Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Finding Books On Blogs


Sheherezade Illustration from The Arabian Nights by Edmund Dulac.

I have been wandering around the blogging world looking at various book titles. I've even had a few books suggested for me to read.


So far the following books have been suggested for me to read, Oil By Upton Sinclair. This was turned into the new movie "There Will Be Blood." I have requested this book from another library to read. Christine Vyrnon suggested this title.


Another book which was suggested was Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It is a classic thick Russian story. A little bit deep for my tastes right now. Bhaanu from http://playfullive.com/ recommended this title. He has a number of cartoons drawn on the sport cricket which are interesting. I wasn't sure where the blog was from until he told me he was from India.


I also saw two books which looked interesting, Wind Follower by Carole McDonnell. It is a first book, a fantasy novel by an African American woman author with strong spiritual content.


The other book which kind of struck my fancy was Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason. It is a lady vampire slayer romance set in Victorian times. I tried it out but it wasn't quite what I expected.


The final book which I am definitely going to read right now was suggested by Nezha at her blog
http://nezhab.blogspot.com/ Scheherezade Goes West. She gave a nice recommendation for my site. I appreciate it.


One of the reasons I am going to read this book has to do with who reads the blog. When I was looking at search statistics, a lot of the people using my blog according to Google are searching under the keywords: modern fairytales, urban legends, or myth. Scheherezade is the teller of the Arabian nights which is an appropriate fit for what people might be interested in who are reading the blog.

I am amazed by the number and variety of book blogs on the internet. There are a lot of books which I would never have seen if I had not been reading blogs.

A thought came across my mind. I wonder sometimes how people imagine me. Do I have glasses? Am I shushing people? There is a librarian action figure which is supposed to represent the typical librarian in many peoples minds. I rather like it, because somehow someone has managed to embody a near perfect stereotype in a very positive way. The person who embodies the action figure is Nancy Pearl. There really is no one stereotypical librarian.

I am going to conclude this blog post with a link to an article by Fatima Mernissi, The Casablanca Dream, Weaving Peace Into Globalization. I hope this makes you think a bit, I don't particularly care if you like it or hate it, but that you think about it.

10 comments:

Stella said...

You've probably already heard of this one, but a friend recently recommended "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein.

http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein/dp/0312863551

(I'm rather ignorant when it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, so I apologize in advance if this is an "obvious" recommendation.)

Book Calendar said...

Yes, I remember this one it is rather interesting. It is about revolution on the moon. There is some interesting philosophy about government in this one. Specifically, it brings out Heinlein's odd libertarianism.

Stella said...

I figured you'd heard of it :)

Btw, I told the friend who recommended Heinlein, about your recommendation for The Secret Life of Moscow, so she's going to check it out. I also sent her a link to your blog.

Book Calendar said...

Thank you for sending out my link. It helps me expand the coverage of the blog.

reDabbled said...

You should have a book suggestion box on your website. Maybe even let us vote. Two books-
Slaughterhouse Five
Once Upon A town

-Colin
AmericaHugs.com

Book Calendar said...

I have read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut, but never have heard of Once Upon A Town. I looked it up, it is a classic patriotic story. I hope it has pictures, sentimental patriotic books are always better with pictures.

Nezha said...

Hey Book Calendar, thanks for mentioning my blog. And thanks for the link to the librarian doll..it's very funny!!

Ankur said...

Wow! This is so cool. Thanks for mentioning my blog in your post Book Calendar.
I'm glad you liked the cartoons.

In this time and era one book you cant miss is "Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain!: Cartoonist Ignores Helpful Advice" by Scott Adams.

People who are considering Crime and Punishment and are deep into it already might find this advise in bad taste but then I'm not necessarily being wise here:)

I wont recommend people who like apples to compare them with oranges, I'm just saying people who are on rich literary diet must go for this seasonal fruit for a refreshing change.

Scifiwritir said...

Hi Book Calendar.

Oh please, please read my book, Wind Follower. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. And I'd like to hear what you think of it.

As for other suggestions, my listmate Sylvia Kelso's book, Amberlight, is also very good. Feminist, poetic, incredible.

As for other books, Tia over at Fantasy Blogspot and Chris at Stuff as Dreams are made of did 2007 review coverages and mentioned some great books. -C

Book Calendar said...

I'll take a look at Wind Follower and see how it is.