Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

E-books? How about FREE-Books?!

If the phrase “digital library” makes you think only of Snell’s e-journals and online research databases, think again. This digital library will blow your mind. Project Gutenberg is a digital library that has 33,000 e-books, but here’s the catch–you can download them all for free. And trust me, they’re good books, too. Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Tale of Two Cities… You’ve heard of them. These are just the first few titles I skim over as I access the library home page. But how do they do this for free? It just makes no sense. It’s almost too good to be true. Almost. Most of these books are available on Project Gutenberg because their copyrights have expired and are now essentially public works. So yeah, there won’t be any brand new bestsellers such as The Girl Who Played With Fire, but there are many thousands of timeless novels to get lost in. Every book is available in formats accessible regardless of your technologies abilities (mostly plain text or html). You and your laptop are about to become best friends. A nearly endless supply of free books. It’s just what your summer needs. Hey, they even have Moby Dick available on Project Gutenberg… I think someone should tell damong. Check it out! Now! www.gutenberg.org

Moby-Dick

Yes, I’m reading it. I recently checked Moby-Dick out from Snell and am now returning it. Do those two sentences sound like they contradict each other? They don’t; I only returned the book because I decided I needed to own a copy if I was going to read it. There is no way I would get through this massive, intensely detailed novel in the time before I needed to return it. I suppose I don’t need to go in to the story. We all know about Captain Ahab and his obsession with the white whale known as Moby Dick. We all know that the book begins with the unforgettable sentence; “Call me Ishmael.” In fact, the book is narrated by Ishmael entirely and he does not even get on the boat–the Pequod–until some 115 pages in. Before that time comes some of the plot that you might not know about, or have forgotten. He spends his time for the first fifth of the book wandering around New Bedford, then Nantucket, admitting that he is feeling restless and depressed and will stop at nothing to get on a whaling boat. He encounters a cannibal named Queequeg along the way and they become unlikely friends and bedmates (yes, it was perfectly okay for two men to share a bed back then). He and Queequeg arrive in Nantucket and find their way on the Pequod, where they convince the best mate, Bildad, to accept them as part of the crew. But they do not meet Ahab. He is a reclusive captain, said to only have one leg after a whale bit the other one off. So he walks on a wooden leg and broods in his cabin. Ahab himself will not appear until close to page 150. In short, there is much more to Moby-Dick than simply a whale. The book was not popular when it was first received in 1851. Herman Melville had been writing popular novels for a few years prior to its publication, but Moby-Dick was not a fast paced high-seas adventure. Even then, audiences found it to be a slow paced high-seas adventure. Many chapters are prolonged lush descriptions of Nantucket and elegant fact sheets about whaling. Some chapters are a mere two pages long; others are closer to twenty. This deliberately rumbling, halting advancement of action would probably be renounced by creative writing teachers even today–except it isn’t, because the book we happen to be talking about is Moby-Dick. That the book incorporates every form of writing within–fiction, memoir, poem, song, theater, do-it-yourself manual, travelogue–helps that pervading style. This book is simply a literary tour-de-force. My reading of the book takes a similar rhythm, except more halting; I actually first picked up this book in January of last year. Faced with school, stress, and the prospect of reading a 600-page book, I set it aside, vowing to return. Now I have returned, but I’m taking it step by step. Some days I only read one four page chapter, others I’ll read a longer chapter, plus five more pages. I am soaking it up, to use one final cliche. This time I will succeed at finishing this book. I’ll chase it to the ends of the earth if I have to. Note: Read the links attached to the names carefully. They help explain the biblical allusions in the novel.

Don’t play with this fire; it’s addictive

So I am almost done reading The Girl Who Played with Fire. Good book. I must say I loved The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but this second novel gets to the heart of the action in the perfect amount of time. Dragon Tattoo had about 100 pages in the beginning that in my opinion could seriously have been reduced or cut out. I am also currently watching the Dragon Tattoo on Netflix. The movie is from 2009 and subtitled since it is a Swedish film. What I was surprised to discover as well was that The Girl Who Played with Fire is currently in theaters! When I was checking out times for the new movie, Inception, I was taken aback! I had no idea that the books had reached such a wide audience that Swedish films were being played in the movie theaters here in the US. I am definitely not going to see this movie until I finish the second book… but it’s a good thing I only have about 100 pages left. I must say something about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movie. I was told it was good and I would really like it, but it jumps into the action almost too fast. The slow start that the book had is completely negated by the quick jump that the movie takes. I also think that Lisbeth Salander’s character is seen in a very different light in the movie. In the book, Larsson is able to give context and Lisbeth’s thoughts behind her actions. In the movie she simply comes across as a tattooed, pierced, black-clothes-wearing feminist vigilante. I don’t think the viewers really get an idea of her character. Maybe in the Fire movie you see more of her personality, as the book focuses mostly on her. Overall I am loving the second novel and can’t wait to finish it. The movies… definitely for people who have read the book. Now I’m just waiting for an English version to come out so I don’t have to focus on subtitles!! All three of Larsson’s novels can be found in Snell library… but good luck taking them out… you’ll have to get in line!

