The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

It is getting hard to review the books of Alexander McCall Smith without repeating myself. It is like reviewing episodes of a recurring television series. Each installment has many of the same positive qualities.

I just finished The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, which continues the story of Mma Ramotswe and her friends in Botswana that started in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I enjoyed this eighth book of the series very much. I do not want to spoil the story, so I will only say that the agency juggles three cases, while the mechanic's apprentice Charlie tries to start his own business. With an agency office problem added into the mix, I count five parallel plots. Readers will have to keep reading to sort it all out.

What I thought would be interesting is to see how other readers rate the book. I looked at Library Thing, where I found that 100 readers have added the new book to their online catalogs. Of that number, 18 have rated it so far. This Library Thing chart shows readers liking the book so far.

Other books in the series have gotten similar member ratings: Blue Shoes and Happiness (3.9), In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (4.09), The Full Cupboard of Life (3.91), The Kalahari Typing School for Men (3.83), Morality for Beautiful Girls (3.83), Tears for the Giraffe (3.87), and No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (3.82).

For contrast, I checked Amazon to see how its customers rate the book. So far, 41 have rated it, with the average rating being slightly over 4 stars. Amazon does not provide as specific a statistic as Library Thing nor does it have the nice green bar chart.

If you are planning to read No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series books, I urge that you do start with book one, which has lent its name to the series. It sets the groundwork for the series. Other books are better read in order, too, as there are developments that are easier to understand chronologically.

I will end with a question. Does anyone know the name of the younger apprentice at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors?

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Good Husband of Zebra Drive. New York: Pantheon Books, 2007. ISBN 9780375422737

Happy Mothers Day!

Newly Planted Containers
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I hope everyone is enjoying Mother's Day. We have been planting flowers for days and are now sitting back looking at the new beds and containers, imagining what the results will be in another one and two and three months.

Not every mother is free the whole day. Ironically Bonnie and the two other mothers in the reference department at the Downers Grove Public Library are working today. If you are away from your Mom and happen to be in the area, you could celebrate by dropping in DGPL and asking a mom to help you with a reference question or choose a good book. They will enjoy helping you.

Express you appreciations to mothers everywhere. Happy Mothers Day!

An Evening with E. L. Doctorow: The Big Read Finale

You could have heard a pin drop, as E. L. Doctorow paused in his reading from his National Book Critics Circle winning novel The March. Hundreds of readers from eight libraries listened to his tale about the final months of the American Civil War. In the story about Sherman's march through Georgia and South Carolina, the English journalist Hugh Pryce had just pulled a small, thin slave named David onto his swaybacked mule, and they left the ugly scene of Union soldiers beating and raping a plantation owner's daughter. Pryce said to himself, this is not your country. This is not your war.

After reading two sections of his novel, the author answered questions from the listeners. Though most members of the audience were over forty years of age, the best question about the story came from a high school student who asked why the author thought it was important to write about the Civil War now. Mr. Doctorow said that Sherman's march was an innovation in warfare. To move quickly the army did not carry provisions and lived off what it found in its path. As it destroyed towns and plantations, freed slaves and many whites no longer had homes and followed the army north. In the process a culture was destroyed, embittering its survivors and descendants. The scars of the Civil War remain today as we still have racism and regional hatred. Doctorow added that when you write about the past, you also write about the present.

The author answered questions about his methods of writing. He said that he was initially slowed down by computer word processing, as he found it too easy to revise his text. He just kept revising and not finishing until he started working from printouts instead of from the monitor. He writes facing a blank wall to avoid distractions. He avoids most quotation marks. He said that they are like ants on a page. He claimed that if an author writes well the reader knows what is speech and who is speaking without them. (In his spirit I have not used quotation marks in this report.)

The presentation by E. L. Doctorow was the final program in a two-month long series from eight libraries in the western suburbs of Chicago. The Big Read 2007 featured book discussions, fashions from the Civil War, portrayals of famous people, an army encampment, quilt displays, musical performances, movies, and slideshows about Lincoln and Chicago's role in the war. Most of the programs were well attended and the libraries have heard many grateful comments.

