Daily Thoughts 01/05/2012

In the gallery of reading room, Library of Congress, Photograph showing portrait statues of Moses by Charles Henry Niehaus and Isaac Newton by Cyrus E. Dallin on balustrades in main reading room.  Date Created/Published: 1900

Daily Thoughts 01/05/2012

Everyone has new years resolutions.  I resolve to read a graphic novel every week.  I read Same Difference by Derek Kirk Kim yesterday.  It is a beautifully drawn black and white comic in the slice of life tradition.  The book won the Eisner, Harvey, and Ignatz awards which is quite an accomplishment.

The characters were wonderfully done. I especially liked the main character Simon's romantic interest in a blind girl in high school. There was also some excellent lighthearted humor.  The story was very much about growing up as well.  There were some photographs of real places in the back of the book which Derek Kirk Kim used to draw the comic from.

Derek Kirk Kim describes how he was drawing from his own life to draw this comic in an essay at the back of the book as well.  There is a little bit of strong language, but it is not in bad taste.  It is more humorous than anything else.  Derek Kirk Kim has a blog at: http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/

I requested the book, The Ecotechnic Future: Envisioning A Post-Peak World by John Michael Greer.  I rather like reading this kind of material.  It makes me realize people are thinking of solutions which are much longer term than what is currently happening.

There is now a circulating museum pass for the Children's Museum in Manhattan which can be checked out from the Reference Desk.

I finally did it.  I went out and bought a Kindle Simple Touch today for my own use.  It is a first step towards moving into the 21st century.  They had a special at Target for $99 reduced from $139.  It is sitting on the computer table right now charging.  I am contemplating purchasing an Ipad and an android cell phone.  I think it was the right move for me to do.  It was quite frankly a bit of a nervous thing to do.

I sat down and read the users manual from front to back for the Kindle Touch.  It is fairly straightforward.
A lot of it is very similar to the Sony E-reader.

I am going to make sure that there are a few computers with Kindle for PC in the Computer Lab.

Web Bits

Occupy Poetry! Starting the New Year With Inspiring Words
http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2012/01/in-the-bookroom/occupy-poetry-starting-the-new-year-with-inspiring-words/