Cinephilia of The Hub

Being a film fanatic, I want to express my appreciation of  The Hub’s numerous books on cinema. Each time I wander back there, I see a new book on film. A few weeks ago I sat down and read Akira Kurosawa: master of cinema, compiled by the film historian Peter Cowie, and today I skimmed through a scholarly book on portrayals of  immigration in World Cinema. I also was glad to see that David Thomson’s The Moment of Psycho is available, which allowed me to include it in the summer reading exhibit I recently put together with Krissy. There is a large book on Fellini’s films called Fellini: The Films, which is similar to the Kurosawa book in size, reliance on pictures and biographical structure. There are certainly more. I found these books mainly because I was looking for them. (The Kurosawa and Fellini books noticeably tower above the dinky paperbacks, though.) But at the same time, they are so well-organized they are unmissable. Most of the film books seem to be placed in the middle row of the Hub’s shelves. This makes them much easier to find than the section on the third floor for books on films, because in that section they are mixed in with VHS’s and DVD’s. Whenever I look at a book on movies, with only a few exceptions, I feel as if I am one of the last people to be doing such a thing. I feel as though nobody takes criticism seriously anymore, and even movies are not taken seriously in the traditional sense. These sentiments can be backed up with other data and observation, but that’s for a different piece. This motivates me to find out more about them. But I don’t feel this way in the Hub; I figure, if this is a newly created space, popular with students, then perhaps students wanted more film books? Or maybe just the professors? Whatever the case, it is a pleasant surprise. But I might still be the only one who actually reads them for pleasure.

To Naxos and Beyond

  (Above: Johann Sebastian Bach, his printed Naxos subscription in hand) Note: This is the definitive version of the Naxos post, with full instructions. Are you a fan of Bach? Handel? Debussy? You should check out Naxos, one of our many Alumni Resources at Snell. It is a music library  tailored towards fans of Classical Music.  If you go to the Naxos website (www.naxosmusiclibrary.com) you can find such a wide array of composers and songs (over 615,000 songs), that you might feel overwhelmed, but there is no need to worry; Naxos organizes itself in to categories of Composers, Genres and a search engine for specific song titles. Although Naxos is, ostensibly, a Classical Music  site,  the site is now expanding to other genres. An impressive Jazz collection has been established, categrorized under both “Contemporary Jazz” and “Jazz Greats.”  There is a new application Naxos has recently started; now you can upload music on to your iPhone, iPad or iTouch. First you must register with Naxos, then you may begin streaming playlists on to your phone. You can create your own playlists. Students (users) have the ability to create a student playlist account and build their own, private playlists. To do this, they need to access the NML as usual, click on the Playlist tab at the top of the page, then click “Sign-up.”To register for Naxos, you must vist http://0-neu.naxosmusiclibrary.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/  (if you are off-campus, use myNEU credentials to log in). Click on the Playlist tab, then click “Sign Up.” (If nothing happens the first time you click, click again).  The user will be asked to enter his/her name, email address, and to create a password. Once (s)he has created a student playlist account, (s)he will be able to login to the account and build an unlimited number of playlists from any piece within the Naxos Music Library. (Playlists are limited to 60 tracks or 4 hours–whichever comes first–for loading and streaming optimization.) The same login will be used for both the student playlist account AND the iPhone app. While the NML app version 2.0 allows users to search and stream as if logged in on their computer, building and editing playlists must still be done on a computer. You must have iTunes version 9 to use this app. You can download the iPhone app by visiting http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/nml/id338059159?mt=8.  For now, playlists may only be created online, rather than on one’s phone. Naxos may change this in later editions of the iPhone app.  Northeastern playlists will be created in the near future, which all Naxos users of the NU community will be able to view.   Naxos can be found on the Alumni Resources page.  For technical assistance with Naxos please contact: NMLHelp@Naxosusa.com. (Special thanks to Naxos Customer Relations representative Anne Benson for providing crucial information for this post.)