Thoughts on today

I remember when I was perhaps five, and I wanted to be a princess.

I remember the exact moment that I realised that to be a princess was not a career choice, but something you were either born or married in to.

It was a profound disapointment.

Here's rooting for you, Georgie!

The work of accomplished poet and Only Connect friend, George Murray (Bookninja and founder of a "new multi-aesthetic web magazine called NewPoetry.ca"), was recognised today. George's latest, Glimpse, a book of aphorisms, was shortlisted for the EJ Pratt Poetry Prize.

Congratulations! A well-deserved honour!

Award news + other news

There are a slew of awards lists out recently:

• Orange Prize for Fiction shortlist: Emma Donaghue and Kathleen Winter representing Canada! I have read 3/6 (interesting review of Annabel here)
  
• IMPAC Dublin Literary Award shortlist
  
• Independent Foreign Fiction Prize shortlist

In other bookish news:

• ALA's list of 2010's 'most challenged' books: #1: And Tango Makes Three, #2: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, #3: Brave New World.
  
• File under: Psych 101 - "What Your Favorite Kids Book Then Says About You Now." All I have to say is, good thing I don't have any sisters (that should give you a clue as to where I am on that list).
  

Things that drive me crazy

Warning: Cranky old person post!

In no particular order...

1. People my age (or really any age) who still think jokes about gay people are funny.
2. People who say, "Sorry, I don't read the news."
3. The word "societal." It's "social." I know societal is technically a word now, but seriously, why try to sound pretentious?
4. Anyone who says "Sorry, I'm too young to remember that," or, conversely, people who ask me if I've ever used a typewriter or card catalogue [or fill in the blank with other outmoded technology related to libraries]. Yes, I've used both, and no, you are totally the first person to make a joke about my age. I'm also a reasonably skilled calligraphist who used microfiche in her old bookstore job, owned a rotary dial phone for most of the 90s, and has one parent born in the 1930s. 32 flavours and all that. Now let's all have a good laugh and I won't make any assumptions about your age or experience.
   
5. People who tell me they think homeless people are lazy.
6. Anyone who asks me where I get all my energy, and then answers their own question with, "well, of course, you don't have kids." Would you say that to a male colleague? I didn't think so. Related gripe: Anyone who says they don't have time to read. I guess you make time for what's important to you.
   
7. People who are afraid to say the word "dead," especially those who seem even too afraid to say "passed on," and so simply say "passed." It's not gas, it's death.
8. People who say "No one ever tells me what's going on around here!" Um, hi, personal responsibility?
   
9. People who take over the whole sidewalk and make you risk your life walking in traffic (that one was for the husband).
10. Those who cannot resist checking their phone while sharing a meal with you.

Please, add your favourites in the comments! It's crankypants day for Only Connect!

What goes well with your cereal? Why, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, of course

Dahl stories to be featured on UK cereal boxes - delicious!

The excerpts are only a few hundred words long, but Puffin has chosen "the most immediately exciting bit, something that plunges you straight into the story," and they hope that the boxes are "potentially reaching millions of households that just don't read any literature outside of school." Says Penguin's Francesca Dow, "there could be an enormous number of children discovering Roald Dahl for the first time, bleary eyed over the breakfast table."

*Cough* *Cough*

Libraries are the new community centres.

No, wait, bookstores are the new community centres?

Sigh.

Maybe it's the tiny little radical in me, but how can a bookstore (that is even no longer a bookstore) be a community centre when it is always, inherently, a retail establishment, focused primarily on buying and selling, and not on actively building community relationships?

Legal aid in UK bookstores

"QualitySolicitors has agreed a deal with WHSmith to offer legal services via hundreds of the newsagent's national branches. The move, which has been hailed as a ground-breaking initiative for the retail legal market, will see QualitySolicitors place 'legal access points' in 150 WHSmith stores from this summer ahead of a wider rollout targeted at 500 locations. [...] Staff will be able to use iPad applications to book appointments, provide conveyancing quotes, sell will packages and give advisory sessions for a fixed fee." More.

