BW35: Fictional Librarians - Jess Brightwell

 

Happy Sunday!  As we slide into September, it's time to climb back aboard our airship, the Pum Deg Dau o Lygrau and weigh anchor and sail into the world of The Great Library, one of the series written by Rachel Caine who passed away last year. Our librarian of the month is Jess Brightwell, a young book smuggler on the streets of London who is admitted to the Great Library in Alexandria as a postulant. 

There are a variety of ways to complete this challenge with plenty of rabbit trails. Read a book with one or more of the following (but not limited to) and have fun exploring:

• Spell out the first and/or last name of the character's name - one book per letter from the title on the cover.
• Spell out the first and/or last name of the author - one book per letter.
• Read one or more books in the series.
• Read any book written by the author.
• Follow in a character's footsteps and read a book set in the country or time period of the story.
• Follow in the author's footsteps and read a book set in their place or time of birth.
• Read a book with the first or last name of the character or author in the title.

Dear Rachel Caine: A Thank You and Goodbye,  

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Count of Monte Cristo 

Chapter 88. The Insult

Chapter 89. The Night

Chapter 90. The Meeting

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BW34: Doing is Being by Ray Bradbury

 

Today is the anniversary of one of my favorite writers Ray Bradbury who entertains and inspires me with his writing.  

Doing is Being

By 

Ray Bradbury

Doing is being.

To have done’s not enough.

To stuff yourself with doing — that’s the game.

To name yourself each hour by what’s done,

To tabulate your time at sunset’s gun

And find yourself in acts

You could not know before the facts

You wooed from secret self, which much needs wooing,

So doing brings it out,

Kills doubt by simply jumping, rushing, running

Forth to be

The new-discovered me.

To not do is to die,

Or lie about and lie about the things

You just might do some day.

Away with that!

Tomorrow empty stays

If no man plays it into being

With his motioned way of seeing.

Let your body lead your mind —

Blood the guide dog to the blind;

So then practice and rehearse

To find heart-soul’s universe,

Knowing that by moving/seeing

Proves for all time: Doing’s being!

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Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 85. The Journey

Chapter 86. The Trial

Chapter 87. The Challenge

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BW33: Hugo Gernsback

 

This week, we are celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of Hugo Gernsback who was born August 16, 1884.  Yes, you may be experiencing deja vu since I love to revisit Hugo every four years or so.  

Hugo Gernsbacher was born in Luxembourg and immigrated to the United States in 1904.  He was fascinated by electricity and invented a dry battery which he patented upon arriving in the United States.   He established a radio and electrical supply house called Electro Importing Company and developed a small portable radio transmitter called the Telimco Wireless Telegraph.    He went on to patent 80 inventions.

Gernsback  published a magazine for electrical experimenters called Modern Electronics which was later taken over by Popular Science.   To fill up some empty space in the magazine, he decided to write a futuristic story which ran in 12 installments. The story named Ralph 124C 41+ was later published in 1926. It was set in the 27th century and is still available today.  

He started a number of magazines including the first magazine dedicated exclusively to science fiction called  Amazing Stories in 1926.  Hugo coined the term scientifiction which later went on to be known as Science Fiction.

He unfortunately went bankrupt and lost control of Amazing Stories. He quickly bounced back and went on to publish three more magazines:  Air Wonder Stories, Science Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Quarterly.  Air Wonder and Science Wonder were merged into one magazine Wonder stories in 1930 and sold it in 1936 to Beacon Publications where it continued to be published for 20 more years.  Digital copies of Amazing Stories, Air Wonder, Science Wonder, and Wonder magazines are available to view through the Pulp Magazines Project. 

Gernsback is lauded as one of the fathers of science fiction. In 1960 he was given a special Hugo Award as The Father of Magazine Science Fiction. The award were unofficially called the Hugo's until the name was officially changed beginning in 1993. 

Hugo Gernsback died in New York on August 19, 1967 at the age 83.  

If you are in the mood for more science fiction and fantasy fun, don't forget you can dive into Mind Voyages and explore the Hugo and Nebula winners and nominees, take side trips through the different decades reading the nominees, check out Philip K. Dick and Robert Heinlein or the all inclusive I'm going to Pluto because Pluto is still a planet as far as I'm concerned Voyage in which you can mix it up, choose the number of books you want to read from each voyage, include some new books you pick up along the way and enjoy the ride. 

