Today, I will embark on a road trip to visit seven friends in seven days. (Doesn’t that sound like the name of a boring memoir? Seven Friends in Seven Days: How I Saw Some Buddies and Discovered a Life Worth Living.) I will pass through 7 states and cover roughly 1,547 miles. Will I discover myself on [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘audio’
February 17, 2009
Upset at the Oscars? This Film Could Do It!
The Oscars are just around the corner and most of the nominees have already been reviewed, analyzed, examined and pored over in every conceivable way. But be on the lookout for one new upstart, just released last week, that could steal the show in the Short Film Category.
A recently released “biopic” of the Music Department [...]
September 10, 2008
Poetry Audio: In the Library and on the Web
In recent years, the Main Library has made a concerted effort to improve its audio poetry collection. A general search for poetry audio books on compact disc and tape brings up scores of items. A selection of personal favorites include:
The Essential Langston Hughes
W. B. Yeats: The Great Poets
At Blackwater Pond: Mary Oliver
e. e. cummings
The Allen Ginsberg [...]
July 18, 2008
Simon Winchester: a man who gives his books excessively long titles*
And yet, I enjoy them all the same. Here’s a rundown of the ones that I’ve read or listened to over the years.
Krakatoa: the Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883 – The title pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? Sure, it starts out slowly with some insanely dense geology lessons, but it all [...]
July 2, 2008
Being green is not for everyone; or why I love my car.
I have a confession to make. Well, it’s not really a confession per se, as it’s not a secret and I don’t feel guilty about it – but still, here goes:
My name is Amy, and I drive a car to work. Alone. Five days a week or more.
“Oh the horror!” you exclaim. “Surely in these [...]
May 16, 2008
Brothels, Goats, and Napoleon
Now that I’ve got your attention, let me tell you about the nonfiction books on CD that I’ve been enjoying lately.
Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America’s Soul, by Karen Abbot.
Welcome to the Everleigh Club, Gilded Age Chicago’s swankiest and priciest brothel. Learn all about the founding sisters and [...]
March 18, 2008
What a difference a day makes…
Every day’s a special day to someone, for some reason. Many authors, including Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, have used the chronological framework of one “normal” day to capture the incandescent moments that make up even the most ordinary of lives. Clarissa throws a party. Leopold goes for a walk. And yet, under the surface [...]
March 7, 2008
By the numbers
I’m the kind of person who prefers crosswords to Sudoku, and, like many library folk, am thrilled to spend my day surrounded by words, words, words! I cannot help but be intrigued, however, by the number of, er, numbers we have floating around the building, in various collections.
Let’s take, for example, 2012. Depending on how [...]
March 1, 2008
Celebrating Ralph Ellison
Another Black History Month has come and gone, but with the dawning of March comes the reminder that we celebrate African American culture year round: today is the anniversary of Ralph Ellison’s birth. Ellison is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century; his masterpiece, Invisible Man, vies with Joyce’s Ulysses and [...]
February 28, 2008
The rectangle is the new circle.
When people come up to the Film & Audio Department looking for audiobooks, I know that there’s a whole litany of questions I’ll have to ask before we can find that special book for them.
The first question is always, “What kind of audiobook were you looking for?” I’m trying to find out if they’d like fiction or [...]
