Library Challenge Complete!

Back last May, I joined J. Kaye's Support Your Local Library Challenge. After several months of library looting, I began last weekend to tally up what I had checked out and read from my library so I could see how much of a push I needed to finish To my surprise, the total was at 24, and I had pledged to read 25 library books in 2009.

Today, I completed this challenge. I'm offering up my sweet success as a tribute to the library I waited and longed for during my first four years in Korea. Although I won't have any classes in the building next semester, my library is only a 3-5 minute walk uphill and I'll be making fond and frequent visits. My library. I'll never get tired of saying it.

Perhaps even more than the reading, I've had fun scanning the shelves and shelves of books in Korean and picking out what's available in English. Every visit has been a treasure hunt. Odd and enjoyable. Check out what I checked out:

1. The Hidden Flower - Pearl S. Buck

2. In Dubious Battle -John Steinbeck

3. Lost Names - Richard Kim

4. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

5. The Snows of Kilimanjaro - Ernest Hemingway

6. The Moon and Sixpence - W. Somerset Maugham

7. Howards End - E.M. Forester

8. Native Son - Richard Wright

9. The Just and the Unjust - James Gould Cozzens

10. Yang The Youngest and His Terrible Ear - Lensey Namioka

11. Fox Girl - Nora Okja Keller

12. A Step From Heaven - An Na

13. Little Women and the Feminist Imagination

14. The Classic Era of Crime Fiction

15. Carver Country

16. The Benchley Roundup - Robert Benchley

17. Jane Eyre's American Daughters

18. Shaking The Nickel Bush - Ralph Moody

19. The Underground Stream: The Life & Art of Caroline Gordon

20. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway

21. Make-Believe: The Story of Nancy & Ronald Reagan

22. Daydreams and Nightmares: Reflections On A Harlem Childhood

23. Huey Long: The Kingfish of Louisiana

24. Reading In The Dark: Using Film as a Tool in the English Classroom

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25. Discovering The Maltese Falcon And Sam Spade - Richard Layman (ed.)

Library Loot: Lootless And Disgraced For One Day

Believe it or not, I got suspended from using my library for one whole day. Punishment for being one day late with the Huey Long biography. I couldn't believe it -- the self-checkout machine, who is usually so sweet and tender and speaks to me in such dulcet computerized tones didn't speak to me at all! When I scanned my card, it flashed an angry red rectangular light twice and a terse message came up: Card suspended. You cannot check out here. I didn't say anything. Pouting, I put the book back on the shelf and slunk away, lootless and in disgrace.

Coming back the next day after class, I decided that if I was still on their blacklist, I'd try to sort things out with the library staff, even though they send out oh-foreigner-please-don't-ask-me-anything vibes when I get within 20 feet of the desk. I'm sure they wish they could take the self-checkout machine out for a drink once a week for saving their bacon.

Anyway, surprise! I didn't have to engage the staff; I was back to good. Upon reflection, I've decided that I was wrong to pout, even for a moment. A month is a reasonable amount of time to read a book, especially a YA biography. I've resolved to clean up my slightly dingy act and keep track of my return dates.

Here's the book that I (slightly sweaty with relief) went home with:

Discovering The Maltese Falcon And Sam Spade, edited by Richard Layman. It's everything you ever wanted to know about Dashiell Hammett and his masterpiece.

Wishlist Wednesday: In A Biographical Frame of Mind

Allofasudden, I have an urge to read three particular biographies.

It all began two nights ago when I went to Becka's for "Mad Men Monday". This week was the season finale. As the episode ended, Roy Orbison was singing Shahdaroba. (Great choice. I would've been more predictable and chosen It's Over.) The song stuck in my head and now I feel like reading Dark Star, the biography about Orbison.

The next evening, I came home and found Time magazine in my mailbox. I haven't read it all yet, but I noticed in the book reviews that a new biography about W. Somerset Maugham has just been published. It looks and sounds wonderful. Maybe I'll run across it soon at What The Book? or Kyobo. Maugham has stayed consistently popular in Asia, probably because many of his novels are set here.

Today, I came in to the office and saw that one of my colleagues has books piled up all around his cubicle as if he's rethinking what he's going to keep and throw out. A 1987 biography of Ernest Hemingway snagged my eye and I promptly put a sticky note on the book asking if I could borrow it. The bio is delightfully long, a veritable doorstop of a book with lots of great photos with detailed and intelligent captions.

This week, I finished a biography of Huey Long that was written for the YA audience but older readers will appreciate the author's lucid explanations of the political and economic history and climate that fostered Long's rise to power. During a couple of long subway rides on Sunday, I finished Fox Girl by Nora Okja Keller which was gritty and captivating. Now I'm reading One Step From Heaven by An Na, which is a novel about the Korean immigrant experience.

You'll notice I haven't mentioned NaNoWriMo. Shudder. I'm only at 6,350 words. The "No" in NaNoWriMo seems to have taken on a completely different meaning.

NaNoWriMo?

I'm working on my 91st book of the year. My goal of 101 is doable. Then what do I do? I sign up to participate in NaNoWriMo! Why? Oh, because 3 of the Cracked Spinz are participating. Things are looking a little bleak, though. It's almost noon on November 5 and I've only written a little over 3200 words. Part of the problem is that I can't seem to turn off The Editor Inside Me:

Me: Type, type, type, type, type....
TEIM: Ooooh, that sucks.
Me: Piss off. Type, type, type, type...
TEIM: Cliche. I may vomit.
Me: I have to get it all out. Then you can take over. Type, type, type, type...
TEIM: Can't believe you're doing that. It's been done a million times. You are going down a bad road here, don't you know that? Danielle Steel...
Me: I know what I'm doing. On December 1, you can tweak it to your heart's content. Type, type type...
TEIM: You've got to get some symmetry going on. But don't get all contrived.
Me: I'm just trying to get from sentence to sentence. This is one big unwashed mofo with smelly pits. Type, type, type, type, type...
TEIM: Your main characters don't even have names. How can you know them if they don't have names? Let's see, what can you call them? Nothing too ordinary. And nothing weird. It screws up my optical cruise control when novelists try to be all clever and think of...
Me: WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!?

Larry McMurtry observed in his recent memoir Books that teaching and novel-writing seem to use the same set of muscles, so that's another problem I have. I sit down at the computer, dip into the well of creativity and start coming up with lesson plans, activities and quizzes. Which creates more grading for myself. Which dips into novel-writing time.

I also miss my book blog life. I'm a reader and a blogger. There's just not enough time for everything. Oh well, it's only for this month. I enjoy a challenge, and I've been increasingly picky about what I like and don't like in novels. Maybe I need a dose of humility. Also, the camaraderie with the guys is fun. I just don't want to be away from here for too long.