Read, Listen, Watch

Staff Picks and Suggestions

Library of Congress joins the Flickr fun!

Do we have any Flickr fans out there? If you don’t know what Flickr is you must visit it at once. It is an online photo community. People can join and post their photos to show their friends and family or they can make them public for others to see and comment on. There are lots of groups on Flickr you can join, such as bird lovers where you can post your pictures of birds and others do as well and create a nice little community of people with similar interest in birds. Ok now that we know what flickr is, the Library of Congress now has an account! Along with their 530 miles of books shelves, the Library of Congress also has a fantastic photo collection. They have been uploading some of those photos to Flickr for the world to see, enjoy and comment on! They invite people to tag (a descriptive word for the photo) the photos as well.

The World of the Tudors

Since I read The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, I was compelled to see how Hollywood translated her novel onto the big screen. It certainly didn’t disappoint me in terms of the visual feast of elaborate costumes, dangerous family rivalries, and sinister court intrigue!! Though all the fascinating elements were there that defined the Tudor reign, I still felt the movie fell short of the book. As a fan of historical fiction, I love Philippa Gregory, author of The Other Boleyn Girl, who also wrote extensively on the Tudors in her other novels as well. Her prose infuses the reader with the deep, rich textures of court life along with insightful character development. So come to the library, and explore her wonderful works of fiction and dive into a fertile world of imagination.

Curling up with a good mystery

Picture this, cup of tea, piece of cake, and you curled up on the sofa!  Doing what, you asked?  Reading a great mystery, that’s what!  Haven’t heard of any good titles?  Well do I have one for you!  Heard of James Patterson’s Alex Cross series? No? You don’t know what you’ve been missing.  One of my favorites is The Big Bad Wolf.  While this wolf won’t blow your house down, you may want to lock your doors and check your windows after reading.  Patterson’s characters jump off the pages right into your scary heart.  Enter in Dr. Alex Cross, detective and psychologist all rolled into one.  He’ll need both those skills to help solve the murders he encounters.  Will he be able to? I can’t give away much more of the storyline, but you can read all about the adventures of Alex Cross.  Where, you asked?  Snell Library that’s where.  Check him out, you won’t be disappointed.

Reading For Free

Neil Gaiman has a series of wonderful posts about reading, buying books, and free books. His publisher, by the way, is offering his book American Gods online for free through March 28. Neil Gaiman talks the talk and walks the walk. He writes really well too – and now’s your chance to read one of his more popular books for free if you aren’t familiar with him. When you’re done with American Gods, don’t forget that you can check out many of his other works here at the Snell Library!

Library Architecture

I recently came across this slide show on Slate, titled “How do you build a public library in the age of Google?” It’s an interesting tour of current library architecture, and the different ways cities are trying to adapt libraries into popular public spaces. What do you think? Do you have a favorite public library? How does the building design play into your appreciation? I know I prefer smaller libraries, and sometimes I find some modern architecture a little too sterile for my taste. In any event, I still plan on checking out books for a long time to come!