th. Watch the parade, then swing into the Library to do some Christmas shopping at the Friends of the Mukwonago Library bake sale and silent auction, then meet the local authors who will be joining us between 1 and 4.

Happy Thanksgiving!