Links to all the voyages are available on the Mind Voyages blog.

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Count of Monte Cristo 

Chapter 82. The Burglary

Chapter 83. The Hand of God

Chapter 84. Beauchamp

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BW32: 52 Books Bingo - Gods and Goddesses

 

Josephine Wall's Diana 

Happy Sunday! Time for another round of 52 Books Bingo and our next category is Gods and Goddesses. Delve into the world of the fictional or factual, mythological or spiritual, out of this world or part of this world, from the good, the bad, and even the not so pretty.  Read a book about or with God or Goddess in the title or on the cover, a character who is immortal or about a character versus God or the Supernatural. There are many ways to go with this selection so have fun with it and explore. 

10 Magical Fantasy Books Inspired by Irish Mythology

10 Best Norse Mythology Books

Pocket Dictionary of Aztec & Maya Gods & Goddesses

Goodreads Chinese Mythology books

Top 10 goddesses in fiction

14 Mythology-Inspired Books Featuring Gods and Goddesses

12 Divine Fantasy Novels in Which the Gods Walk the Land

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Count of Monte Cristo 

Chapter 79. The Lemonade

Chapter 80. The Accusation

Chapter 81. The Room of the Retired Baker

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BW31: Fictional Librarian - Lindsay Norris

Happy Friendship Day!  Cheers to all our reading buddies who have made our bookish adventures entertaining and illuminating.  Welcome to August which is also Family Fun Month, Admit Your Happy Month, National Picnic Month as well as Romance Month.  Our fictional librarian of the month is Lindsay Norris from the Library Lover's Mystery series written by Jenn McKinlay.  Lindsay is the director of the Briar Creek Library who started crafternoon Thursday for patrons to do crafts and discuss books at the same time and turns into an amateur sleuth when her friend becomes a prime suspect in a murder. 

There are a variety of ways to complete this challenge with plenty of rabbit trails. Read a book with one or more of the following (but not limited to) and have fun exploring:

Spell out the first and/or last name of the character's name - one book per letter from the title on the cover.

Spell out the first and/or last name of the author - one book per letter.

Read one or more books in the series.

Read any book written by the author.

Follow in a character's footsteps and read a book set in the country or time period of the story.

Follow in the author's footsteps and read a book set in their place or time of birth.

Read a book with the first or last name of the character or author in the title.

Happy Trails! 

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Count of Monte Cristo Readalong

Chapter 76. Progress of Cavalcanti the Younger

Chapter 77. Haydée

Chapter 78. We hear From Yanina

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BW30: Bookish Miscellanea

 

Inniskeen Road: July Evening

by 

Patrick Kavanagh 

(1904 - 1967)

The bicycles go by in twos and threes -

There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn tonight,

And there's the half-talk code of mysteries

And the wink-and-elbow language of delight.

Half-past eight and there is not a spot

Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown

That might turn out a man or woman, not

A footfall tapping secrecies of stone. 

I have what every poet hates in spite

Of all the solemn talk of contemplation.

Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight

Of being king and government and nation.

A road, a mile of kingdom. I am king

Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.

A few bookish birthdays

July 25:  Josephine Tey (1896), and  Robyn Carr (1951)

July 26: Laurence Watt Evans (1954) and Giosuè Carducci  (1835)

July 27:  Cassandra Clare (1973)

July 28:  Beatrix Potter (1866)

July 29:  Chang Rae Lee (1965)

July 30: Emily Bronte (1818) 

July 31  J. K. Rowling (1965) 

11 Books by Olympic Athletes

Orson Scott Card's Favorite Classic Sci-Fi Books

What To Read If You Already Breezed Through All of Virgin River's Season 3

10 Thrilling African Noir Novels

Famous Villains Who Shaped The Crime Fiction Genre

The Wheel of Time Will Premiere on Amazon in November

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Count of Monte Cristo Readalong

Chapter 73. The Promise

Chapter 74. The Villefort Family Vault

Chapter 75. A Signed Statement

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BW29: The Cane-Bottom'd Chair by William Makepeace Thackeray

The Cane-Bottom’d Chair

by

William Makepeace Thackeray

July 18, 1811 - Dec. 24, 1863

In tattered old slippers that toast at the bars,

And a ragged old jacket perfumed with cigars,

Away from the world and its toils and its cares,

I’ve a snug little kingdom up four pair of stairs.

