The Four Hour Reading Pledge

By Arvind Jain originally posted to Flickr as "Match on TV"

According to a Nielsen study, Americans spend an average of four hours a day watching television. I first thought that sounded like an awful lot, until I realized how much the television is on in my own household. I generally watch the news in the morning if my youngest one is not watching The Jungle Book for the millionth time. During my lunch hour I usually catch the news again, and in the evening my wife likes to watch The Biggest Loser or American Idol, and we both like PBS and some of the crime dramas. It seems every time we are home, our television is on. I can imagine it’s the same in every American household. Pretty soon four hours does not sound like so much.

But it is a lot. It is a lot of time that is wasted. Time that could be better utilized. Time that could be spent with your family. Time reading perhaps. I’ve got nothing against television. Like I said, we do a lot of television watching in our household. I just think it’s time for me to expand my brain and fill it with something useful. Reading stimulates the brain, it’s an active thing. It requires thinking. Watching television does not really require much thought, and it really does depend upon the program you are watching whether or not it stimulates your brain.

I propose the following, a Four Hour Reading Pledge. Instead of turning on the box with moving pictures, perhaps we should spend those four hours on reading instead? Who is with me? Let’s try this and see.

The Questia Online Library

I’m a bibliophile. I don’t read books, I devour them. Though there’s nothing like holding a real book in your hands, there are times when an online book has its advantages. First of all, you can read books that are rare or are no longer in print. Secondly, it’s convenient to have instant access to books; you don’t have to get out in the rain and you don’t have to worry about the opening and closing times of the library or bookstore. Michael Pastore elaborates more on this concept with 30 Benefits of Ebooks.

Since my passion involves reading lots of non-fiction, research papers, newspapers, magazines, etc. and very little fiction and novels, I’m always on the lookout for a good source of Ebooks. My dream would be to sit and read all day in a university research library, but since I can’t do that with 3 young children, I have to settle for Questia. Questia is a full-text online library with access to over 77,000 books, 4 million articles, and 250 respectable publishers such as John Wiley & Sons and Oxford University Press.

Of course access to such a source is not free, in fact you have to pay a subscription, but that is perfectly fine with me. I don’t mind paying for things that work. Questia works. For around $99 dollars a year you get access to all the sauce I mentioned above. Not bad considering that for about $8 to $9 dollars a month you get complete access to books and journals that are of research caliber. Well worth the cost in my opinion.

The Judge Killed the Bibliophile Dream

I had a dream, and so did Google. The dream was that all the libraries in the world, their archives, their shelves would be scanned by Google and uploaded to a digital world collection, available to everybody ─ for a cost of course. I’m fine with paying for such a service if it would mean access to rare collections and to books that would be hard to find and get to physically. But sadly a judge put an end to that dream. I suppose he had some good reasons for his ruling: copyright infringement, privacy concerns, etc. Still, for just a few moments I thought I could just pull up a book that I wanted online, and send it to an on-demand Espresso Book Machine and have a copy of it! Sadly that is not the case now. RIP Google book project.

…holidays in hell

Following Shark’s lead, I present…

“…All the light switches in Europe are upside down. The electrical plugs are terrifying with nine or a dozen huge, nasty prongs, and you’d better wear rubber boots if you come within a yard of them because house current here is about one hundred thousand volts. Not that that makes the appliances work. This electric typewriter I’m pounding, for instance – I’d throw it out the window but it’s one of those silly European windows that, when you push it open from the right, comes back around from the left and smacks you in the back of the head.”

page 187

Creativity and Conformity by Clark E. Moustakas

I’m thinking we should start a new series. Here are the rules:

Take a book off your shelves.
Post the name of the book and author(s) in the title.
Open it up and post an excerpt.
Repeat as often as you like.
Feel free to take a picture of the cover.

I’ll start.

Experience is true to the person when he is himself alone⎯and not any other person or thing. Every individual embodies and contains a uniqueness, a reality, that makes him unlike any other person or thing. To maintain this uniqueness in the face of threats and pressures, in times of shifting patterns and moods, is the ultimate challenge and responsibility of every man. In true experience, perception is unique and undifferentiated; there is a sense of wholeness, unity, and centeredness. In such moments, a man is immersed in the world, exploring, spontaneously expressing himself, and finding satisfaction in being rooted to life as a whole person. (p.1)

Oh, and just for Miss Kitten, I’ll post a picture of the cover I did for the book out of an old FedEx envelope somebody sent me. hahaha

Happy National Library Week 2011!

