Morning Thoughts, Sharp Teeth-- Toby Barlow-- Comments

Anyways, good morning to all of you. I was reading, Bookselling this Week, from the ABA-- American Booksellers Association website. They have a nice little article on Green Bookselling written on March 20, 2008. http://news.bookweb.org/5916.html Gary Hirshberg, once again, the CE-YO of Stonybrook Farm is featured in the article.

I read Searcher magazine today. There was nothing which stood out in the articles today, but it still gave me a chance to get a better idea of what is happening in the world of search. There is a new kind of database in the world called Freebase, an open source database of the worlds information. I think it is like Wikipedia in some ways. http://www.freebase.com/

I read a piece of the Alchemist. I am finding the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho to be a mediocre book. It is not a bad book. It has a positive message and uses some very pleasant imagery which many people will like, but it is not exceptional writing. If you want something comfortable and reassuring to read with a message of both gratitude and tolerance this book would be a nice book to read. It is like a drink of fresh water for the spirit. I can understand why it became a bestseller. The messages in it are fairly simple and clear. Everyone has a purpose which they seek in life, there is beginners luck, take the time to follow your dreams.

I read some more of the Alchemist on the train finishing it. It is a syncretic work drawing from alchemy and mysticism to create a simplified story of enlightenment and following ones dream. It is too easy to accomplish the goal in the end of finding a treasure and learning the deeper power of listening to the world. I have mixed feelings about the way the book is written. When he is describing the Emerald Tablet it is like he is describing something drawn with childrens crayons. While it popularizes and opens the world to deep insights, it also creates easy unrealistic wish fulfillment.

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I spent some time last night submitting my site to various blog directories to increase traffic. Hopefully, it will make a small difference. I also submitted my site to a free search engine service. My understanding is that every couple of months you should resubmit your site to search engines. Things change rather quickly in the SEO world.

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I finished reading Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow on the train this morning. It is really fantastic. The book is free verse poetry written in the style of an epic. It is broken into five parts. I think the writing is fantastic. The imagery is striking. The story is funny, sexy, and poignant. It should be put up for the World Fantasy Award, even though it is a first novel. I could not get enough of it. I think that it should be made into a feature film.

I am not going to criticize it a huge amount. I added two promotional videos from youtube for the book. One is funny, the other is an excerpt from the book. The excerpt speaks how the book is written. The writing is consistent throughout the entire work. I am having a bit of difficulty posting the two videos from Youtube right now. I contacted technical support, but they have not gotten to the problem.

I tried something different. I embedded the first video, an excerpt from the book, Excerpt #1 from Sharp Teeth.

Here is the second video, Is Your Dog A Werewolf?, a promotional video for "Sharp Teeth." I think it is funny because one of the main characters is an animal control officer.

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.