To mount to this realm is a toil, to be sure,

But the fire there is bright and the air rather pure;

And the view I behold on a sunshiny day

Is grand through the chimney-pots over the way.

This snug little chamber is cramm’d in all nooks

With worthless old nicknacks and silly old books,

And foolish old odds and foolish old ends,

Crack’d bargains from brokers, cheap keepsakes from friends.

Old armour, prints, pictures, pipes, china (all crack’d),

Old rickety tables, and chairs broken-backed;

A twopenny treasury, wondrous to see;

What matter? ’tis pleasant to you, friend, and me.

No better divan need the Sultan require,

Than the creaking old sofa that basks by the fire;

And ’tis wonderful, surely, what music you get

From the rickety, ramshackle, wheezy spinet.

That praying-rug came from a Turcoman’s camp;

By Tiber once twinkled that brazen old lamp;

A Mameluke fierce yonder dagger has drawn:

’Tis a murderous knife to toast muffins upon.

Long, long through the hours, and the night, and the chimes,

Here we talk of old books, and old friends, and old times;

As we sit in a fog made of rich Latakie

This chamber is pleasant to you, friend, and me.

But of all the cheap treasures that garnish my nest,

There’s one that I love and I cherish the best:

For the finest of couches that’s padded with hair

I never would change thee, my cane-bottom’d chair.

'Tis a bandy-legg'd, high-shoulder'd, worm-eaten seat,

With a creaking old back, and twisted old feet;

But since the fair morning when Fanny sat there,

I bless thee and love thee, old cane-bottom'd chair.

If chairs have but feeling, in holding such charms,

A thrill must have pass'd through your wither'd old arms!

I look'd, and I long'd, and I wish'd in despair;

I wish'd myself turn'd to a cane-bottom'd chair.

It was but a moment she sate in this place,

She'd a scarf on her neck, and a smile on her face!

A smile on her face, and a rose in her hair,

And she sate there, and bloom'd in my cane-bottom'd chair.

And so I have valued my chair ever since,

Like the shrine of a saint, or the throne of a prince;

Saint Fanny, my patroness sweet I declare,

The queen of my heart and my cane-bottom'd chair.

When the candles burn low, and the company's gone,

In the silence of night as I sit here alone—

I sit here alone, but we yet are a pair—

My Fanny I see in my cane-bottom'd chair.

She comes from the past and revists my room;

She looks as she then did, all beauty and bloom;

So smiling and tender, so fresh and so fair,

And yonder she sits in my cane-bottom'd chair.

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Count of Monte Cristo 

Chapter 70. The Ball

Chapter 71. Bread and Salt

Chapter 72. Madame de Saint-Méran

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BW28: 52 Books Bingo - Maps

 

World of Harry Potter

Happy Sunday!  Did you know today is National Blueberry Muffins day?  Plus it is the anniversary of E.B. White's birthday, and the anniversary of when Robert Bailey Thomas published the very first Farmers Almanac in 1792.  So grab a muffin and come along with me on a journey of discovery as we explore with our next 52 books category - Maps. 

Whether you explore by foot, car, train, sailing ship or  space ship, authors and characters like to explore and helpfully provide us with maps of their worlds and their journeys. Read about real life geographers, explorers and adventurers.  Read about a character mapping the world or possibly uncovering new worlds.  Read a book with a map on the cover or in the title.  Read about the history of cartography, or even a cartographical mystery.  

There are many different types of maps so there are a number of ways to go with this category and you can interpret it anyway you like.

20 Literary Maps

16 Essential Literary Maps for Bookworms

 77 Best Cartography Books of All Time

10 Books for Map Enthusiasts to Read at Home

Bookriot's Grounds for Murder: Maps and Floor Plans in Mystery Novels.

And last but not least, one of my favorite things is creative cartography which was introduced to me in a writing class and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer.

Have fun following rabbit trails and see where they lead you!