Clearly I started a trend.

Things I have learned recently

1. Most Bookmobile patrons come from within a 1k radius from the stop.
2. Incinerating toilets: 50% way cool, 50% ick.
3. Two people can say contradictory things and they can both, on some level, be true.
4. Sometimes, strangely, taking 3 buses is faster than taking 2.
5. The novelty of having your own work voicemail wears off quickly.
6. Everyone wants to work somewhere where they feel valued; there are myriad careless ways in which supervisors and managers can make staff feel devalued.
   
7. Homebound Services at OPL serves close to 700 individual patrons, all the way to the outer limits of the City, with a staff of less than 10.
8. Almost everybody in a big organisation feels a little bit alienated from senior management.
9. Creating small "wins" builds goodwill in a new department, and this pays off exponentially.
10. Thinking too hard makes you hungry.

On the Bookmobile

I went out yesterday on the Bookmobile! We stopped at Robert Bateman School and Hunt Club Centre. It was a lot of fun, and interesting, and I took notes.

Notes are my new best friend these days; I am answering a lot of questions with "Yes. I was thinking the same thing. It's on my list!" which makes me feel like a moron, but it's just a big fat transition period right now. I kind of hate the feeling that everything is creeping up around me while I take this time to get my bearings, but I am trying not to freak out over it.

So, in the meantime, here's a pic from the ride, and today's recommended read from your wonderful Bookmobile patrons is:

A Wizard in love by Mireille Levert: "Hector, a retired wizard, lives happily and quietly with his cat, Poison, in a dilapidated house at the edge of the forest, until a noisy new neighbor moves into the abandoned house across the road, and things are never the same again."

Interview with Camilla Gibb

There is an interesting interview with the lovely Camilla Gibb over at Bookslut for your reading pleasure!

First week; still standing!

That's right, I did indeed survive my first 5 days at the new job. It was exhausting!

It's so wonderful that I overlapped with the person I am replacing before his retirement, but there was a lot of information to absorb and, between training, my course at the college, and several other things that came up at the last minute, we really only had 3.5 days together before he left. I am feeling like I have a great foundation to continue to learn about the services I will be supervising (for instance, did you know that Homebound services at OPL serves close to 700 people?), but I am still feeling a bit overwhelmed. At right, the brain dump (well, that's only about half of it).

It's great to try something new, and to change departments entirely while remaining in the same organisation. As much as I love my job at Rideau, it's good to learn about another aspect of OPL, work with different teams, and try new skills. That being said, I am reminded how much I identify with my job (I'm sure you couldn't tell at all, right?), and how difficult change can be for me to absorb. This is probably the biggest change I have made since arriving in Ottawa four and a half years ago, and while I'm really pleased about it, I also have some low-grade panic, an upset stomach, and insomnia! I tend to throw myself into my work pretty intensely, so switching gears is abrupt, and leaves me a little adrift at first. I'm navigating my way through that right now.

In other news, I was interviewed for an article for Open File Ottawa a few weeks ago, and it was published last week. I am a bit disappointed that they didn't mention some of our other programs at Rideau Branch (legal aid, for instance), but pleased with the article overall: "Homeless thrive at public libraries." In a way, the timing of the article's publication was especially fortuitous, as the local paper published this opinion about the smell at Main Library, and our City Librarian, Barbara Clubb's, thoughtful response. Some people may not realise, as Barb said, that we do have a policy for dealing with smells in the library, when they come from one individual - and whether it be a case of strong perfume, body odour, or something else entirely. We've also tried a few unique things at Rideau Branch to deal with some generalised odour problems; many people can probably tell that there are certain areas of Main Library, and Rideau, that have air circulation problems, which, in the wintertime when people are wearing wet clothes, make for exceptionally poor air quality. My general response to all this, though, is that in a public place, no one has 100% control over the environment; the impact of some variables can be mitigated, but the library is a place where everyone is welcome as long as they observe general guidelines about cleanliness, dress, and behaviour.

