Memoirs…fact or fiction?

This morning, I was reading a short article in a health and fitness magazine, which asked the question “If you were to write the story of your life, how many chapters would be about diets?” Of course, this was aimed specifically at people who have been on countless diets over their lifetimes, and was, presumably, trying to get people to stop the cycle of dieting.

But, it made me start thinking about memoirs in general. Are memoirs really fact…or are they fiction….or both? Can someone possibly remember every detail of their lives from birth through to some advanced age? And really, why are these memoirs so fascinating, just because someone is famous? Are they writing memoirs to actually tell a story or just to revive careers that have slipped behind the curtain of more popular people. Can we as “regular” people not have interesting, documentable lives as well?

Barabara Walters is the latest celebrity making her way around the talk shows plugging her memoir, simply entitled “Audition”. (We have this book in the library now, so feel free to come by and pick it up.)

By now, you have probably seen Walters talking of her struggle to be accepted in her journalism field when she was younger, her embarrassment over her father’s struggles with gambling and attempted suicide and her conflict with an adopted daughter through the years. Of course she has had an interesting life, traveling all over the world, interviewing countless movie stars, political figures and royalty. But what makes her life so much more interesting than say, yours or mine? We all have a life story, and most of the time, we all begin with struggle for acceptance in some form, a rise above an internal or external conflict, and then, hopefully, a sense of satisfaction with our lives. Maybe your life has not been filled with parties at the White House or vacations in Fiji, but I bet you have something interesting to tell the world, if given the chance.

What would YOUR memoir say, then? Would it detail a childhood of love or one of sorrow? Would your teen years tell of gawky phases and feelings of insecurity or self-confidence and a rise through the social ranks? How would your early working years or new family life be described? Could you talk of wonderful people that inspired your life or those that constantly made you struggle? And how have all these details made you the person you are today? Is a memoir really that….your own memories of your life? Or would you have to consult photos of your youth to bring back thoughts and feelings? Or maybe have family members fill you in on people who were involved in your life along the way, but maybe didn’t play a prominent day-to-day role?

So, what would my memoir be about? What would the chapters describe? Would it be interesting? What would my chapters be about? I know that mixed in with the usual small town life, family struggles with money, friendship woes and sibling rivalry, my memoir would also include details of a family member with a mysterious, illegal past that only emerged on his death bed, chapters about life-altering illnesses, including my father’s amazing triumph over losing his nose to cancer, and hopefully, a few pages about the most amazing wedding to my sweetheart whom I searched for online and found in my own backyard. I’m sure the chapters could rival just about any famous person’s past, as could yours., I’m willing to bet.

So…….what would your memoir be about?

Oprah….jumping the shark?

To use a phrase from pop culture, I think Oprah has “jumped the shark”! The term was coined back in 1977 when, on an episode of “Happy Days”, Ritchie and the gang went to California, and the Fonz tried to break a record by jumping on water skis over a shark. This episode was a way for the television show to try to boost its lagging ratings, but the stunt was so over the top for the show that it was thought to be the thing that fully brought the show down for good. Since then, the term “jumping the shark” has been used to describe shows that have run their course and are now on the downswing.

In the last few weeks, her topic choices have been becoming more and more questionable, but Tuesday’s topic did it for me. In my eyes, it was her moment on the water skis. Past life regression…..the type of talk show fodder that you’d see on other, more questionable shows, not on a serious show that has been Oprah’s fare for most of the years she has been on. I know that the topics can’t all be deep and serious and life altering, but to see her asking her newest sidekick, Dr. Oz, about his own past life regression session was truly a weird low for her. She once swore to only do topics that would not exploit people in any way, and those that would be of value. I’m not sure I’m getting the value here?

But let’s talk about the books! Ever since she began doing her now famous book clubs, our library has rushed out to make sure we have copies of each selection for our patrons. From the moment a new book is announced as her book club choice, we’ll have people coming in or calling us to find out if we have it. And we often have a long waiting list for each book. We even see a resurgence in the requests when her show starts running the episodes as repeats in the summer, so we might have a run on a certain book in the fall, and again several months later. (What always surprises us though, is the number of people who will hear her selection and think that they can just walk in and get a copy that same afternoon. They really are shocked when they find out we have a long waiting list. Keep in mind, waiting lists are MUCH longer in the bigger city libraries, so I think we have it pretty good in our little library!)