In about a week, librarians from Clarendon Hills, Downers Grove, Hinsdale, Indian Prairie, Lisle, Thomas Ford, Westmont, and Woodridge start planning for 2008. What should we read next year?

On Tea and Books

I keep reading about tea. In A Country Year by Sue Hubbell, she serves tea when a friend visits her farm in the Missouri Ozarks; she probably uses some of her own honey to sweeten it. Greg Mortensen, author of Three Cups of Tea, drinks tea with practically every person he meets in Pakistan; it is a common courtesy. I am now reading The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith; whenever a client comes to the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe serves tea.

I was visited by a salesman yesterday. I chose a table in the public area for us to sit, as I do not have a private office and the board room was in use. He needed a surface for laying out his documents and nothing was confidential, so it did not seem a bad place to meet. Halfway through the conversation, I suddenly thought that if we were in Pakistan or Botswana, we would be drinking tea. I felt ungracious as we sat there in stiff chairs.

I resolve to change the way I meet with my appointments.

• I will offer tea, coffee, or cocoa. We have a machine that makes beverages in an instant.
• I will chat before getting down to business.
• I will select a less public spot for meeting if possible. I will clear off my desk in the workroom if necessary.
• I will try to meet international standards of courtesy.

As several of the authors in The Book That Changed My Life say, every book changes me. I am sometimes slow to comprehend.

Dewey Decimal Local

Personalization and localization of web services is an Internet trend that has been growing for several years. Why don't we take the same principle and apply it to Dewey Decimal Classification? Why don't we create Dewey Decimal Local?

"Wait!" you say. Independent thinking librarians have been playing loose with Dewey numbers for years. Former library school students, who got grades of B and C because they could not match the numbers that the cataloguing instructor wanted, have been putting books under locally appropriate call numbers for decades. What is the new idea?

Dewey is a massive scheme that takes four volumes in print. It seems to me that it would be helpful for someone (not me, I don't have the time or skill) to take an electronic version and filter it to allow local decision making. A questionnaire of preferences would let the local library personalize the scheme.

To make the scheme work best, each library would first have to identify its types of clients and rank them. This would require some polling of the community and fit into long range planning. The resulting group rankings would then direct call number selection.

What groups are borrowing library materials? If the library has more travellers than architecture students, then books on regional architecture would go in the travel section where they might be borrowed more frequently. If the library has more parents than psychology majors, materials on child development would join the parenting collection.

If a library has significant Jewish, Muslim, or other religious populations, the Dewey Decimal Local would reassign the 200s to give these groups larger ranges.

If it makes no difference (and is in fact confusing) to local readers whether a poet is American or English, the new DDL would combine them. They all write in English (usually).

Can some tech-wise librarian design a mashup to do this? Could it be called Dewey 2.0?

While someone works on this, lets all think about our local clients and how they find materials and try to set them in their paths.

A Country Year: Living the Questions by Sue Hubbell

When Sue Hubbell wrote her first book A Country Year: Living the Questions, she had been living on her farm in the Missouri Ozarks for twelve years. Her husband had been gone five years, and she had mastered beekeeping and become an adept naturalist. When not working with her bees and their hives, she was observing plants and creatures around her. Nothing missed her notice; in her essays, she wrote about opossums, coyotes, a variety of snakes, wild orchids, brown recluse spiders, cedar waxwings, house termites, wild roses, bobcats, her dogs, and honey bees. Unlike many of her neighbors, she enjoyed and tolerated the wildlife, even the species with bad reputations.

Though she spent much of her time alone, Hubbell was not a hermit in the Thoreau tradition. Frequently she visited her local junkyard man to find parts for her old truck that she had named Press On Regardless. She winched the mail truck out of the mud. She invited area beekeepers to an annual party on her farm. She gave her old tractor to a neighbor on the condition he maintain it and mow her brush. She opened her doors and heart to the VFW members who witnessed a friend's suicide at the local picnic grounds.

