After considering a full slate of books, the club selected White Noise, by Don DeLillo-- a post-modern story of something amiss in a small college town in middle America (a mysterious illness, etc.). The book was the 1985 National Book Award winner and, interestingly, Amazon also sells several reading and teaching guides for the book, so it appears there's quite a bit to think about. One review online calls it DeLillo at his "dark, hilarious best." The book is 320 pages.
One idea that was raised at the meeting was to use the book club as a means to enlighten members about the Philadelphia Free Library, and to encourage members to take advantage of this great resource. If you'd like to help out Philadelphia's public libraries, please consider borrowing our next book club selection from your local branch and donating the money that you would have spent on the book to your local library. Elaine and Dan can give more specifics on how to donate at the meeting, if you are interested.
If you'd like to borrow from the library, Elaine checked and there should be around 11 available copies in various formats listed in the online catalog. It's ridiculously easy to put them on hold if you have a library card and pin number:
-The URL is www.library.phila.gov; you go to the blue box marked "Find" and click catalog, then enter.
-Type in the name of the book; there will be a link in blue above the title that says "place hold."
-Enter your library card number and pin and specify the branch from which you would like to pick up the book. A letter goes out from the branch when the book comes in.
You can always check your account online to see if the book has arrived yet. Elaine estimates the average wait time is about a week-- sometimes a little less, sometimes a little more.
Meeting Details
Elaine and Justin kindly offered to host our next meeting on Sunday, 9 September at 6:00. They live at 735 South 4th Street (between Monroe and Fitzwater). According to Elaine, there is an ugly satellite dish attached to the house which is hard to miss. No doorbell, but they can easily hear people knocking. Call my or Josh's cell if you have any issues finding the place.
Also, just a fair warning that Elaine and Justin do have several feline roommates; if you're allergic, you may want to make sure you take your Zyrtec that day. They've had guests in the past with cat allergies who seem to do just fine, but wanted to make you aware.
I assume we'll return to our potluck format; if you can tell me what you'll be bringing, Josh and I will ensure we have everything we need. If someone would like to bring paper plates, forks, etc. that would be great (again, let me know-- we only will need one person on utensil duty).
Philly Book Club 9 Blog
As a reminder, Josh had created a blog for our club so that members can post thoughts, comments, etc. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed so as to be notified when someone posts a comment, etc. (I don't think it would be an egregious number of emails in your inbox).
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
A Library Spam
I promise to try to keep the Free Library promotion to a minimum, but I wanted to share something fun.
For years (many, many years) the Free Library has been hosting "The Summer Reading Game" for kids and teens where young people are rewarded with gifts and prizes for participating in library activities over the summer. For the first time this year, there will be a Summer Reading Game for Adults. The basic premise is that if you read a book or participate in a library activity, it earns you a raffle entry. The more raffle entries you earn, the better chance you have of winning a prize. The prizes are things like USB memory sticks, coffee mugs, clip on reading lights and the like. There are twelve branches participating (see this url http://libwww.library.phila.gov/summerreading/) or you can participate online (see this url http://host2.evanced.info/phila/sr/homepage.asp?ProgramID=8&PreviewMode=).
For years (many, many years) the Free Library has been hosting "The Summer Reading Game" for kids and teens where young people are rewarded with gifts and prizes for participating in library activities over the summer. For the first time this year, there will be a Summer Reading Game for Adults. The basic premise is that if you read a book or participate in a library activity, it earns you a raffle entry. The more raffle entries you earn, the better chance you have of winning a prize. The prizes are things like USB memory sticks, coffee mugs, clip on reading lights and the like. There are twelve branches participating (see this url http://libwww.library.phila.gov/summerreading/) or you can participate online (see this url http://host2.evanced.info/phila/sr/homepage.asp?ProgramID=8&PreviewMode=).
Josh just dropped by the library on 7th and Carpenter where I'm filling in for the day. The copy of The Road that this particular library owns is currently out. We put a reserve on the book and it should arrive here from another library in about a week. You can save yourself a trip to your local library by going to the library catalog (http://catalog.library.phila.gov) and placing a hold yourself. It will probably take about a week and you should get an e-mail when the book arrives at its destination.
I won't take up any more time and space prattling on about the wonders of the Free Library, but feel free to contact me if you have any library related questions.
--Dan
An Action Component
At our first meeting, folks were supportive of an action component to our group, probably one that is book related, but that too is open for discussion. I hope that we can have a discussion via the blog on this matter.
What do we want to work on? Rotating topics from meeting to meeting or stick to a campaign for a longer period of time? Does anyone have any ideas? We briefly talked about the shrinking libraries in public schools and prisons.
How do we do the work? In between meetings, at the meeting, both?
What are the types of actions we can take? Educating ourselves, writing letters, raising money, donating books, educating others, etc?
Thoughts/Comments?
What do we want to work on? Rotating topics from meeting to meeting or stick to a campaign for a longer period of time? Does anyone have any ideas? We briefly talked about the shrinking libraries in public schools and prisons.
How do we do the work? In between meetings, at the meeting, both?
What are the types of actions we can take? Educating ourselves, writing letters, raising money, donating books, educating others, etc?
Thoughts/Comments?
Sunday, June 17, 2007
How it All Started
Elaine, Marie, Jackie, Stacy, Joe, Josh, Joe, Shannon, Dan.
We are the "9" who came to the first book club meeting of the Philly Book Club 9. We read and discussed Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. But before bookish conversation we got to know each other over a potluck meal in the courtyard at Workmen's Place in Queen Village. While today certainly felt like summer, by the time we all gathered the sun had set enough to bring the temperature down to something quite comfortable.
This book club is, in some ways, a 2nd iteration to a Washington, DC based book club that Josh and Jackie participated in some years ago. They both now find themselves in Philadelphia and actually living around the corner from each other. This group is a mix of each's friends and family, and the group will surely grow in the coming months.
Our next books is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The next meeting is again at Workmen's Place - Front between Fitzwater and Pemberton - on Sunday July 8th at 6pm.
We are the "9" who came to the first book club meeting of the Philly Book Club 9. We read and discussed Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. But before bookish conversation we got to know each other over a potluck meal in the courtyard at Workmen's Place in Queen Village. While today certainly felt like summer, by the time we all gathered the sun had set enough to bring the temperature down to something quite comfortable.
This book club is, in some ways, a 2nd iteration to a Washington, DC based book club that Josh and Jackie participated in some years ago. They both now find themselves in Philadelphia and actually living around the corner from each other. This group is a mix of each's friends and family, and the group will surely grow in the coming months.
Our next books is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The next meeting is again at Workmen's Place - Front between Fitzwater and Pemberton - on Sunday July 8th at 6pm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
