I’ve gone for brain candy recently, so I thought I’d share two bits of librarian-type info about books in general to spare you the fluff. First item of trivia: Turn over the title page of any book; you’ll notice copyright information and a string of strange numbers following the letters ISBN. The letters are to be pronounced, as in CIA and FDR. They stand for International Standard Book Number, which is the way publishers, librarians, booksellers, and the Library of Congress can find a book. Each book has one; if a book appears in different formats, such as both hard cover and paperback or paperback and e-book, it has two different ISBNs. ISBNs come from the company Bowker, to which the Library of Congress has given this role. They are a monopoly; nowhere else in the U.S. can you get an ISBN, which costs $125.00 but is yours and yours alone, forever. (If you’re prolific, you can buy a ten-pack at a reduced rate.) Bowker says “The most important identifier your book can have is the ISBN.” Unless you are self-publishing, getting your ISBN is work a publisher will do for you. Bowker also publishes the definitive tome Books in Print. I assume it’s all online now, but back when I was a college library student worker, they were enormous gray books with teeny-tiny print, shelves and shelves of them waiting to be consulted. One of my jobs was to check any book orders from faculty to make sure the book was in print before we placed an order. The second area of arcane stuff: Where do library books come from? Libraries of any size do not order from Amazon or B&N, but from what’s called a jobber—essentially a middle company between publishers and libraries. They are not publishers; they’re the giant claw in a toy-grabbing machine, pulling each library or bookseller’s order from the various publishing houses and mailing it out. Two of the largest jobbers are Ingram or Baker and Taylor. (The latter is more interesting to me, because they have two Scottish fold library cats named after them, Baker and Taylor. They also use CATS as the acronym for their Children and Adult Services. When boxes from a jobber arrive, someone at the library or bookstore has the pleasure of opening the box and checking the order, inhaling that new book smell and the colorful book covers. It’s essentially Christmas, or any other gift-giving holiday, many times a year.
0 Comments
Paris Letters is Janice MacLeod’s third book, her first memoir about her adventures in Paris, published in 2014. A Paris Year came out in 2017. In 2021, she published a collection of Paris Letters. The subtitle gives away the plot: “One woman’s journey from the fast lane to a slow stroll in Paris.” Unhappy with her job in copywriting, which had been but was no longer her dream job, she decides to buy herself time. She'd first thought it would be a sabbatical of sorts, not realizing there would be a life for her in Paris. Readers can walk with her, enjoying the scenery and the friends she makes as she struggles with improving her French. In addition, she discovers that illustrated letters of the scenes can be a moneymaker, and thus her career as an artist blossoms. The book is a charming, light read; unfortunately, the Paris letters in the book are in black-and-white, not color. I'm a terrible traveler, not at all adventurous. If I had a bucket list, it would not include trips that require seventeen-hour flights, however much I might yearn to see some of the world's beautiful places. Fortunately, for those of us who are armchair travelers, Bill Yeargin, the CEO of Correct Craft, has done the traveling for us. {Correct Craft is a major player in the boat building business—I didn't know either.} Even better, he's written in detail about his travels to more than 110 countries . His chapters include stories both heartwarming and harrowing, illustrating the subtitle Adventures in Learning Around the Globe. Each one closes with his reflections, which are really a summary of the main points. Yeargin discusses the service trips employees have taken, both within the U.S. and abroad. He also devotes a chapter to faith and another to politics. Added value is his appendix, 100 books That Will Change You. This list is annotated and divided into fiction and nonfiction, with subcategories such as Race and the Black Experience, Self-Improvement, and Faith. I just noticed that one of his choices was recently referenced in David Brooks' column for New York Times. Full disclosure: Bill was a student of mine decades ago. His organization of the material and his flawless use of the semicolon make his English teacher proud. Although I'm not a huge sci-fi/fantasy fan, Becky Chambers writes so well and conjures such stories that I read her work anyway. This novella relates the journey of four astronauts in the future, when space travel has become common and ingenious accommodations have been made for the care and comfort of the travelers. Still, there are human conflicts of personality and strategies, plus the dangers on planets they are the first to explore. Bonus content includes Q and A between Chambers and her mother, Nicoline (Nikki), who is an educator in the field of astrobiology. Spoiler alert: The title, which intrigued me, comes from words written by the former United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim in 1977. It was recorded to be part of the Voyager Golden Record. "We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking only peace and friendship—to teach, if we are called upon; to be taught, if we are fortunate." |
What I’m ReadingI began working in libraries as a seventh grader, courtesy of scoliosis. My orthopedic surgeon wrote me a pass to miss gym class, so I began working in the school library to feed my love of reading. Even after my surgery to correct the curvature, I kept getting out of gym to work in my high school library and then in my college library (for pay, at last!).
So began my eventual career as a college reference librarian—after a detour into teaching high school English. Later I worked for an educational publisher before going back to libraries.
I have a reading and writing life now. I devour both fiction and nonfiction, and will tell you about some of my favorite reads, both old friends and new discoveries.
Here's some library-themed music to get you in the mood.
Archives
April 2024
Categories |