I could go on all day, but I have class in about 20 minutes so I really should ... Oh wait, I can see alllll my 40 students lined up outside the room from here. Guess we're not getting in yet!

Ok, anyway, my week also involved running 6k (a little longer every time!), visiting a cabane à sucre (!), some wonderful training at the lovely renovated (this panel is my favourite thing) Sunnyside branch (sometimes the best part of training is spending time with colleagues I rarely see), drinking with several of said colleagues, finishing A red herring without mustard (delicious) and getting halfway through Annabel by Kathleen Winter (she has such a magnificent narrative voice. I dreamt in her voice last night).

Must go. Time to discuss serials claims! Um, hooray?

"The Montreal Prize" is created

"And the sun pours down like honey / On our lady of the harbour.*" The Globe and Mail reported today that the Montreal Prize has been created. Touted as the “World’s Largest Poetry Competition,” the prize will award $50,000 for a single poem of up to 40 lines written in English by any poet around the world, already published or not. This year, the prize money was donated anonymously; future years will require a sponsor, says Peter Abramowicz, one of the Prize’s three founders (with Len Epp and Asa Boxer). Oh, and this year's judge is Andrew Motion. Whew! Exciting! * I know, I know. Unoriginal. I just couldn't help it. But hey, there's a good discussion question - what's your favourite line of poetry about the city of Montreal?

Exploring other roles

So, yes, in the midst of change, there is, um, more change.

It's spring, thank goodness! I only have four more weeks of class (and am beginning to realise how much I will miss this crop of kids)! I am able to run a little without crying over my kneecap! There's light at the end of the tunnel!

.... and I will be exploring new roles (temporarily) at the Ottawa Public Library!

OK, I am going to stop with the exclamation points now.

Starting at the end of this week, I will be acting as Coordinator of Diversity and Accessibility Services for the next few months. This centralised service department includes adult literacy, services to new Canadians, disabled and homebound patrons, and the bookmobile.

This position will take me away from Rideau Branch for the next little while, temporarily. I am conflicted in many ways about leaving a community I have so enjoyed serving, but I know I will return, and I also know that some of the programs I have initiated in my time there will continue to thrive without me, thanks to the rest of the wonderful team there. I am also excited to try a new challenge, see some library services and programs with fresh eyes, and contribute to my library in a different way.

So, can you smell spring in the air? I can!

new Lisa Lutz!

I was exploring websites relating to fiction genres for the online course I am developing for Algonquin College this summer, and I came across an upcoming Lisa Lutz title I hadn't heard about (thanks to Stop, you're killing me for the link, and for graciously allowing my future students to explore their site).

Entitled Heads you lose, the book is co-authored by Lutz's ex-boyfriend, David Hayward.

Really, the best thing you can do to find out more is to watch this. Cuteness!

On (not) running

Well, it's 1ish on a Sunday afternoon and I am still in my pyjamas! Bliss! I will now subject you to an annoyingly non-bookish post. Sorry about that.

The pace of the past few weeks has been especially punishing, pushed over the edge of what is humanly possible by physiotherapy, as alluded to earlier. So what's the deal with me? Basically, I fell up the stairs (as I keep saying, "better than down!") at work in January, catching my kneecap on the metal edge of our staircase. I know knee injuries can be especially complicated and stubborn, but I am still kind of amazed that two and a half months later, my knee is still swollen. The pain has gone down a fair bit, mind you, so that's good.

The biggest stressor in all this (well, besides dashing off to physio, fighting with WSIB, and icing the 'cap every night) has been NOT RUNNING. At all. I have never, ever, taken the ability to run for granted; I have always been actively grateful for the fact that I am able to push my body to new limits. Not to belabour the point, but I did grow up with one parent frequently short of breath. I treasure the fact that I am healthy, and, overall, I still am. But the knee thing has scared me a fair bit, if I am honest (as in, awake in the middle of the night in a panic); not only does it remind me how fragile health can be, but it also reminds me how much I rely on running as an outlet for releasing stress and generally improving my mood. I don't have a lot of hobbies; it's pretty much reading and running. Without one, I am feeling a bit bereft (others might add depressed, lazy, especially needy and generally ill-tempered).