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Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 67. The Office of the King’s Attorney

Chapter 68. A Summer Ball

Chapter 69. The Inquiry

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BW27: Fictional Librarian - Israel Armstrong

 

Happy Independence Day.  Our fictional librarian for July is  Israel Armstrong, created by Ian Sansom.  We are journeying along with Israel to the fictional town of Tumdrum in Northern Ireland.  He has taken the job of librarian only to discover the library has been replaced with a mobile library in The Case of the Missing Books.  

There are a variety of ways to complete this challenge with plenty of rabbit trails. Read a book with one or more of the following (but not limited to) and have fun exploring:

• Spell out the first and/or last name of the character's name - one book per letter from the title on the cover.
• Spell out the first and/or last name of the author - one book per letter.
• Read one or more books in the series.
• Read any book written by the author.
• Follow in a character's footsteps and read a book set in the country or time period of the story.
• Follow in the author's footsteps and read a book set in their place or time of birth.
• Read a book with the first or last name of the character or author in the title.

Happy Trails! 

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Count of Monte Cristo Readalong

Chapter 64. The Beggar

Chapter 65. A Conjugal Scene

Chapter 66. Matrimonial Projects

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BW26: Nothing Gold can Stay by Robert Frost

 

Josephine Wall Surreal 

We're halfway through the year and July is almost upon us.  Where have your reading journeys taken you so far this year?  My year has turned into 'what are you in the mood for' which means lots of romance and dragons, librarians, and villains.  Can you just hear lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Just me? Oh well! I'm also enjoying rereading Nora Roberts back list which has been comforting as well as feeding my muse and inspiring me to be creative.  What inspires you to create a story, a song, a recipe, a new crafts project? Share some of your creations.   

This week's mini quest is to read something with half in the title. And since we're about to go through another heat wave, better yet, read something cozy.  Perhaps take a literary trip to the Antarctic or maybe while a few hours away in a tropical climate while drinking a fruit cocktail with one of those cheerful little umbrellas  ~Cheers!  

Nothing Gold Can Stay

by

Robert Frost 

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

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Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 61. How a Gardener May Get Rid of the Dormice

Chapter 62. Ghosts

Chapter 63. The Dinner

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BW25: Summertime

 

Happy Father's day to all our dads! It's officially Summer in our neck of the woods and we are a hot 105 degrees at the moment.  Thank goodness for air conditioning! Are you in the mood for a light summer read or something more heady?  Perhaps that chunky book you've been meaning to read for quite a while. And if you are on the other side of the world celebrating the start of Winter, maybe a fun beach read will help make those long winter nights seem just a bit warmer.  Maybe you could use  a literary hug.  

Dive into summer reading with a book set during the summer, with a character named summer, or challenge yourself to spell out summer.  Read a book in which things heat up, nature wise or relationship wise.  *grin*   Read a book set on a beach or set in a beach town, near the water somewhere, or even on the water.  Read a book picked by the queens of writing beach reads. 

Have you ever thought about what your favorite literary characters get up to during the Summer?  Or which literary characters love to read?  What are they reading now?  Hmm! 

Dive into the books of summer and have fun following rabbit trails! 

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Count of Monte Cristo

Chapter 58. M. Noirtier de Villefort
Chapter 59. The Will
Chapter 60. The Telegraph

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BW24: 52 Books Bingo - Different Cultures

 

Happy Sunday! It's time for another round of 52 Books Bingo and our category this week is different cultures. According to livescience.com:

"Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.

The Center for Advance Research on Language Acquisition goes a step further, defining culture as shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs and understanding that are learned by socialization. Thus, it can be seen as the growth of a group identity fostered by social patterns unique to the group."

From historical fiction to contemporary fiction to non fiction, there is a wide variety from which to choose to read and learn. As we all know, literature opens our eyes and minds to different places and times, cultures and ideals. 

Finding culture and identity through books

Reading while Bilingual: How Translated Books Helped Shape My Cultural Identity

Experience New Things with These 21 Books About Cultures That May Not Be Your Own

10 Cross-Cultural Novels that Illuminate the World We Live In

Around the World in 27 Books: Travel Writers’ Recommendations

Become a Multiculturalist with These 11 Books About Different Cultures

There are a number of ways to go with this category and you can interpret it anyway you like, so have fun following rabbit trails and see where they lead you.

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Count of Monte Cristo Readalong 

Chapter 55. Major Cavalcanti

Chapter 56. Andrea Cavalcanti

Chapter 57. In the Lucern Patch

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