Google Ngram Viewer

I have been playing with the Google Ngram Viewer, which measures the use of words and phrases in books through time. It is a byproduct of the Google Digitization Project. It is easy to use and free to anyone.

Question One: What is the most written about sport in America?

I entered baseball, football, basketball, and hockey into the search box and chose American English. I wanted to eliminate publications from the British Commonwealth where football is the game Americans call soccer. My assumption was that I would see baseball overtaken by football in the 1960s. What I found is here: The Results.

It is not what I thought at all. Football was the more popular topic through most of the 20th Century. Baseball passed it in the late 1980s but football caught back up.

Question Two: Who's more written about between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones? How far behind would the Beach Boys be?

I suspected the Beatles would win. I was not sure how the writing would vary over time. I searched between 1960 and 2008 (last year for which Google has searchable content). Here is the result: Click Here

It appears that the fame of the two British bands peaked around 2002 or 2003 when the Beatles were five times more written about the Rolling Stones and ten times more than the Beach Boys.

Question Three: Which Beatle has gotten the most attention in books?

Here is the result: Beatle Measure

George Harrison gets an early lead, which probably means there was another person with the name. This shows a shortcoming of the Ngram idea. Still, I was surprised how much more attention John Lennon has gotten.

You can do this, too. To learn how Ngram can be used for real research watch this TED lecture.

My Favorite Rides at the Theme Parks in Orlando

We spent a week in the Orlando area celebrating our daughter Laura's finishing her classwork at the University of Iowa. In that time, we rode many rides at Universal and Disney World and took a side trip to the Kennedy Space Center. Here are my favorite rides.

1. Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey (Universal Islands of Adventure) - Hermoine casts the spell that allows you to fly on an enchanted bench. Harry and Ron (who ride broomsticks) lead you around Hogwarts' towers and surrounding forests, quidditch stadium, and mountains. Watch out for dragons, a whomping willow, and dementors. You feel like you are really part of the story. We rode five times in three days.

2. Star Tours (Disney Hollywood Studios) - We were at Hollywood Studios late Sunday evening after the crowds had left. It was Star Wars Weekend to relaunch the updated ride. It is now 3-D and has a different destination each time you ride. The ride through the frozen planet of Hoth was especially thrilling. Again, you really feel part of the story. We rode five times in one evening.

3. Kilimanjaro Safaris (Disney Animal Kingdom) - Though the script is essentially the same for this trek through the African landscape, every ride is different. Much depends on the quality of the driver. Will he stop at the great scenes or keep the vehicle bumping away? Will she actually tell you where to look? Frommer says to avoid the middle of the day when the animals are inactive and the lines are long. We found the lines moved well and plenty of animals were about at that very time. Frommer says the best views for photographers are on the left, but the animals were mostly on the right the three days that we rode.

4. Splash Mountain (Disney Magic Kingdom) - You ride a hollow log through a mountain and past many scenes from the life of Brer Rabbit. You might get very wet or you might not depending on your seat placement and the timing of water effects. You'll leave singing. We rode twice.

5. The Cat in the Hat (Universal Islands of Adventure) - If you love the story, you'll love the ride. There is so detail, we rode three times to see it all.

6. Expedition Everest (Disney Animal Kingdom) - This is a fast roller coaster ride through the mountains worth repeating. Beware of the Yeti! We rode twice.

7. Astronaut Training Experience (Kennedy Space Center) - While we all want to be astronauts, this is as close as most of us will get. As you prepare for your simulated launch into space, you hear stories from real astronauts at every turn of the ramps and in the waiting area. I could feel my skin flapping.

8. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (Disney Magic Kingdom) - This is a game as well as a ride. You have to learn to spin your car as well as shoot. I'd like to go back right now.

9. The Amazing Adventures of Spider Man (Universal Islands of Adventure) - You wear 3-D glasses in this action-packed ride through a city being torn apart by powerful super-criminals. I rode twice.

10. It's a Small World (Disney Magic Kingdom) - Have you seen an 18-month old girl react with pure joy? It's the best part of the ride, which actually is a much better ride than it used to be. While the refurbished ride is still high on cuteness, it looks much brighter and is not so sweet as it was fifteen years ago.

