Very excited!!

Like a lot of others, I have read the fantastic series by Suzanne Collins called "The Hunger Games".

The Hunger Games is a trilogy set in a dystopian world (a society in a repressed and controlled state, often a ruined world) where North America has fallen, now called Panem, and has been separated into 12 districts. The Hunger Games are an annual event that is put up for the enjoyment of the people living in the Capitol because of a rebellion that once occurred in one of the districts. Each year two tributes are picked from each district, trained in combat and then put together in an outdoor "arena" controlled by the Capitol to fight until  only one remains alive.

The main character, Katniss Everdeen (16), lives in district 12 and has had to put her name in once each year since her 12th birthday. Her sister, Prirose, has just turned 12 and it's her first year putting her name in. Among the thousands of names she is picked, and fearing for her life Katniss volunteers as the tribute. Along with her, Peeta Mellark is also picked and they are shipped off to the Capitol to begin training.

The series follows Katniss and Peeta on their journey of fighting and rebellion. 

This series has really set a new standard in YA fiction, as hundreds of new "dystopian" novels have popped up since claiming to be "the new Hunger Games". In a world currently obsessed with "Twilight" this is a refreshing change in reading trends for teenagers and lovers of Young Adult Literature.

The series has also been picked up by Lionsgate and their theatrical trailer came out this week! It looks amazing and from what I can see, seems to follow the book. I'm linking to the video so everyone else can enjoy!

Awesome site I stumbled upon

I wanted to find a tumblr for books that I could show to everyone, and I stumbled upon this awesome tumblr of "The Lisa Simpson Book Club"!

As we all know, Lisa Simpson is the most well read of the family, and always has a clever title around. Sometimes, other brilliants characters have moments with awesomely witty books.

My fovourite post so far and one of my favourite memories from The Simpsons: Christopher Walken reading "Goodnight Moon" to a group of terrified children.

"Don’t make me tell you, again, about, the scootching."

What I've just finished reading

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman

A book I picked up from one of my fathers bookshelves when I was about 13 or 14, when I was just really getting into science-fiction / fantasy. My father is the most well-read person I know, he can read an 900 page book in less than two days, and really he's the person I have to thank for my continued interest in reading.

40 Women have been living in a cage guarded by men for over ten years. They do not remember what caused them to be captured, only that they used to have lives before the cage. The main character of this novel is referred to as "The Child" because when they were placed in the cage she was only a child who could not remember her name or her family.

The first half of this novel deals with their daily lives in the cage: how they have an unknown fear of the guards and their whips, how they strive to remember their past lives and how they long for eventual freedom or an explanation.

One morning, the guards are bringing in food and an alarm sounds making them leave as quickly as possible, but leaving the door to the cage open accidentally. The women finally have freedom, and escape from their cage as swiftly as possible. What they discover is a land that is not familiar to any and as they start their search for answers or civilization they realize that they have just entered into a different kind of prison.

Very good book and a fast read, only 206 pages. What is so interesting about this book is that it is largely a description based book, sure there is dialogue but most of the action happens in the main characters mind and how she describes things. No chapters, just a steady stream of words. 

The science-fiction part of the novel is just a suggestion that is not weaved into the story line, so could be enjoyed by lovers of general fiction.

I give this book 4 stars and highly recommend reading it.

Book Club

I, like a lot of others in this world, belong to a Book Club. My Book Club is made up of my past classmates from the Library and Information Technology Program.  We may have similar interests, but we almost all differ in our reading interests, so our book club is quite unique. 

It's unique in the sense that we don't all force each other to read things we know others have no interest in, and so what we're really participating in is a form of "Book Talk" group. We all individually pick a book, read it for the designated day and then come together and share all of our different reads. It's quite an interesting thing to participate in, because I may not have thought I had interest in a specific genre or author, but after hearing one of my friends gush about it maybe I'll go and pick it up.

It's also an opportunity to come together as a group and just sit down and have fun and not worry about our hectic lives or our families. We may not see each other very often, but when we do that time is special and so much more appreciated than if we saw each other every day.

Our next Book Club is tonight and I had not thought I would have had a book read for it, but I sat down for a few hours Thursday night and actually read a book!

Tomorrow I’ll post my summary of the book and my thoughts on it. The novel is called I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman.

My experience in the LIT program at SIAST

I'm currently in the Library and Information Technology program at SIAST here in Saskatoon and so far it's been a pretty interesting experience. 

