Week 7 - Preparing for Book Club

Greetings from sunny Washington, DC!  I'm just finishing up my ASB project at the Library of Congress and attempting to recover from a cold (sick on spring break, of course!).  Overall it has been a great week, but has gone by way too fast.

It appears that my partner and I are the only students to have chosen a non-fiction piece for the book club/seminar week, which was surprising to me.  I guess maybe everyone is tired of academic articles?  Our article is "Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians," by Todd Gilman, from The Chronicle for Higher Education. We were interested in keeping with the theme of the the course - professional practices in libraries and information centers - and will be aiming our seminar towards both graduate students and professional librarians.  The article caught my eye because it encourages "interdependence" in the library profession, particularly in academic libraries.  While I do not necessarily agree with all of the author's opinions and examples, I found it interesting to consider how the profession needs to rely on help from others more and more.  The article was written in 2007, and I think its message is even more important in the tough times we face in 2011.
In addition to preparing our reading for the week, it was interesting to switch into dense-fiction reading mode - I honestly felt a little like I was back in high school English class!

Other readings for the week:
"The Nightingale and the Rose" by Oscar Wilde
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift
"Hansel and Gretel" by Brothers Grimm
"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl

Of the four, the only one I had not read previously was the Oscar Wilde piece.  They each were delightfully dark and entertaining, however I found myself having a hard time reading for the "deeper meaning" in each piece.  Some were more obvious because I know the historical background to the piece, like for Swift's baby eating satire, or the author is pretty good at actively giving the reader hints, like Dahl who is also one of my all time favorite authors.  Hansel and Gretel was interesting because I had never made the association with the witch and the step mother dying... but it should be obvious, right?  I am not sure how I missed that in the past, but i guess that is why we need to read stories many times to fully grasp their true meanings.  "The Nightingale and the Rose" was more difficult for me, probably because I had not read it previously and I have never been a huge fan of Wilde's writing.  I did find the ending to be particularly amusing - the rebuffed student declares "What a silly thing Love is" and decides "... in this age to be practical is everything, I shall go back to Philosophy and study Metaphysics."  I am not familiar with the context in which Wilde is writing, but to a 21st century reader this has a touch of irony - I would not consider philosophy or metaphysics to be particularly practical!  I am looking forward to lively discussions this week, and I will hopefully gain an even greater appreciation for the nuances of each selection.

 As an added entertaining bonus for book club preparation, while visiting family before spring break I attempted to explain to my 4- and 7-year old cousins what I was reading for "homework" (ironically, they were sitting next to me while I was reading "A Modest Proposal" in particular).  Later, we read "Goldisocks and the Three Libearians," which I think would make an equally interesting book club!