A Country Year has become a classic on rural living. It is more down-to-earth than Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Readers who enjoy Jane Brox's Here and Nowhere Else will enjoy its sense of place. It appears to be the most popular of Hubbell's books, if you measure by copies owned by Library Thing members, who give it a high reading rating (see chart above).

Listening to A Country Year on compact discs is a good choice while tending your garden.

Hubbell, Sue. A Country Year: Living the Questions. New York: Random House, 1986. ISBN 0394546032

5 Compact Discs. Charlotte Hall, MD : Recorded Books, p1989. ISBN 1419321323

Twentieth Century Lives: Biography Panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books

Every Thursday I receive an email with highlights of the upcoming C-SPAN 2 Books TV schedule. I rarely make time to watch TV but I scan the announcement to see if there are books that my library should acquire being discussed. Two weeks ago I noticed a program that I wanted to see. Because it was already Friday when I read the message, I called Bonnie and she recorded the live presentation of Twentieth Century Lives: Biography Panel at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Yesterday I watched the panel discussion.

According to A. Scott Berg, who was leading the discussion, it was the eleventh year for the biography panel. On this year's panel were Anthony Arthur, the author of Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair; Neal Gabler, author of Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination; Walter Isaacson, author of Einstein: His Life and Universe; and Harold Zellman, coauthor of The Fellowship: The Untold Story of Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship.

Gabler had just won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography. When asked about why he chose to write about Walt Disney, he said that none of the current works about him were comprehensive or well-documented, and he thought Disney was an import figure that had been disregarded. Gabler got unprecedented access to the Disney company archives and interviewed studio animators and family members. He suggested that a writer has to be crazy to take up biography, as it is easy to become addicted to one's subject; he spent seven years reading Disney's letters and company memos.

Zellman said he and Roger Friedland had to have been crazy to start a book on Frank Lloyd Wright, as a visitor to any Wright site gift shop will find many books on the architect still in print. In their book they planned to have one cahpter to focus on the interns at Taliesin and Taliesin West. That chapter grew and became a book. Sounding a bit uncertain whether such exists, Zellman called The Fellowship a "group biography." (Group biographies do indeed exist, Mr. Zellman. Ask a librarian.)

Walter Isaacson described Albert Einstein as a patent clerk who was a slow learner who became the man of the twentieth century because he was rebellious, creative, and willing to challenge conventional thinking. Isaacson had long been fascinated by Einstein and jumped into writing when the scientist's papers were unlocked in 2006. He found it ironic that the story of Einstein is used by many to justify the difficulty of understanding science (you have to be a genius) when in fact the lesson of his life is that anyone with curiosity can understand. Einstein once said jokingly, "I'm no Einstein."

Anthony Arthur said Upton Sinclair is a mostly forgotten figure now. The Jungle is the only title most people remember, and many of them say that Sinclair Lewis wrote it. Arthur said that Sinclair stayed connected with important people throughout the century until his death in 1968, and he met Disney, Wright, and Einstein in his Los Angeles years.

If librarians were watching, Arthur made them cringe. He spoke at length about the Lanny Budd series, which Sinclair wrote late in life. As an aside, Arthur claimed that the Los Angeles Public Library had disposed of all of its copies of the eleven books in the series. This is not true, as a look in the library's catalog shows multiple copies of each of the titles in the central library. (Did Arthur have trouble with the catalog?) (Did he mean the County of Los Angeles County Public Library? The books are there also.)

The discussion was varied and random, so it is difficult to make any observations about the state of the art of the biography. As Gabler said, authors are possessed by their subjects, which is what makes them interesting speakers. I enjoyed an hour with them.

Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart

I recommend having a friend nearby as you read Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart, as there are so many interesting statements to share. You will keep saying, "Did you know?"

Did you know that eighty percent of the cut flowers sold in the U.S. are imported? Did you know that the largest number of them come from Colombia, which we give favored nation status to encourage flower farming as part of the unsuccessful war on drugs? Did you know we get the most roses from Ecuador, which sends its high-end roses to Russia? Did you know most flowers imported into the U.S. come through Miami, where sample containers will be inspected for disease, insects, and illegal drugs?