We have gone through her “new book” selections, her “classic book” selections, and this year, she seems to be on a self-discovery kick by promoting books such as:

The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

and

A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle.

Now, I have been a big fan of some of her book club choices in the past, and so have many of our patrons, but the latest choices have been disappointing to some. I had a conversation with a few of our patrons just the other day about Oprah’s apparent need to make us all more “spiritual”, and they were obviously tired of the choices as well. I think maybe it depends on where you are in your life at the moment, but the books are certainly not for everyone.

Now that I think of it, maybe I WOULD rather watch someone hold his breath for 17 minutes, or someone show us the funniest home videos of all time (which were two of her latest shows), than have to listen to an hour of Oprah going on about “AHA” moments, or backing her favourite presidential candidate. I can watch the presidential campaigns on CNN or read the tabloid headlines while I’m in line at the grocery store to catch up on the latest crazy Tom Cruise antics. Oprah….I wish you would please get back to your “great” books or start thinking about retirement!

One Small Step….

When I was a child, I remember going to the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa with my family one summer. One of the exhibits was a space module used in NASA’s space program. I can’t remember if this particular module was used to land on the moon, or if it was just an example of the ones used, but I remember standing and looking at the smooth surface of the metal and the tiny window and wondering how this oddly shaped object took people to the moon. As a child, I really had no concept of how long it took to get to the moon or how difficult it had been for humans to get there. But I knew that this was an important piece of our history as people. Someone had actually been up to that large, white circle in the night sky.

I recently saw a wonderful documentary by Discovery Films called “In the Shadow of the Moon”, and was completely enthralled by the gorgeous digitally enhanced films from the first lunar landings. This is a film presented by Ron Howard, who also brought the world the amazing film “Apollo 13″ and produced the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”, and he brings his immense love of the space program to this documentary as well.

The video in this movie is amazing….things you’ve probably never seen before, and the interviews with the remaining astronauts who were involved with the Apollo missions are wonderful and charming. I wanted to know more!

I have always been interested in space, and although I wasn’t even alive when the first moon landing took place, ask anyone who was and they’ll be able to tell you where they were when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took those first steps. The feeling from this film was a world coming together to experience something bigger than ourselves, something that was amazing and positive and life-affirming. We can’t really say that about any event since in the history of the world. The only things that have brought us all together as people, and not as separate races or countries or species, have been things of destruction—-terrorism, natural disasters and genocide. What have we done lately as a planet that is so positive? If you have any ideas, let me know.

You can actually rent this movie, of course, but I see that it is also available for the most part if you go to YouTube and type in the title. However, if you’d like a little more information, we have some great books in the library aimed at kids or adults.

How about:

Space Pioneers : Astronauts, by Richard Spilsbury, where you can learn interesting facts about the astronauts themselves. In fact, did you know that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong actually came to Canada before their space mission and practiced walking around the edges of the mines in Sudbury, Ontario in order to simulate walking on the craters of the moon?

And DK Online Space Travel by Ian Graham has some great links for kids to research the space programs and other space related links online.

If you are looking for something in the adult section:

America in Space : NASA’s First Fifty Years by Steven J. Dick is also a great resource.

There are some fun links online that might provide more information as well.

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/expmoon/

http://www.nasa.gov/

Why do you read blogs?

I’ll start by saying that before I began writing a blog for our public library, I really didn’t read a lot of blogs. I knew about them and read a few on occasion, but I wasn’t a regular reader and I never posted comments. So why would I start a library blog and what was (is) the purpose of doing so? That’s a question I’ve only asked myself recently.

If you are reading this, you are probably a regular blog reader. But, if you are like some of our readers from the library who really don’t know what blogs are, or why we have one, I’ll explain what a blog is all about. A blog, or Web Log, is really just an online diary of sorts, or someplace to organize information that might be about a particular topic, whether it be political views, crafting, or just a day by day rundown of someone’s life. People all over the world write blogs, and probably no one writes for the same reasons, except to have their voices heard. It is a way to share their knowledge and opinions and allow the world to interact with them.

