Problems with Google Books Database

As someone who has had some success in using Google Books to locate the full text of certain books online and in finding which book contained a particular quote, I was surprised to see an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education called “Google's Book Search: A Disaster for Scholars.” In the piece, Geoffrey Nunberg chronicles a series of mistakes that appear when one searches in Google Books. These include having the wrong date of publication, completely inappropriate subject headings, and typos in titles.

I suppose it is not surprising that a project as huge as Google Books, which is being worked on at a rapid speed, is bound to have a few glitches, but this article suggests that mistakes go way beyond the “few glitches” stage.

Google Books is a valuable tool with great potential for making the information found in major libraries available to people around the world. Let’s hope that Google can locate and repair the errors in this database.

WSJ Article Says "Good Books Don't Have to be Hard"

I was happy to read a Wall Street Journal article by Lev Grossman entitled “Good Books Don't Have to Be Hard.”

Grossman says that most literary novels from the first half of the Twentieth Century-- by authors such as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Henry James—fall into a category literary scholars call Modernist. These authors thought that earlier novels were too neat, with all the loose ends tied up ends, and didn’t reflect how life really was. The Modernists wrote stories that sometimes didn’t have plots one could describe easily, and which sometimes seemed to end abruptly with no real conclusion. Some of their novels contained extensive inner monologues called stream of consciousness. Sometimes it was difficult to follow which character had said a particular line of dialog. Often these authors took pride in the fact that their books were difficult to read. They would not pander to the common reader. They tried to appeal to readers who didn’t mind doing some work.

The automobile, telephone, radio and psychoanalysis had revolutionized the way people of the Twentieth Century traveled, communicated and even how they thought. Modernist authors thought that these changes should be reflected in literature. Just as Modernist artists no longer felt compelled to paint “pretty pictures,” Modernist writers did not feel they needed to entertain.

Grossman writes that times have again changed, and good readable novels are back. He cites such authors as Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, and Richard Price as contemporary authors who use literary language to relate riveting stories in various fiction genres. He notes that Cormac ­McCarthy, who Grossman says for years “appeared to be the oldest living Modernist in captivity,” has more recent writings that include a serial-killer novel and a work of apocalyptic science fiction..

Take a look at the article, and check some of the other authors Grossman mentions, and then check out their books at the Merrick Library.

Program Promotes Life-Long Reading

Today, I came across a New York Times article, “The Future of Reading: Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like,” which profiles two teachers who are participating in a growing movement to encourage the love of reading by giving children more freedom to choose which books to read for school. OK, I’ll admit that my first reaction to the headline was sure, next they’ll be asking fifth graders what courses should be taught.

But it’s not that bad. Nancie Atwell, one of the teachers mentioned in the article lets students choose books they want to read, with certain guidelines—no Gossip Girls, no books based on video games. She has the students spend time reading during class time, during which she goes around and talks with the children about the books they are reading. She has them keep journals and report on the books they read.

Part of the process with this program involves teachers nudging the students to read higher quality books. For instance, when one student finished a book, Chaka! Through the Fire, a memoir by singer Chaka Khan, Lorrie McNeill, the other teacher mention in the article, suggested the student might now read Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Despite the increased freedom in her classroom, Atwell’s teaching method remains rigorous. Speaking with one boy, she said “I keep trying to get you to read things other than James Patterson,” Ms. Atwell said, pointing to the book he was reading, “But if you are going to write a book review of substance, you are going to have to find substance in the book.”

Not everyone agrees with Atwell’s approach. Most teachers still assign “classic” books, but if one of the goals in education is to encourage lifelong reading, maybe these caring teachers’ approach deserves a try. What do you think about letting students choose what they want to read?

Presidential Reading

With summer winding down, President Barack Obama is on vacation on Martha's Vinyard. At this blog, of course, we are interested in what he's reading. Slate, the online magazine, has answered this question in an article called "Barack's Book Bag."

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We'd love to hear which books you're spending time with this summer. Personally, I'm reading Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography and listening to Silks, by Dick Francis.

Classic Children's Books

NPR has been doing a lot of good stories about books this summer. Their latest profiles classic children's books such as Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, Jean Webster's Daddy Long-Legs and The House with a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs, illustrated by one of my favorite artists, Edward Gorey.

Take a look at the link. Then let us know what your favorite classic children's books are. I'm going with Uncle Wiggily.

Some Thoughts about Reading

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
Richard Steele

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man;
and writing an exact man.
Francis Bacon

Les livres cadrent mal avec le mariage.
(Reading and marriage don't go well together.)
Moliere

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading;

in order to write, a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Samuel Johnson

The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries—in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts.
Rene Descartes

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
Logan Pearsall Smith

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I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

Groucho Marx

Poetry is not the most important thing in life…
I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading

Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.
Dylan Thomas

If you have a favorite quote about reading, we'd love to hear it. Please add it to comments.

Alternative View of Atticus Finch

Many years ago, when my wife first saw Gregeory Peck play Atticus Finch in the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird, she decided he would be the ideal father. Finch is portrayed as honest, just, fair, understanding, and basically everything one could hope for in a father. In a recent article in the New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell looks at the character from a different angle.

In the novel, published 50 years ago, Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Alabama, defends a African American man falsely accused of raping a White woman. Though the attorney does an admirable for the defense, Gladwell notes that Finch does not express moral outrage or try to challenge the white supremacist Southern culture of the time. Gladwell writes that "Finch wants his white, male jurors to do the right thing. But as a good Jim Crow liberal he dare not challenge the foundations of their privilege. Instead, Finch does what lawyers for black men did in those days. He encourages them to swap one of their prejudices for another." This other prejudice was against a so-called "White trash" family, the Ewells, one of whom Bob Ewell is the main villain in the story.

While it is interesting to have a different point of view on one of the most esteemed characters in American fiction, Gladwell might be accused to being present-minded, that is taking today's political or social views and criticizing a character from half a century ago for not meeting our standards. Still, the article makes good reading.