Did you know that the trend toward outpatient surgery has hurt flower sales in the sympathy segment of the market? Did you know that two thirds of all cut flower sales in the U.S are gifts? Stewart tells us much about cultural trends and their influence on flower sales.

One of our gardening speakers at Thomas Ford recommended Flower Confidential to me, saying it was tremendous book. She was right. It reveals much about an industry most of us do not even notice and makes the reader think about the ethics of buying flowers.

The American flower industry has been slow to respond to concerns about labor issues and use of pesticides and preservatives. The corporations that control the market say that regulations would hurt profitability. They say that they can not guarantee what workers in Central and South America (or even California) are paid. Meanwhile in Europe, flowers are graded and certified for human rights; the author says the flowers there are of higher quality and cost the consumer less.

Like independent bookstores, individual flower shops are threatened by developments in our economy. Many have shut their doors as supermarkets, discount stores, and Internet sales have cut away their customers, many who think only of price. The customer often gets an inferior product that wilts sooner.

Stewart takes the reader on a tour of the world, visiting farms in California and Ecuador, the airport in Miami, the flower auction in Amsterdam, and several retailer shops around the U.S. She interviews many industry experts as well as the workers in the fields. She never lets the book get dry and boring. It should be in most public libraries.

Stewart, Amy. Flower Confidential. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2007. ISBN 1565124383

Digging for the Truth: One Man's Epic Adventure Exploring the World's Greatest Archaeological Mysteries by Josh Bernstein

Digging for the Truth by Josh Bernstein is part memoir and part television show companion. The TV program, also called Digging for the Truth, takes Bernstein to exotic locations around the world to ask experts about historical mysteries. Among his questions are:

"How did the Ice Man found in the Alps die?"

"Who was the real Queen of Sheba?"

"Were there ever cities of gold in the Amazon?"

"Why did the Vikings abandon their American settlement? Was there more than one?"

Of course, none of the questions can definitely be answered and stirring up debate among the experts is half the fun. The other half of the fun is having Bernstein do something dangerous, like standing on a small iceberg or scaling a cliff to get to a monastery.

Embedded in the narrative are lessons on building snow houses, starting a fire with flint, treating ant bites, and catching fish with your hands.

Digging for the Truth is adventure entertainment with a bit of ancient history thrown in. It will appeal to adventure and travel readers. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook while gardening.

Bernstein, Josh. Digging for the Truth: One Man's Epic Adventure Exploring the World's Greatest Archaeological Mysteries. New York : Gotham Books, c2006. ISBN 1592402771

Audiobook: 6 compact discs. Tantor Audio, p2006. ISBN 1400103444

Prelinger Library

If you subscribe to LISNews, you may have seen the Prelinger Library already. The reason it was highlighted at LISNews is that in its May 2007 issue Harper's wrote about the "appropriations-friendly" library, which exists physically in San Francisco and virtually on the Internet with 2098 books. The Prelinger is a research library that free for anyone to use and holds many unusual items. The focus is "landscape and geography; media and representation; historical consciousness; and political narratives from beyond the mainstream." It sounds like a nice place to spend an afternoon.

Right now it is the free to view eBooks that impress me. Take a look at The Bird Book by Chester A. Reed (1914). On the left of the description page is a box with viewing options. I really like the simplicity and easy use of the flip book version, which is much nicer than netLibrary books, but the display is a little small. The DjVu version has a larger display and works almost as easily. Both version make reading a book from a computer with a 17-inch monitor possible. Avoid the PDF version, which takes a long time to load.

There are many items that will interest readers of history. Having grown up in Texas, I might want to come back and read Sam Houston: Colossus in Buckskin. (Maybe not, as it glorifies Houston without criticism.)

