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Happy Leap Day!

And what would Leap Day be without a little Gilbert and Sullivan?

Perhaps you’re familiar with the plot of The Pirates of Penzance– if you’re not, here’s the short summary.

Frederic, apprentice to some not-very-effective pirates turns twenty-one, ending his apprenticeship. Morally against piracy, he swears to eliminate them. The plot advances in a rather silly way and Frederic falls in love. Just as he is about to attack the pirates with the British army, the Pirate King and Frederic’s former nursemaid Ruth surprise him with the discovery of a loophole in his contract that exists because his birthday is February 29. A paradox, so to speak.

Link!

Really, you should watch the whole movie. The version with Kevin Kline and Angela Lansbury finally came out on DVD, and watching it is a perfect way to spend your Leap Day evening.

Posted on February 29, 2012 by , Reply

Ebooks Can’t Burn

But is that a good thing or a bad thing? This writer from theNew York Times Review of Books seems to think eliminating the physical aspect of a book for the ephemeral “pure” experience of reading just the words in sequence is the optimal way for a reader to engage with a book (or at least with “literature” and “literary experience”). I’m not going to get into it now, but I don’t agree with this at all. A physical book is a sensual experience and that can certainly contribute to reader engagement! The writer does make the point that in a censored society, burning an ereader doesn’t have the same impact on access to information that burning physical books does, which is true (unless Amazon or a publisher yanks the book), and is one of the pluses of ebooks.

At the same time that the NYR is expounding on the joys of ebooks, though, another article makes the opposite argument- in some cases, ebooks just can’t measure up. I suggest checking out item number 4, which also makes a valid point about the effectiveness of book burning when it comes to physical books vs. ereaders. And all you horror movie lovers, don’t miss out on #5. The ebook version of the Necronomicon just doesn’t have the visual impact of the physical book, wouldn’t you agree?

I’ve grown to appreciate the advantages of ebooks, but the physical book is, I think, still too necessary, on so many levels, to ever reach extinction… It’s not only because it’s consumed by flames with more impact than an ereader is that the physical book burns brighter in the mind and hands of a reader than an ebook ever will.

Posted on February 23, 2012 by , Reply

Help a Reader Out: Home for the Holidays

Rachel writes:

Hi, I was wondering if you might know the name/author of a book. I only know a vague description of what it was about, but maybe you could help me, I’ve searched the internet far and wide and found nothing. The book probably came out between the 1980’s and 2000, short, about 100-180 pages, meant for kids ages 10-14. The premise is a boy and his stepsister come home from boarding school for the winter holidays, and find that things are strange in their house. The boys grandfather created a famous board game that is monster themed, the grandfather is dead now and a portrait of him hangs over the fireplace. So the boy and girl (probably ages 13-15) start to notices that their family members have become the creatures from the game, and the house is all spooky. So every night they plan to meet up and figure out what happened to their home. Eventually they figure out it has something to do with the portrait and the christmas lights. That is pretty much all the plot details I remember. Random other things I remember from the story is that the boy and girls room is connected with either a crawlspace/closet, the girls favorite color is mauve and the boy hates it, when the boys alarm goes off it’s always dogs barking christmas songs on the radio, and I believe the butler is a frankenstein, and the girls little brother is I think the werewolf. I don’t know if that helps, or if you can help me, but if you come up with something please let me know. Thanks a lot!!! Hope to hear from you soon -Rachel

The board game made me think of Jumanji, but that’s a picture book… the portrait over the fireplace reminds me of The Canterville Ghost, but I know that’s not it, either- it certainly doesn’t come from the 1980’s, and is problematic anyway. There are any number of books that have a boy and a girl coming home from school for the holidays, and haunted houses. I just can’t think of one book that has all of those details included!

Can anyone help Rachel out?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by , Reply
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