Review: Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother"

I just finished reading Cory Doctorow's book Little Brother (to be released April 29th), and it was amazing. Yes, it's marketed as YA (young adult) fiction, but this is a serious--as well as enjoyable--book on a serious topic. It's about life in San Francisco after a terrorist attack that prompts the government to turn the city into a police state with constant surveillance, loss of freedom, etc. A group of high school hackers fight back, and make a lot of poignant arguments about freedom and fighting for what you believe in.

I read this book in about five hours total, I think--all of which were spent commuting on DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) to and from the TLA conference (which I blogged over at the TLA Blog). I highly, highly recommend it. And if you'd like a short taste of it, Cory's got a mp3 of himself reading a selection of it, available for free download. (Caution: novel (and this excerpt) contains some profanity and graphic scenes.) You can also read more of his podcasts here.

And here's high praise from one of my favorite authors:

"I'd recommend Little Brother over pretty much any book I've read this year, and I'd want to get it into the hands of as many smart 13 year olds, male and female, as I can. Because I think it'll change lives. Because some kids, maybe just a few, won't be the same after they've read it. Maybe they'll change politically, maybe technologically. Maybe it'll just be the first book they loved or that spoke to their inner geek. Maybe they'll want to argue about it and disagree with it. Maybe they'll want to open their computer and see what's in there. I don't know. It made me want to be 13 again right now and reading it for the first time, and then go out and make the world better or stranger or odder. It's a wonderful, important book, in a way that renders its flaws pretty much meaningless."

-- Neil Gaiman on Little Brother (full review here)

Noteable Secrets

I know, I went straight from MIA due to travel to MIA due to performance-review-time. Hopefully this will all be done next week.

In the meantime, enjoy this delightful example of why you should submit FOIAs: a book on secret Pentagon badges.

Banned Books Photos

Just thought you might like to see some images from the past week, since I didn't have time to upload them earlier.

Favorite GovDoc of the Week

The United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Arts



You can also access it online... but I highly recommend getting your hands on these gorgeous print reproductions.

After finding this randomly in a LexisNexis search, we couldn't locate our print copy in the catalog. Our amazing staff managed to locate it, update our catalog record, and it's sitting on my desk in all its large-format hardback full-color glossy-paged glory. Government + art + history + books... there is nothing I don't love in this equation.

It's got a whole section just on old political cartoons--with one that rings true today, featuring Uncle Sam riding a snail labeled "U.S. Congress." The cartoon is titled "The Lightning Speed of Honesty."

Ah, some things don't change, eh?

Playing in the Pro League

This has been a great week for me, professionally. I've been invited to speak on Library 2.0 themes at the San Antonio Public Libraries' staff development day, finished a book review for JWL on an amazing guide to writing web content, and was just informed that my proposal for an educational program at the Fall DLC meeting has been accepted.

Hooray! (Oh wait... does this mean I actually have to write the presentations now?)


Incidentally, if you need a good guide for writing online content, buy Ginny Redish's Letting Go of the Words. In fact, just go out and buy it regardless--even if you think you don't need this book, it's unbelievably useful and so clearly written that it sparkles. I, who groan at the thought of trying to read something on top of my already-hectic schedule, flew through this book and enjoyed every moment. You need this book. Just trust me.

And while you're ordering things, get a subscription to the Journal of Web Librarianship. If you're a librarian who uses the internet, this periodical is relevant, no matter how web-savvy you are (or aren't). And if you're a librarian who doesn't use the internet... maybe you should start reading up on that.

Not a Cheater

Ah, yes, the scorn of many book clubs and bibliophile traditionalists--audiobooks. This article describes the scorn some book club members face when they reveal they've listened, rather than read, the latest selection. I myself feel a tad odd when I list audiobooks on my "recently read" list--but I am firmly in the school that listening to an audiobook is just as much reading as is cracking open the physical volume.

My theory is, people that scorn audiobooks as "not as much work" as reading the book, clearly don't do as much actual work as I do, which is part of what accounts for the very little time I have to read. Then again, most of these people would probably also not classify my comic book habit as "reading." They're right--it takes much more visual effort and brain power to concentrate on a script that is both text and image--which is why when I'm tired, I read books, and only read comics when I have enough energy to concentrate.

I only wish that we had a broader selection of popular titles at UNT. Or else that the McKinney/Denton public libraries were more on my way to work. Or that they had a courier service directly to my office. And also if all my textbooks, and professional books I'd like to read--if they were on audiobook, that would rock.

Yeah, I know I sound like a big whiner. But that's what you get to be when you commute ten hours a week, watching your free time melt away like pecan ice cream.

Mmmmm, ice cream.

Odd Title of the Day

Stuck Rubber Baby, by Howard Cruse.

Web Archiving & Book Mooching

The Web Curator Tool (WCT) was just released by the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ); it's a new resource for archiving websites (part of my job for the CyberCemetery and the NDIIPP Web-at-Risk project). I may be providing feedback on this project as part of my duties as a curator in the Web-at-Risk project. This news came shortly after I finished posting my first FDLP conference notes to my wiki on what topic but: Web Harvesting.

On a completely different track, I've been using Book Mooch for a few months now; I've sent three books (two more to send this week) for the lost MediaMail cost of $1-2.50 each, and in turn received two books, and have two more on the way! I highly recommend the service as a cheap, fun way to exchange books. It's particularly good for graphic novels, as these tend to be pricey at Half Price Books and the popular titles aren't usually available; Book Mooch has a bigger selection, and they cost only the media mail postage that you pay to send a book of your own to someone else.

Follow-Up to Banned Books Week

"Alton Verm's request to ban 'Fahrenheit 451' came during the 25th annual Banned Books Week. He and Hines said the request to ban 'Fahrenheit 451,' a book about book burning, during Banned Books Weeks is a coincidence."

Best line in the article:
"It's just all kinds of filth," said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read Fahrenheit 451.

I was glad to see, however, that the offended student proactively recommended her own substitute, "Ella Minnow Pea."

Thanks to BoingBoing and Wandering Eyre.

Loving Lewis

So far at the GovDocs reference desk, I've had a few art questions, and some general literature ones, but so infrequently that each one seems like a special occassion. I just had a student come up looking for works by C.S. Lewis--fiction, nonfiction, theological, diaries--whatever we had. I asked if it was for a class, but it turns out that just like me, he grew up reading C.S. Lewis, and had left a lot of Lewis books at home that he wanted to read. I gave him my card, just in case he ever needed more help finding something Lewis-related. It's questions like that which make me miss the downstairs reference desk a bit.

But when I've answered four "Where's the bathroom?" questions in a row, I'm ready to escape to my office to dance with metadata.

Update: He came back to ask for some fiction by George MacDonald; he's reading one of my favorites right now, Phantastes. It does my heart good to know that someone most likely a decade younger than me is reading these amazing works. (And if you want a gorgeous work on MacDonald's life, check out this book, with photographs from my HSU English prof Larry Fink, who taught the CS Lewis class I took my senior year--naturally!)