Thoughts On Self Education

I received a comment yesterday sitting on the train while I was reading MBA In A Day. Some guy said, "I learned more from reading books than I did spending six years in college, it is more efficient and faster." I never got the guys name. But, I think in many ways this is correct. Teaching yourself to learn for your own purposes is a gift. Not everyone is self directed. Libraries are a boon to this kind of thinking.

Anyways, I am off to work. I will be finishing up reading MBA In A Day will give my thoughts on the book later tonight or tomorrow.

Today has managed to be pretty busy. I am one of two librarians at the reference desk, so I have spent a lot of time answering peoples questions today.

There are also two programs going on today. I helped them find some anime dvds for the teenagers to take out, Wings of Honnemaise, Ghost In The Shell, Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away, Our Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso, The Castle Otranto, Castle In The Sky, Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind, Tenchi Muyo, Fist of the Northstar and other anime classics which we have as part of our film collection. A few other titles were checked out already like Neon Genesis Evangelion and The Animatrix. A lot of stuff by Hayao Miyazaki. I hope they like the program.

The other bit of business was helping make sure a SCORE Marketing workshop was done correctly. We signed up nine people to attend the program. Seven people are currently listening to the speaker. A lot of it was calling all the people who signed up for the program to ask them to come the day before. We set up the tables in a u shape, much like a big conference table. Light refreshments were put out as well. We get juice, water, and cookies for people to drink and eat.

Right now I am doing the night shift at the reference desk. I have three unopened magazines sitting next to me, the May 15, 2008 Library Journal, the May 19, 2008 Publishers Weekly, and the May 15, 2008 Booklist. I am kind of reluctantly looking at them. I took a quick look through them. I chose a few reference books to order and put a book on hold, In The Court of the Crimson King by S.M. Stirling. I am a bit intrigued by God's Demon by Wayne Douglas Barlowe. However, I am a bit wary of the content. Wayne Barlowe's site is really fascinating http://www.waynebarlowe.com/

I am off tomorrow, because I work this Saturday, luckily our time is a bit flexible where I work. We don't get overtime, but we do get some flexibility with our time arrangements so it evens out in the end.

Thoughts for Today

Last night while I was reading at the laundromat someone asked about the book I was reading Superclass. She said, it looked like one of those new books which you get from the library. I told her it was a nice book to read. So, I actually got to read a bit at the laundromat. There is nothing like sitting in a hard plastic chair, sipping watermelon juice and reading.

Because someone asked about it, this is the link to Paulo Coelho's blog http://paulocoelhoblog.com/

Today is starting off in an interesting way. I am going to ask SCORE-- Servce Corps of Retired Executives to do a marketing seminar at our library in May or June. A patron (customer) asked for it.

I was also reading http://www.locusmag.com/ and noticed an interesting book in their new books section. Space Vulture by Gary K. Wolf and Archbishop John J. Meyers. Gary K. Wolf is the author of Who Censored Roger Rabbit, the basis for the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I am a little bit surprised that an archbishop is writing a swashbuckling science fiction adventure in the tradition of the 1950's. It sounds like a lot of fun.

I got a very exciting package today from New Jersey. It was in a brown paper envelope. It contained the Super Librarian comic book, one copy in english, and one copy in spanish, plus a business card from Nancy Dowd the creator of the marketing campaign around Super Librarian. This is a great way to draw teenagers who wouldn't otherwise read into the library. The comic book is quite short and very easy to read.

This is an online link to the Super Librarian comic:

http://web.mac.com/ndowd/iWeb/Super%20Librarian%20Free%20Comic%20Book%20Day/Comic%20Book%20Full%20Color.html

Two books came in for me today, so I have a backlog of books to read. The first is Kahlil Gibran The Collected Including The Prophet. I am not sure how Kahlil Gibran compares to Rumi. They have very different philosophical views on religion and mysticism. They, however, are both poets. At one time, Kahlil Gibran was one of the most popular poets in the United States. I remember reading The Prophet while I was in high school. It was one of the books in my fathers library. This particular edition is printed on acid free paper, the book stills crinkles in its newness when you turn the pages.

The second book looking at is a complete surprise. It is called Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. It is a modern werewolf story written in free verse style. This is the style of Gilgamesh or The Green Night. The cover picture and the design of the book is very cool.