Saying this, why would I feel the need to start a library blog? Were our patrons asking for one? Was there some great need to get out information regarding programs at the library? Did I feel that I had something important to say? To all of these questions, I would have said “no” back when I first started blogging. But now, I have changed my mind, and I’ll explain why.

In the first few months of this blog, I did not write every day, and it was mainly a platform for telling our patrons what was going to be happening at our library in the coming month. Useful, maybe, but not a lot of people read it. And why would they? Any of our patrons who were regularly reading the blog were probably also coming to the library where they could see what was currently going on. I began a newsletter back in the fall to let those not doing the internet thing in on our programs each month. That began to fly out the door, so I know people are conscious of our monthly goings-on. So why continue with a blog? I asked myself the same thing early this year.

Two of our librarians went to the Ontario Library Association conference in Toronto back in February, and one of my colleagues attended a workshop which talked about blogging. When she told me a bit of information about blogs and how they can be used in libraries, it got me thinking. How was I using our blog and what was it really all about? Nothing. Well, at least, nothing that anyone cared to read about. Our blog was a glorified calendar, and no one will wake up with the need to read a calendar everyday. I needed to start reading some blogs! And read I did! And what did I discover that would make me want to keep blogging?

Blogs are whatever you want to make them. I read so many blogs that were interesting that I wanted to come back every day just to see what they had to say. Maybe it was a different topic, or maybe it was just the comments that were being left on the blog that were interesting. It didn’t matter. The point was, I kept going back. It didn’t matter to me that I knew nothing of the person writing the blog, but maybe the topic was something I could relate to, or wanted to know more about. So I wondered how I could get people to come back to our blog.

Our blog doesn’t really exist as many other do, written completely in first person, with a singular voice and opinions and controversy. What I hope it does, though, is showcase some interesting topics that relate to books we may have, or things going on in our community. There will be personal thoughts interspersed between facts, but only to keep the blog posts relevant to myself, and I hope, other readers, but for the most part, I just want to present interesting information to our readers to help stimulate thought. Maybe you’ll read something that you hadn’t known anything about and then want to find out more. I hope that is the case.

So, to all our readers, whether you live in Carleton Place and the surrounding area, or you live across the world……..why do YOU read blogs?

What are you reading?

Just the other day, one of our patrons came into the library with a huge list of books. This is not unusual, and he was searching for a few titles from this list, most of which we had in our library. We often see people with lists of books they want to read, many getting ideas from the Sunday books section, from radio program suggestions or from magazines. This gentleman, however, had a list of books that his favourite author had listed as books that had influenced his writing.

This is actually something that many authors do, giving their readers and insight into what authors they regularly read or what books made them become the authors they are today. One of my favourite authors is Stephen King, and a few years back when he released his book “On Writing”, he included a very large list of books and authors that inspired him. Knowing the type of books that King writes, you might be surprised at the vast selection he recommended. I know that I worked my way through that list, purely from curiosity, and came up with several “new” authors that are now some of my favourite regular reads.

There is a great website that has actually compiled lists of books found on the bookshelves of famous dead people. The website itself is called LibraryThing and the lists include people from a wide variety of lifestyles, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Marie Antoinette and many more, including lists in progress for Charles Darwin and Benjamin Franklin. If you click on this link, you’ll be taken directly to the lists completed and in process:

http://www.librarything.com/groups/iseedeadpeoplesbooks

Just doing a quick search of the internet, I came across several blogs and personal websites that are geared towards what books are on their bedside tables, as that is usually where we keep our books to read. You might want to read through some of these lists for some new ideas, or just out of curiosity. It is almost like being a fly on the wall in someone’s house! How fun!

http://tiedyeavenger.blogspot.com/2008/02/what-books-are-on-your-bedside-table.html

http://www.amazon.com/Books-bedside-table-Im-reading-finished/lm/R118FR7ZYDK50R

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/05/pillow_books.html

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day!

(Photo courtesy of one of my personal favourite blogs…..Bakerella at

http://bakerella.blogspot.com/)

Lonely Planet…or just strange planet?