It looks as though the online library is really a collaboration with other online collections. The digitization of the book I chose may not actually have been Prelinger Library work, as there is an Internet Archive logo in the top left corner of the webpage and links to other institutions in the navigation. For the reader, the origin of the book probably does not matter. The Prelinger Library website provides the portal.

I am making a bookmark.

"Are Book Reviewers Out of Print?" in the New York Times

Many major newspapers in the U.S. are reducing or eliminating their book sections at a time when blogging about books is rising. In "Book Reviewers Out of Print?" in the May 2, 2007 issue of the New York Times, page B1, Motoko Rich asks authors and bloggers about the situation and whether there is a cause-and-effect relationship. The bloggers say "no." They do not want to replace the newspaper reviewers, who are career writers or academics. Many of the authors think the threat comes from newspapers intent on cost cutting. They are mostly unaware of bloggers.

The idea that newspaper reviews are too stodgy, serious, and academic is discussed. They often print long reviews of books that have little public appeal. I see the Chicago Tribune each week and wonder if this is a fair complaint. To the newspaper's credit, it is often highlighting little known books that should get more exposure. However, I am then surprised (or used to be surprised) by how few requests we get at my public library for the books reviewed in the Chicago Tribune Book Section.

Authors in the article claim that the newspapers in question (Atlanta Constitution, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times) need to remember their role in promoting regional literature.

The article is interesting and provides links to literary blogs. Here is a link to the article, which may require you to start a free NYT account.

Narn I Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien

Warning for librarians: the title on the jacket does not agree with the title page. This has already caused confusion placing reserves. Booksellers and the press are using the cover title. Some library catalogs are using the title page title.

The story of Middle Earth continues, as Christopher Tolkien has edited more of his father J.R.R. Tolkien’s early writings and gives us Narn I Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin. Húrin is lord of Dor-lómin in a hard time when men and elves fight the evil strength of Morgoth, the dark lord of the north. Morwen is his wife and mother of Túrin, Urwen, and Niënor. After her husband is captured by Morgoth, she sends her son Túrin to live with the elves in the hidden realm of Gondolin. These events take place long before the events in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Readers of the Silmarillion may remember the outline of the story, which I will not reveal. In The Children of Húrin the story is greatly expanded and readers learn why Túrin and Niënor wander into the dangerous lands of the west. In the new work (a really old work) there are also dwarfs, orcs, and a dragon that does not fly, but no hobbits. Compared to the Silmarillion, the new book is easy reading, as there is a constant narrative and clear line of action. There are many names, as every major character has several, but readers are clearly told when names change. Christopher Tolkien provides a glossary of names in the back of the book.

Tolkien fans will enjoy the epic story and the great writing. They may come to agree with Beleg, an elf of Doriath, who says, “Alas! Child of men, there are other griefs in Middle-Earth than yours, and wounds made by no weapon. Indeed I begin to think that Elves and Men should not meet or meddle.”

Readers will also enjoy the wonderful illustrations of Alan Lee.

Every library should have this book.

Tolkien, J.R.R. Narn I Chîn Húrin: The Tale of the Children of Húrin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN 0618894640

Ukridge by P. G. Wodehouse

"Oh, I feel in my bones that something is bound to go wrong!"

Something is always going wrong in the ten closely-related stories about the get-rich schemes of Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge in Ukridge by P. G. Wodehouse. "Can't miss" horses miss. The boxer Wilberforce "Batting" Billson, on whom our hero has bets, feels sorry for his opponents and won't hit them hard, or he gets religion and swears off boxing. Creditors appear at unfortunate times, as do bobbies in blue helmets. Aunt Julia disowns the overweight young man when he could do with a little luck. "Upon my Sam, it's all a bit hard."

Of course, Ukridge never has any doubts that his fortune is around the corner. It is his friend Corky (Jimmy Corcoran) who states his doubts about the wisdom of kidnapping parrots and borrowing old schoolmates fancy cars. In the meantime, Ukridge borrows sixpence or a fiver to see him through, as well as a pair of socks and a clean shirt from Corky's wardrobe.