Having and using Express Passes at Universal and Fast Passes at Disney is essential to enjoying the parks. We got these for staying at the official resorts, which also let us into the parks early and late. It was a great week. More on other aspects of the theme parks in posts next week.

ricklibrarian Guide to Picking Raspberries

This is high raspberry season in Downers Grove. I am out picking away every day. I probably picked four pints yesterday. I've gotten at least two pints every day for the last week. We've been eating them with many meals and Bonnie has been baking wonderful desserts. Neighbors are getting raspberries. We've taken berries to work. It's a wonderful time.

If you have never picked raspberries, here is some advice:

• Raspberries are easy to grow if you have a sunny, well-drained spot that you don't mind letting go a little wild. I planted five little sticks about eight years ago and now have a thriving patch.
• When picking, look at the bushes from every angle that you can. You'll find that after picking the top and outside of the bushes, there are many more inside the thicket.
• If a raspberry does not come off easily, it is not yet ripe. The berries that are ready just slide off in your fingers.
• Really shiny berries are not ready. The peak flavor in my berries seems to be in those that are just losing their shine. If they dull and dark, you are too late. It is better to be a little early picking than late.
• Little berries that did not fill out taste woody. I drop those to get them off the bushes.
• Some berries are so ripe you have to eat them right of the bush. Right after dinner is a good time to pick. Consider it dessert time.

While you do have to clean the patch up in the fall and spring, the work is easy. Here outside Chicago, I hardly have to water the established patch except in drought. The benefits of having a raspberry patch are many. Many pints.

Joyce Sarick's Fiction Genre First Sentence Quiz

I was skeptical. Joyce Saricks said that I would get a perfect score on her fiction genre quiz, but I was very sure I would disappoint her. How could I tell what genre to assign a book by reading the first two sentences? With certainty that I would fail, I started the quiz, which is on page 27 of the August 2009 issue of Booklist.

I read the twelve quotes and thought "This is impossible. I know nothing." Then I read them again and decided that I could get at least two of them, the mystery and the western. Actually, the legal thriller jumped out, too. I decided that another quote read like a gentle read and fifth like suspense. Two quotes seemed to reflect the past, so I assigned them as historical romance and historical fiction. Eventually, I had classified each two-sentence quote and was ready to turn the page upside down to see how badly I had done.

Joyce was right! Though I read very little fiction these days, I got them all right.

You try, too.

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Also look at page 101. There is the first ad that I have seen for my book Real Lives Revealed!

Answers to the Biography Pop Quiz

Here are the answers to last week’s biography pop quiz. All answers can be found in my new book Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Eminent Victorians, Lytton Strachey did not write about (b) Matthew Arnold. Strachey wrote about Thomas Arnold.

2. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall wrote a biography of (c) George Washington

3. Sheriff Pat Garrett shot the outlaw know as (d) all of the above, which were names used by the outlaw known as Billy the Kid.

4. Journalist Martha Gellhorn died from (b) suicide.

5. On Illustrious Men (De Viris Illustribus) was written by (d) all of the above. It was popular name to use in Latin collected biographies.

6. Singer Michael Jackson claimed that his life was changed by reading a biography of (c) P. T. Barnum, who wanted to present the "greatest show on earth."

7. Elizabeth Barrett Browning had a dog named (c) Flush, who was dog-napped several times. The author defied her father to pay the ransoms. This may have helped her finally break away from her domineering parents.

8. President Abraham Lincoln's friends did not included (b) the late David Herbert Donald who was a Lincoln biographer, not a contemporary, though you might suspect he would have liked to be a Lincoln friend.

9. After their baseball careers ended, Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth developed a friendship while (c) golfing.

10. J. Randy Taraborrelli has not written a biography of (c) Barbara Streisand.


True or False?

11. True - Ray Charles learned to play boogie-woogie piano before he was classically trained.

12. True - The pirate William Dampier was also a noted scientist who chartered ocean currents and drew tropical birds.

13. True - Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev was born on a train near Lake Baikal in Siberia.

14. True - Martha Washington burned all of her letters to and from her husband George.

15. False - Jonas Salk DID NOT suffer from polio as a child.


Bonus Question

16. Name the author of the first biography?

d. Ion of Chios is the best answer, as he wrote sketches of Pericles and Sophocles in the fifth century BCE. Scholars, however, do not agree on what a biography is, so the question is really hard to answer.