I started this program in September of 2008 with high hopes: I had just spent a year saving money to move to Saskatoon after a failed year of university in 2006/2007. I joined the program with a group of women of all different ages who had the same interests as me, and for the first time I felt accepted for being who I am by this group of strangers. Finally I could relate to people and discuss issues that I couldn't have brought up in my other groups of friends. I spent a fantastic first year learning about cataloguing, reference, children's literature, young adult literature and going on two placements in school libraries! 

What I didn't know was that I was about to fail three classes and be kicked out of SIAST for a semester.

It felt horrible, and for a while I thought about quitting school for good because this was the second time I had failed out of school and I felt like maybe, it wasn't worth it anymore. Instead of being a "Debbie downer" I decided to come back to school with a better attitude and better time management skills, because I wasn't about to quit something as important to me as this program is.

I passed my three next classes of the second semester of the second year with my first library group. I then came back and joined the new group of Library techs in 2010 and I will graduate with them in May of 2012!

For those of you who don't know, studying to be a Library Technician is incredibly hard and our program in Saskatoon has the most academic classes of any LIT program in the country. It's a challenging field of study that people don't really realize is important to our society.

Yes, this program has caused me incredible amounts of stress, but it has also allowed me to grow as a person and become a mature adult who is accountable for my mistakes.

Interesting stuff at SPL

Since I've moved to Saskatoon, I've mostly been using the Frances Morrison Branch of the Saskatoon Public Library system (their main library branch, located downtown) for when I feel like borrowing books/movies or just going to hang out in the YA section to study.

I recently "liked" SPL on Facebook and have noticed that they keep a very up-do-date online presence. They average from 3 - 5 status updates a day on their library programs, current news issues and visiting authors. (Regina Public Library averages about 1-2 updates a day, but have more followers)

Libraries are always adapting, and seem to have well adapted to our "social networking" future. Something interesting that SPL is currently using is the "library2go" program, where you can download eBooks and audiobooks with your library card on an appropriate electronic device (eBook reader, smart phones, ipad, desktop, mac).

One of the biggest issues I see with the Frances Morrison branch, is that they are badly in need of a new building and have been fighting for a long time to get it. Their building is too small and too old to contain their collection and they do not have enough public support to even be able to bring this issue on the table (although they have tried many times). 

In my Library and Information Technology program, I have learnt the past history of their struggle to get a new building or renovate and they seem to be stuck in a standstill. Either they have suffered from poor planning (I doubt that, these are library people) or roadblocks put in place by government and/or the public.

We, as an informed public, need to support our libraries if we want future generations to view the library as a safe, fun and interesting place to be.

Here are two documents made in 2004 (old, I know) about a Needs Assessment Survey done for SPL by Fast Consulting. 

Brochure: summary of 2004 needs assessment survey

Executive Summary of needs assessment

Books!

My favorite website, reddit.com, has these things called "subreddits" that are specialized to specific subjects. (e.g.: r/funny, r/pics, r/atheism) Reddit is a website where the users control the content, very reflective of current issues and trends. Users "vote" on new submissions (upvote or downvote) and the top submissions go on their "front page". Because Reddit is an international website (and free), there is always content that someone will find interesting.

Something I have recently been paying more attention to is r/books, a subreddit community where the users can talk about : "Book reviews, recommendations, stories about books or book technology, etc." There is always an interesting post on their "front page". Right now the top post is "Your favorite sentence in any book, ever?" where users are currently posting different sentences from a vast number of books.

One glitch that this page seems to have is that you cannot sort the posts by the subjects at the top of the page (what's hot, new, controversial, top and saved), but you can add that to your URL manually. (e.g.: www.reddit.com/r/books/top)

One thing we must remember is that this is still the internet, and the content is controlled by the users, so you could potentially be "offended" by some of the links/pictures/opinions. Take your time to explore this website and figure out how to use it.

Great subreddit if you are interested in books and in seeing different opinions from around the world.

What I'm currently reading.

The novel that I am currently reading is: Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell. I'm reading this novel for my Canadian Literature class and it has been an interesting read so far.

I was a bit tentative at first about it because the whole concept of the book is that for the main character, Brian, the wind is a metaphor for God. But as I have progressed in my reading, I have become involved in the character.

As an Atheist, the metaphor in the book holds no meaning to me, but I can see how this conclusion could be made by a child or an adult of faith.

I have a hundred pages of reading left, and I am excited to read the conclusion. For the moment, I give it 3 stars.

Ninja edit: Saskatoon Public Library currently has four copies of this novel, along with copies in these formats; Book on CD, cassette and large print.