Crossing Over

I always find it interesting when someone who has achieved success in one field jumps to another and does it well. You know, when someone like Steve Martin or Kirk Douglas writes a novel and they actually do it really well. This seems to be coming up more and more often. I see that Nicole Richie has a novel out (I have no idea if it was good). I also remember checking out William Shatner's music CD (I did not care for it, but your mileage may vary).

Two new music CDs caught my attention this way. Hugh Laurie of House M. D. has a music CD. It is a New Orleans style blues album. He has also written several books.

And Jeff Bridges has a new country music CD this month.

I guess I expected these stars to have used their fame and name recognition to get published in other fields. But in most cases I have been pleasantly surprised by their skill.

The book I am reading currently is Gideon's War by Howard Gordon. One of our regulars at the library mentioned this book knowing that I like Vince Flynn's Mitch Rapp spy thrillers. And this is a good page-turner. Howard Gordon was the producer of the hit TV show "24" and was also a writer for the X-Files. Gideon's War reads like "24", being fast-paced and following a short timeline formula (though in this case it is 48 hours, I guess 24 would have made too short of a book).

What do you think of famous people crossing over to other mediums?

Hometown Superhero

It appears to be simply an innocuous bystander--you see it on your way to work most days and occasionally you stop in for a visit. It is well-known by everyone in town but, sadly, well-used by few. It is a rare individual who knows the true essence of what it is: the purveyor of truth--the muse of childrens' dreams--the superhero on Main Street. If you have a problem, the odds are good that your local library has a solution.

Don't believe me? Here are three instances of the library saving me personally.

1. Last month my car broke down and I took it in to the shop to have it looked at. I brought it to the most honest, reliable mechanic I know. The diagnosis? A leaky radiator that was beyond patching. The price-tag? five-hundred dollars. Not likely on the budget of a college student. I told my mechanic to give me an hour to think about it, and headed straight to the 629's on the Reference Floor at the library. According to the Chilton's fix-it manual for my car, replacing the radiator was an easy operation, and there were diagrams to prove it. After buying an eighty dollar part from Auto-Zone and putting my car up on blocks, it took me an hour and a half to fix it.

Saved: $420.00 (That's nearly one-half the cost of a single class at Northeastern).





2. In March of 2008, I went to Costa Rica for a week. At the time, none of the roads outside of the capital city had been mapped by satellite, and we were staying in a remote mountain village. So, I headed to the library to check out a travel book. Lonely Planet's most recent guide to Costa Rica. It included a detailed map the area we were visiting, including the location of local restaurants, the village police station, the nearest hospital, and hotels organized by price-point. There were also meticulous directions on how to get from the Airport in San Jose to this particular village by rental car, and a note recommending visitors to rent an SUV, because a majority of mountain roads are not paved. Though we did rent an SUV, three-quarters of the way into our drive the rear driver's side wheel nearly fell off on the side of a mountain. This situation was nearly disastrous--who know what would have happened if we'd been driving an ill-equipped compact-car?

Saved: Potentially, my life.

3. A while back I asked my boyfriend to teach my how to play chess. (I wanted to be able to hob-knob with the intellectual aristocracy--in other words, I wanted to get my snob on). Yet, despite my best efforts, he kept winning no matter how many times we played. What self-respecting snob loses at chess? So, I checked out Chess for Dummies and now I'm unbeatable. While bragging rights might not seem like they'd be as valuable as $420.00 or my life, between two highly competitive people, they are essentially priceless.

Saved: My dignity.

Thank you, Library!

Coming Attractions August 2011

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