On the weekend, I caught a television show on the Outdoor Life Network which often showcases travel. This particular show was an episode of The Lonely Planet series, which also comes in the form of books, and has a fabulous website. Now, we often have people come into the library and ask for The Lonely Planet books when they are about to travel, as the books are informative and usually give great tips that are slightly off the beaten track for travelers. If you are adventurous, these are the books to read when planning a trip. (We have several in our library, from Canadian destinations to other parts of the world, but we can certainly order one in for you from another library through interlibrary loan if we don’t have what you are looking for.)

As this episode began, I thought, what an interesting way to present the city of Berlin. It brought out the highlights of the city and gave the viewer a good idea about the people who live there. That was when it took a turn. I’m not saying that every city in the world is like this, but it sure made me view this particular city in a new light. From an interview with a creative puppeteer, to a performance artist that the host met while playing rooftop golf, to a bizarre creation called “Chess-Boxing” (it is EXACTLY what you are thinking…..rounds of chess played in between bouts in the ring!). I’m including a snippet of the program here so you can get a feel for the show, but you might want to look around the Lonely Planet website as well if you are thinking of traveling.

Lonely Planet

Glamping

( Photo of Clayoquot Wilderness Resorts and Spa in British Columbia, Canada)

It is another Frivolous Friday and today the topic is……Glamping! So, what exactly is glamping? It is the newest trend in travel….glamorous camping! Since we are all going to be thinking about heading out on summer holidays, we should start planning now. With the ever rising cost of gas, camping is usually a great alternative, although glamping takes it to a new level. There is no roughing it here!

Glamping has begun to emerge as a new option for the adventure traveler, but one with a big bank account, keep in mind. This is not for the budget conscious! Tour companies all over Canada and Europe are now offering interesting packages, filled with luxurious tents, gourmet meals and yet still the feel for the outdoors. No more running into the forest at night if nature calls! Some of these places have “indoor” plumbing, expensive bedding and even heat!

You might want to check out a few of these interesting websites that specialize in this form of leisure:

http://www.wildretreat.com/

http://www.abercrombiekent.com/

http://www.globorati.com/

Of course, most of us will never experience camping in this way, so if you are planning a summer camping vacation, we have some great books with lots of advice for the novice camper right up to the more experienced.

The Happy Camper, by Kevin Callan details all sorts of interesting ideas and advice to help make your vacation safe and fun!

Leave No Crumbs Camping Cookbook by Rick Greenspan will help you whip up a fantastic meal right over the campfire.

So, explore in style, or rough it……which do you choose?

Thinking you’d like to be a librarian?

I think this speaks for itself…….

Are you going to answer that?

The issue of cell phones in libraries is only one that has recently been popping up here. Of course, cell phones have been around for ages, but it seems like only in the last year or so that more and more people are carrying them everywhere. We all see people talking on their phones in the car, in line at the grocery store and in restaurants. When you go to the movies, it is a regular occurence to see a warning before the movie starts to turn off your phones to respect other movie-goers. And you are always instructed to turn off cell phones when you go into hospitals, so as not to interfere with medical equipment (although I suspect that it is also a noise issue).

At our library, we have signs posted as you come in requesting that you turn off your cell phone. In general, most patrons are wonderful to respect our wishes to keep the library a quiet zone. We often see them quickly switch their phones off as they come in. It is so much nicer than hearing a silly cell phone ring somewhere down in the stacks, or while they are sitting at a computer and then a loud conversation about where they are when they are coming home. More than once, we have had to ask someone to take a call outside in the front hall, which isn’t too much to ask. I don’t know why people think they must talk louder when on a cell phone? If the other person can’t hear you, you need a better phone.

Now, there is a new idea for cell phones being implemented in some libraries in the US. To avoid all of the little scraps of paper at the reference desk that are used to give out call numbers, some libraries are now texting the call number to a patron’s cell phone. The patron avoids the scrap of paper, the library does not have to clean up the mess, and it is seen as environmentally friendly. Plus, it is just accepting of the technology that most people are using today.

I could see this really working FOR a library that is quite large, so that a patron might not have to travel all the way back to a computer terminal or to the reference desk just to find a book. Plus, it really might reduce waste, especially where there might be a large number of reference requests each day. But if a library already has trouble with noise problems, especially from ringing cell phones, then this could just make it worse. And now, health questions regarding the use of cell phones are prohibiting people from using or promoting the use of these little objects.

What do you think about cell phone use in libraries in general? Or as a new tool for reference questions?