Wodehouse readers may recognize Ukridge from Love among the Chickens, 1906. The book Ukridge, 1924, collects stories that predate the fowl novel. In the stories Stanley is unmarried and trying to stay that way. When he is engaged, Corky is trying to get the prospective in-laws to break it off.

If you like silly British comedy, Ukridge is the stuff.

Wodehouse, P. G. Ukridge. Hampton, NH: BBC Audiobooks, 2005. 6 compact discs. ISBN 0792735013

Print versions are rather scarce. The book is also called He Rather Enjoyed It. The stories are also in collections.

A Visitor from Australia at Thomas Ford

Michelle McLean came to Thomas Ford! If you do not know Michelle, she is the Australian librarian who toured American libraries to learn about their library 2.0 services. She works at the Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation, a public library outside Melbourne, and blogs as connectinglibrarian. At her blog you will find detailed reports on all her library visits and her experiences at the Computers in Libraries conference in Washington, DC.

Thomas Ford was Michelle's last stop. She had already been to Princeton Public, Darien Library, Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, the Ohio Public Library Information Network (OPLIN), Webjunction, St. Joseph County Public Library, Ann Arbor District Library, and Hennepin County Public Library. Looking at all these libraries' websites and reading Michelle's reports would make a good virtual lesson in web services and design. We were honored to be added to the list.

We spent much our time around PCs looking at the front ends and back ends of websites, trading ideas. Several things that we at Thomas Ford want to do include in our redesign:

• putting news feeds from blogs for each of our primary audiences (youth, teens, and adults) on our new home page
• let members of our film discussion vote via the web on some upcoming films
• try a new statistics plug-in
• write our publicity for upcoming events well in advance and preset it to post at the moment we need to replace publicity as events pass

Our conversations did not stick to libraries all day. We learned that contrary to rumor, Australia is not overrun with poisonous snakes, and it is safe to visit. Koalas sleep most of the time. Winter temperatures are mild. American and Australian suburbs and libraries are much the same.

One difference that Michelle did notice was the U.S. has far fewer independent shops selling music CDs. Big chain stores and the Internet have taken down American music shops but many still remain in Australia. Independent book sellers in Australia are in as much trouble as they are in the U.S.

Michelle said that Australian librarians would like for a lot of us to visit, especially Michael Stephens. Shall we charter a jet?

Domestic Violence: Poems by Eavan Boland

It is the final day of poetry month and I just now have a book to recommend. I started five or six other poetry volumes in the past two months and never got past page 20. I was not the right reader and they were not the right books. Finally, I found Domestic Violence: Poems by Eavan Boland, which I absorbed in two days.

Boland is direct and visual. Reading her poems calls forth many sharp images, as in her poem "How It Was Once in Our Country":

"In those years I owned a blue plate,
blue from the very edge to the center,
ocean-blue, the sort of under-wave blue
a mermaid could easily dive down into and enter."

In "Irish Interior" she describes an old drawing in which a woman spins and a man stands by his loom. They are permanently separated, unable to touch each other. Many of her poems express sadness for what has been or never been.

"And Soul" may be my favorite poem in the collection. Boland links the moisture of atmosphere and ocean to the liquid content of the human body. I read it during a thunderstorm, hearing the rain on my roof and windows. I think I began to perspire. Water is also the key element in"On This Earth" and "In Season."

Boland is Irish and writes much about her island and its history. She decries violence against women and the enslaving of workers to drive the Industrial Revolution. She remembers the Irish poets and describes the Book of Kells. Her book will appeal to readers sympathetic to Irish causes. Many public libraries should add this book.

Boland, Eavan. Domestic Violence: Poems. New York: Norton, 2007. ISBN 0393062414

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations - One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Serving tea is an important social custom in Pakistan, according to Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea. It is a courtesy offered before any conversation or business deal. Before you buy cement or lumber, you share tea. When you visit a village elder, you drink tea. Even with your kidnappers, there is tea. Mortenson, who spent years in the country building schools for village girls, drank a lot of tea.

