The Questioning Librarian

Some days you sit down to write, and nothing comes. I think that this must happen to every writer at some point or other, even prolific ones like R.A. Salvatore and Ray Bradbury. They too must have looked at a blank page and sighed at the lack of words on it, going to the well of inspiration only to find that it is dry. I wonder how they wiled away the time, what they did to distract themselves from the fact that the muse is being stingy with her gifts of an exciting plot and the right words to bring it to life? Did Bradbury play with his toys (he famously enjoyed getting toys as gifts throughout his life)? Did Hemingway have another drink? Did Tolkien work at translating some Old English text? I wonder what Debbie Macomber or Nora Roberts do when they have writer's block. They may write several books a year, but it must happen to them too, every once in a while. Just like every writer has to deal with writer's block, surely every writer has their own way of coping with it a...

There are some books that are downright painful to peruse, books you feel like you should just stop reading at one point, because to keep going on is a bit too much. But, like watching the proverbial train wreck, no matter what you might wish, you simply cannot look away. While the subtitle of the book is "Two Parties and a Funeral--plus plenty of valet parking!-in America's Gilded Capital," it might well be subtitled "It's Even Worse Than You Thought." Leibovich's take-down of Washington D.C.'s political culture would be hard-pressed to be more dispiriting if it tried to be. In spite of Leibovich's humor, even a cynic like myself was even more jaded after reading this book. Truly, no one who garners a mention in the work comes off looking good, from Harry Reid and Barack Obama to Tim Russert and David Gregory.  "This Town," as it is sometimes referred to with a mixture of admiration and disgust, has always been a haven for the...

I admit that I had every intention of skipping this particular book; just reading about it put up a variety of red flags for me, and with so many other books to read I would have been happy to give it a pass. However, I received this as a gift for Christmas, and felt an obligation to read it. I was correct in my misgivings about the book. In fact, George Washington's Secret Six  was even more dreadful than I had anticipated. First, a word about the authors. Neither of the two men who co-wrote the book have any background in history. Brian Kilmeade is a well-known television personality, appearing on the Fox & Friends show on Fox News. Both he and Don Yaeger have a background in sports writing, which is not to say one has to be an historian to write an excellent book on a historical topic. Many non-historians have written great books about historical topics, but Kilmeade and Yaeger are not likely to be counted among them. In their amateurish hands, a story that should b...

My last few reads have all had to do with climate change in some way or other. Needless to say, it has been a depressing bit of reading. From Donald Prothero's chapter tackling climate change denial in Reality Check to the article about sea level rise in September's National Geographic to the book I just finished, Bill McKibben's Oil and Honey ,   being presented with the enormity and the gravity of the problem is daunting to say the least. Worse still is the knowledge that much of our government, including representatives who are supposed to be acting on behalf of "the people", has been bought completely by the fossil fuel industry, money from oil and coal companies flowing into the coffers of politicians who then dutifully halt even the most limp-wristed half-measures to tackle the climate problem.  For all the denial that exists out there, I've generally thought that the basic science of climate change was fairly simple to grasp and, in an ideal world,...

A few weeks ago in a nearby Barnes & Noble, I intended to be conservative in my spending. After all, I have plenty of books I already own and haven't read, and working in a library means I have access to hundreds more I might want to read. Seeing Donald Prothero's new book Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future immediately overcame my resistance. Prothero, a geologist by training, has written a range of books, including a number that are highly regarded, including his 2007 book Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters, a thorough debunking of creationist arguments about geology and fossils. Reality Check  touches again on creationism, but the larger thrust of the work is an attack on a variety of un-scientific rubbish that has a stranglehold on the minds of many and threatens our very future. From climate change denial and creationism to anti-vaccine activists and those who deny the reality of the finite nature of fossils fuels, Prothero tackl...

It's no great secret that I used to vote straight-Republican in nearly every election. I was proud to vote for the party of individual responsibility and small government, as I saw it then, as opposed to what I viewed as the party of dependency and the nanny state. But the GOP I used to vote for isn't the same one, and I've changed myself. We parted ways several elections ago, and at this point I cannot bring myself to vote for a single Republican in any election, from the local representatives all the way up through to the Presidency. The Republican Party is, to put it at its mildest, a party driven by greed and by hostility to all those who are unlike themselves. They are the party of Avarice and the party of Cruelty, and they show this in their every word and their every action. The singular accomplishment of the modern GOP is the fusion of pro-corporate economics with radical religious fundamentalism. Both are toxic to the freedoms and liberties of the citizens of ...

Yesterday I came across a commercial for Unilever's Project Sunlight entitled "Why bring a child into this world?" Usually I skip right over these ads to get to the content I've actually come to watch, but I was curious enough to watch it through to the end. It is an interesting and important question that, in an ideal world, every couple or individual should give serious, reasoned thought to before having a child. I suspect that for many there is little thought given to it; either it is accidental or the attitude is taken that having children is just what people do. Given the world we live in and the future we face, the question needs more thought given to it than that.  The ad, however, is overwhelmingly positive, citing more food being grown, clean water, diseases cured and long lifespans for much of humanity. Take a look for yourself: There is something that deeply bothers me about this, beyond even the glossy propaganda that tells couples "The futur...