In Miranda July's indie film "The Future," her character Sophie greets her husband Jason at the door as he is coming home one day, frantically telling him she's cancelled their internet service for the next month, and they have just enough time to "look up important things" before it shuts off entirely. While watching this film with my own husband, he (I had assumed) jokingly asked me what I'd do if he did that. Not wanting to reveal myself as a complete internet addict, I told him I'd be just fine. "It might even be fun" were my famous last words.
I did not realize he'd been inspired.
I was decidedly not fine.
We don't subscribe to cable or any newspapers. I rarely buy music, choosing instead to stream it for free online. Most of my friends, I keep in contact with through email or Facebook. The internet is our window to the world at home. It's what we have instead of practically everything else. So when it was gone, what could I do? How was I going to entertain myself and the young children that frequent my house, and magically know all the things the internet provided information for, like knitting patterns?
Well, the first day, I cleaned. Then I walked around, admiring my cleaning. Then, when I realized I was about to go stir crazy, I went back to the library.
I got 10 magazines, 5 dvds, 2 books, and, of course, checked my email, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and used the wifi to download all my favorite podcasts onto my ipod. Within just half an hour, I was all set to go home and not be completely bored, clueless, and isolated from civilization.
That was a few days ago. Since then, I have calmed down. I've stopped sadly walking the edges of my house, hoping against hope that one of my neighbor's wifi signals magically opened up. I've almost forgotten what I used to do online every five minutes. I watched the first season of The Venture Bros, which I had forgotten how much I like. I've read The Graveyard Book, March, and am working on Doctor Who: Shada, the Lost Adventure by Douglas Adams. I even finished a few DIY projects for the holidays, thanks to the crafty books on the 4th floor, all without the internet's help. I've read countless books to my son, and he's gotten to see some old-school Sesame Street, which we never would have even thought to seek out online.
Seriously, without the library and its materials, I don't know what I'd be doing internetless. Definitely not magically knowing how to make vegan gift baskets on my own. But thanks to these things being available to me, it's not only been not-horrible, but actually a really stimulating way of taking a break and exploring new things I might not have discovered if I'd stuck to my own little niches online.
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
The Wonderful World of eReaders or: How I gained access to all the hot titles and stopped worrying about what to read during the holidays
Is there a book you have been on hold for what seems like forever for? Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl immediately comes to my mind. What if I
told you you could become the first in the hold line without cheating? The library has three copies with no hold list (at this time of
writing!), and all can be checked out for 28 days. If you are a Des Plaines
Library cardholder, simply search “Nook” in our online catalog and place a hold
on one of our ereaders.When your hold is in, visit the Reader Services desk on
the 3rd floor and pick up one of the circulating Nooks the library
owns.
In addition to the Nook devices, we also have Sony Readers
and Kindles available for checkout. The Sony Reader has both the Hunger Games trilogy and the first four
books of the A Song of Fire and Ice series
by George R.R. Martin (the inspiration for the Game of Thrones series you probably have a hold on). The Kindle
also has a solid collection of new favorites including Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus and Chad Harbach’s The Art of Fielding. To find out the
exact titles available on each ereader, click here to access the catalog, click
on one of the ereaders (i.e. Sony Reader), and then click on the “Summary” option
to view the titles available on the ereader.
With the holidays coming up, if you have an ereader on your
wish list but aren’t quite sure which one to go with, checking out different
types of ereaders can be a way of seeing what might work best for you. These
ereaders are equipped with at least 15 books apiece, easily enough to get you
through downtime during holiday festivities without having to carry a bag of
books with you.
If you have any questions regarding our circulating
ereaders, feel free to contact the Reader Services department.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
American Historical Fiction
Another election season has come to a close. Whether your candidate of choice won or lost, it's good to remember that nothing is permanent in the United States. Every few years, we get another chance to decide what's important to us, and who we think will help make those things come to fruition. The years pass, the country changes and grows, and soon "tomorrow" becomes "history."
Historical fiction can take us back to a time long past in our nation, help us remember where we used to be, and where we've come. Here are some novels available at our library that take place during tumultuous times in the U.S. -- wars, the Dust Bowl, the turn of the 20th century, even back to our nation's very beginnings. Will our great grandchildren write novels about the 2010s? Only time will tell.
Historical fiction can take us back to a time long past in our nation, help us remember where we used to be, and where we've come. Here are some novels available at our library that take place during tumultuous times in the U.S. -- wars, the Dust Bowl, the turn of the 20th century, even back to our nation's very beginnings. Will our great grandchildren write novels about the 2010s? Only time will tell.
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