Building schools for girls in remote regions of a poor Islamic country is not what he intended to do when he first went to Pakistan. He was there to climb a mountain. Coming down after failing to reach the summit, he lost his way and was separated from his team. Cold, hungry, and exhausted, he stumbled into a village. The villagers treated him as an honored guest, saving his life. Trying to think of a way to repay them for their kindness, he promised to build a school.

Mortenson knew nothing about building a school and was not in a position to finance the job. He was a part time emergency room nurse, only working enough to finance his climbing. He had no permanent address, much less a savings from which to draw, but he had a promise to keep.

Three Cups of Tea tells how Mortenson built first one and then many other schools where the Pakistani government has never ventured. To do so, he had to learn not only about construction but also about local customs and politics. It is a dramatic story, including accidents on mountain roads, caring for Afghan refugees, and crossing hostile borders. He experienced a side of Islamic culture not known in the West and sees up close the impact of American foreign policy on the region.

Readers who enjoyed Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder will enjoy this important book that proposes peaceful means to stop the rise in terrorism.

Mortenson, Greg and Relin, David Oliver. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations - One School at a Time. New York: Viking, 2006. ISBN 0670034827

11 compact discs. Tantor Media, 2006. ISBN 1400132517

Library Dream #4

As I have said in a couple of other pieces, I dream about libraries. I just had a dream that was a bit different than any others that I remember.

In this episode, I have gone back to college (a frequent element) and am going to be living in a dorm again (again not an uncommon dream). I am setting up the room with one of my old roommates, who has since gone on to become an architect and designer. We are both our current ages. We decide to create instant art for our walls with heavy art paper and calligraphy pens. I try to cover one sheet with large, meaningless, fancy script. We are going to stick it above a bookcase. When I have finished, my roommate holds it up and I step back to look. In the middle in very clear letters, I am surprised to see, is the word "Reference."

I am what I am, even in my sleep. I cannot get away from it.

Here are Dream #1, Dream #2, and Dream #3.

What do you think?

Unshelved on Readers' Advisory

Many librarians and other "people in the know" read Unshelved daily. If you haven't seen the comic strip, now is a good time to look, or if you have been neglecting it, now is a good time to return, as Bill and Gene are spoofing readers' advisory this week. Start with Monday and advance forward.

The guys have put out a couple of collections that you should check out, including What Would Dewey Do? and Library Mascot Cage Match. I recommend them for those days that absurdities of public service get you down.

Library of Congress Blog

It must be really inspiring to work at the Library of Congress. Matt Raymond has been there for seven months. He attends meeting on lofty topics, such as World Digital Library and the National Book Festival. He wanders hallowed halls and sees great architecture out his window. He meets authors and hears bits of their works in progress. He hears about upcoming exhibits. Now he writes the Library of Congress Blog.

Today Matt is asking whether blogs are serials and should they get ISSN numbers. (One comment is that there should be an IBSB or International Blog Serial Number.) He also has some day-in-history information, including the fact that it is Frederick Law Olmsted's birthday.

I have enjoyed the first week of Library of Congress Blog and look forward to more.

America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public

Maybe I'm slipping into sentimentality. As I find old books that are candidates for weeding, I keep wanting to save them instead of removing them from the collection. Well, not all of them, as I do get satisfaction from weeding out ratty and out-of-date items, but when I find a nice condition book with timeless content, I want to put it into the path of an appreciative reader - who might actually be me.

Today I found America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public with photos by Murray Alcosser. Though it was published by Rizzoli in 1991, I suspect the gardens all still exist. I would not rely on the phone numbers in the back of the book, but I look at the gorgeous color photos with longing to take a cross country trip. Thirty-eight gardens are featured, of which four are in the Chicago area. Most of the gardens are on the west or east coasts. With little text, readers mostly learn that the gardens exist and see how glorious they are, but that is the point of this coffee table book. For that purpose, the book still works. I will save it for another weeding day.

America in Bloom: Great American Gardens Open to the Public. New York: Rizzoli, 1991. ISBN 084781326.