There is light at the end of the tunnel, though: on the advice of my slightly-blasé GP, I did attempt a short 4k run yesterday, to Library and Archives and back. I conscientiously walked all the hills, and anytime I felt a twinge of knee pain. It mostly felt like I had a bruise, and not like my kneecap was going to pop off (which is how it felt the only other time I attempted running since the fall).

I can't tell you how great it felt. Some of you are runners, and you know what I mean. I feel a bit like the last two and a half months were in a fog of endorphin withdrawal; I was slightly tired all the time, but in a weary-but-restless kind of way.

Here's to getting back on track, especially for a very special event in May. More news of a non-knee-related nature tomorrow; there have been other interesting developments to shake things up recently!

ah, March Break

Yes, I have been posting short and sweet notes to you all this week because I am particularly swamped at work. It's that time of year, when you frantically construct paper cranes on your lunch hour....



P.S. My lunch-time book, in case you were wondering, is Only the Good Spy Young by Ally Carter.

P.P.S. In Grade 8, I went through a paper crane obsessed phase. It involved making millions of cranes, especially from watermelon Jolly Rancher wrappers. I'm not as good as I used to be....

Orange Prize longlist announced

... Find it here, with two Canadians on the list: Kathleen Winter for Annabel and Emma Donoghue (listed by the Orange as Irish) for Room.

The Guardian observes that "debut novelists will make up nearly half of the Orange prize for fiction longlist, which this year tackles strikingly difficult subjects: incest, sadistic cruelty, polygamy, child bereavement, hermaphroditism and mental illness."

This list always comes out right after I finish judging BOYCA (check!), and am usually on an adult fiction binge (check!), so I think I will go order some of these right now.

Currently reading: Hand me down world by Lloyd Jones - interestingly constructed novel that portrays one woman's cross-continent search for her son through the eyes of the people she meets along the way.

Finished since last blog post: Major Pettigrew's last stand by Helen Simonson, and Holy fools by Joanne Harris.

Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2011 Longlist

Jenny Erpenbeck, Visitation (translated from the German)

Marcelo Figueras, Kamchatka (translated from Spanish)

David Grossman, To the End of the Land (translated from Hebrew)

Daniel Kehlmann, Fame (translated from the German)

Véronique Olmi, Beside the Sea (translated from French)

Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence (translated from Turkish)

Per Petterson, I Curse the River of Time (translated from the Norwegian)

Santiago Roncagliolo, Red April (translated from Spanish)

Jachym Topol, Gargling with Tar (translated from Czech)

Alberto Berrera Tyszka, The Sickness (translated from Spanish)

Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The Secret History of Costaguana (translated from Spanish)

Per Wästberg, The Journey of Anders Sparrman (translated from Swedish)

Michal Witkowski, Lovetown (translated from Polish)

Shuichi Yoshida, Villain (translated from the Japanese)

Juli Zeh, Dark Matter (translated from the German)

Details here.

Coming up at Rideau Library...

Monday, March 14, 7 p.m.

The Firestone Story
The Ottawa Art Gallery is home to the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art. Come and learn about the family and their art collection: who they were, how they lived, why and what they collected. Hosted by the Ottawa Art Gallery.

Presentation in English with bilingual facilitator / Présentation en anglais avec animateur bilingue.

Emily Carr, Sunlight in the Forest, oil on linen, 1912

Alex's half-marathon run to support Medic to Medic

Hi everyone,

I am running the Ottawa Race Weekend half-marathon on May 29, 2011 in support of the work of Medic to Medic.

Medic to Medic was founded by my cousin-in-law, Kate Mandeville, and support trainee health workers who have academic potential, but are in financial need.

The program currently operates in Malawi, and will be expanding to Uganda in September.

If you wish to support my run, please visit this page to make a donation.

Thanks for your support!

-Alex.

Me, just before last year's half-marathon