If you got any of the answers right, consider yourself pretty well-read.

It Is Minus Ten

It is minus ten and beautiful,
The sky is a deep clear blue.
The moon is setting in the west,
I hope you enjoy the view - briefly.
Get back inside!

The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, Based on the Lost Interviews from the Official Lucasfilm Archives by J. W. Rin

How many books about Star Wars do we need? At least one more, that being The Making of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler. Based on four boxes full of interviews 1975 and 1978, which are now called the "lost interviews" because they had been put in the Lucas archives and forgotten, The Making of Star Wars is a thick, very detailed account that movie fans will enjoy.

The book starts at the beginning with an account of how George Lucas first conceived of Star Wars and how his ideas changed through his many handwritten drafts. Among the illustrations are photos of pages from the drafts, written with pencil on lined notebook paper. It is a wonder the story ever gelled. The early drafts were far different than the scripts issued for shooting. Lucas had ideas about certain scenes instead firm ideas of a story. Lots of ideas that reappeared in later movies were dropped. All the names changed.

Early in the development, the central character is Captain Annikin Starkiller. When Han Solo first appears, he is described as 150 years old. The droids were originally construction workers. There is a minor character named Skywalker.

The book includes many drawings showing how costumes, creatures, and sets evolved, and there are photos from the sets showing the cast as they work. What's funny to see is that when all the stormtroopers remove their helmets, they have huge amounts of hair. It was the 1970s.

At 314 oversize pages with small font text, this wonderful book takes time to read. Libraries should give readers extended loans.


Rinzler, J. W. The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, Based on the Lost Interviews from the Official Lucasfilm Archives. Ballantine Books, 2007. ISBN 9780345477613.

I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto by Willard Carroll

One of the benefits of working at a library is discovering interesting books when you are supposed to be doing something else. I happened to be looking through the movie books to answer a question yesterday and found I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto by Willard Carroll. Of course, I checked it out.

There are some surprising statements in this cute little book. The author says that Toto is the real star of The Wizard of Oz. He argues that it is Toto's actions that spark the story. He also goes on to say that Toto is in more scenes that Dorothy! There are nine solo shots of Toto, who barks 44 times.

The central part of the book is a memoir written by Terry, found by the author in a metal box at a road construction site outside Hollywood. Toto tells all about her discovery, training, and auditions for various movies. Her first film was costarring with Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes (1934). According to Terry, it was a pleasure working with Miss Temple. The Wizard of Oz was Terry's seventh movie. There were problems on the set, as several directors left the production, the script was often changed, costuming was elaborate, and the wind machines nearly blew Terry over. The hardest part was working with winged monkeys and winkies, which were very frightening. Margaret Hamilton, a dog lover, however, was lots of fun. Terry made fourteen movies, getting to know almost all the studios in Hollywood.

Not many libraries in my area seem to have this humorous book, but it is available through interlibrary loan. Wizard of Oz fans (there are lots of them) will enjoy it.

Carroll, Willard. I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog who Was Toto. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2001. ISBN 158479111x.

Harry Potter Party in Downers Grove

Book as Costume
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

A crowd of readers moved on downtown Downers Grove last night, awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Among the many activities was a costume contest. I did not hear who won, but my favorite was the girl who came as the book. In her interview with Anderson's Book Shop staff, she said that it took her three days to make her costume.

There were lots of Hogwart's student robes, many also sporting the Gryffindor scarf. The scarves looked pretty sharp with the black robes or black t-shirts. I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Of course, our reason for being there was to pick up the book, but there were several hours of party before midnight, so we visited Honey Dukes for chocolates. We also watched a bit of human-sized chess and saw wandmaking.

Bonnie had ticket #45. We had the book by 12:03. She started reading in the car on the way home. Laura gets the book next. I am last in line, which is good because I then get to take my time enjoying it.

More photos are on Flickr. Click the photo.

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I notice that iTunes does not have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I wonder why.