I always forget that technically the start of the week is Sunday. To me, Sunday marks the end of the week, because I have to be back at work on Monday. In my head, if I have to work on Monday, it’s the start of the week, not Day Two. The reason for this rant is to make you aware of National Library Week 2011, which runs from Sunday, yes Sunday, April 10 to Saturday, April 16th. In America National Library Week is promoted by the American Library Association, an organization I feel quite strongly about. The ALA is often embroiled in politics as it pertains to censorship. The ALA is very much pro-1st Amendment and against censorship, which is understandable. In fact, the ALA also sponsors Banned Books Week, which runs from September 24 to October 1st this year.

Photograph of three of Nevins Memorial Library's earliest librarians

The ALA’s stance on censorship pretty much echoes my own: If you don’t like it, don’t read it. If something offends you, then avoid it and don’t introduce your kids to it, but don’t ban it (unless it’s illegal). You see, self-control and self-censorship works best. I think the Golden Rule and Common Sense applies. That book that you like, perhaps the Bible, no doubt offends other people of another religious faith, how would you like it if somebody wanted to ban that?

The fact of the matter is that a public library, yes PUBLIC library, contains, and should contain, a myriad of books on a variety of subjects ─ some of which offends; some of which engages your critical thinking; and some that tickles your fancy. If libraries were to ban books that people found questionable, eventually there would be no books left, because there’s always somebody who is offended by something, or dislikes a particular book or subject. I applaud the librarians who stand up for the 1st Amendment and recognize that differing opinions are not always a bad thing…

Support your local public library!

Poor Man’s Library Book Cover Part II

I blame Miss Kitten for making me do this 🙂 LOL

Poor man’s library book cover

When it comes to protecting books I’m a bit OCD. Most people hate the clear vinyl covers that librarians wrap around books, but I love them. Not only do they protect the book, but being a bit of a mysophobe, I like the fact that I can wipe the cover clean with some rubbing alcohol without hurting the book. After all, who knows what kind of hygiene practices the previous patron had?

Anyhow, my affinity for book protection led me to scour the internet for clear vinyl covers for my own private collection. I found a host of websites, some of whom sold library equipment, bookshelves, etc. I got lost day dreaming of creating my own home library, book cart included, when I remembered that I was searching for book covers. I did find a lot of good solutions to my book protection needs, ranging from manual application to machines that can actually do the job for you. The only problem with all of these solutions, was the fact that they all cost a lot of money. Each book cover cost anywhere between $1 to $5 dollars, not cheap for a man with a budget. What is a poor bibliophile to do?

Glancing around my man cave I noticed that I had an over-abundance of sheet protectors. Hmmm… Sheet Protectors + Scissors + Tape + Book = Solution. A few minutes later I had my first specimen finished. Will it last for all eternity? Probably not. Is it a professional job? No. Was it cheap? Yes! Happy protecting, my friends!

Last refuge of a bibliophile

So, Sharkette sent me out to pick up some soap at Sam’s Club today. Personal hygiene is exceedingly important, especially if you are in charge of multiple babies prone to spit, vomit, and poop. Driving past the Decatur Public Library, out of the corner of my little eye, I spied:

Decatur Public Library

A book sale, oh my!!!

To the true bibliophile, they might as well have given gasoline to an arsonist or handed out Bud Light at an AA meeting: a used book sale sign gets them every time. I immediately commenced a U-turn maneuver, doubled-parked, and blocked in the Book Mobile. Actually, I didn’t do any of those things, I just said that for dramatic effect. But I did decide to investigate the book sale while grabbing my handy Friends of the Decatur Public Library canvas tote bag!

The badge of honor

You see when you carry around a canvas tote bag, whose sale supports your local library, you automatically say to the world, “I can read, and I promote literacy.”

Books, books, and more books!

As I walked through the doors I got a welcome surprise: today was fill-up-a-grocery-paper-bag-with-books-for-$5-dollars-each day! Not only that, it was Non-Fiction Day! Say it ain’t so, librarian? Some of you might know that I’m a huge fan of non-fiction, so this was pretty much close to bibliophile nirvana for me.

Non-Fiction FTW!

I felt like a bandit hauling away three bags worth of books for only $15 dollars, but this was truly a win-win situation for everybody involved. The Friends of the Decatur Library got some more cash to support their operations, and I got thousands of pages worth of reading. What was even more encouraging was the amount of people, including plenty of children, that were hauling away books. It’s heart-warming to know that in this age of cellphones, the internet, and television, people still enjoy turning the pages of a good book!

my non-fiction haul!!!

Beautiful Libraries: Old Library, St. John’s College, Cambridge

the pale side of insomnia via flickr

Doesn’t this just make you want to go back to university? There are times I wake up in cold sweat wishing I was back in college. How I would have done things differently, had I known then what I know now. I think I pretty much breezed through college and university. I was never a stellar scholar, but I was not an academic failure either. I just did what I had to do to pass the class and keep on trucking. If I had it to do over, I think I would take the opportunity for education more seriously. Oh well, c’est la vie, n’est-ce pas?