284

Grr. I actually learned this yesterday, but as usual I forgot it by the time I did my blog. In 8th grade my English class read the book "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie. I knew that it was also sometimes called "Ten Little Indians" but that "Indians" was not P.C. and so they changed it. What I did not know what that the book was originally titled "Ten Little Niggers." Yikes! It was based on the "Ten Little Indians" rhyme which was also originally titled "Ten Little Niggers." You can read the original rhyme here. I can't believe I never heard that until now. I guess some high school was planning to do the play of "And Then There Were None" but had to cancel the production because people had complaints about the racist nature of the original title. That kind of seems like overkill to me, but then again I guess I don't really know what I'm talking about.

247

Today I learned that Meg Rosoff has a new book (What I Was: A Novel) coming out in January. Oooh, exciting. I really liked How I Live Now. I like the cover of the new one too; you can see it on Amazon. I hope it's good.

242

Today I learned about Teen Read Week. It was started in 1998, and is celebrated during the third week of every October. The goal is to get teens to read despite the bajillion other choices they have when choosing how to spend their free time.

In celebration of Teen Read Week (and also as a holdover from Banned Books Week), I am reading The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things. What are you reading?

222, 223

Gah! Why do I keep forgetting about this blog?!

Thursday I learned some stuff about rabies. One interesting things is that, the one episode of Scrubs where Dr. Cox kills a bunch of people by transplanting rabies-infected organs into them? That has really happened. Skunks and raccoons are two of the big rabies carriers in the US. Remember when Matthew's girlfriend Ingrid got rabies and died on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman? That was hilarious.

Today I learned about www.abebooks.com and their "book sleuth," which is where you can post a book if you can't remember the title or author and people will help you figure out what it is. One day I will get around to posting my stupid horror story about the tiger (or whatever it was) and somebody better be able to help me.

Eighty four, Eighty five, Eighty six

Saturday I learned that, um, you do have to fill out a security report if you happen to see someone's boob at the library.

Sunday I learned about the word "picnic." There was an urban legend going around that "picnic" was a horrible word because it originated in the practice of people sitting outside and eating lunch while watching a random black person be lynched (you can use your imagination to make the connection between that activity and the word). Of course, this is completely untrue. It actually comes from the French "piquenique," "pique" meaning to pick or peck and "nique" probably just added because it rhymed.

Today I learned about the website Goodreads, because Mary added me as a friend. I haven't totally looked around the site yet, but it seems cool. I actually was wondering a while ago if something like this existed, and then thinking that I would become a multi-billionaire by creating it myself. Frick! Beaten to the punch.

Sixteen

You know you're too into your blog when you're like "Oh no! I learned three things today!" Heh.

Well, one of the things I learned was about children's books. I went to a workshop where I learned some of the things that make different picture books appropriate for different aged kids; things to look out for when you're reading or recommending a book ("offensive" things); and some resources to help me find picture books on various subjects. I don't plan to be a children's librarian or anything but, especially in a small library, you can't really expect to never work with kids at all. Besides, I kind of got paid to read picture books for an hour. Holla!

Eleven

I just learned that Zane is a woman. For some reason, for all this time (all the time I've been working at the library), I thought that Zane was a dude. Was I perhaps thinking of Billy Zane? Who can say. I feel like an idiot now. I want to read some Zane books sometime.

Five, Six, Seven

Thursday:

The average hamster lives 2-3 years. I read this in a book about caring for your hamster while I was on C* at work.

Friday:

Friday I learned a little bit about Vickie Stringer and Triple Crown Publications. Vickie is a writer and publisher from Columbus, and TCP has put out such books as Whore, Gangsta, A Project Chick, Crackhead, Bitch, Cash Money, and many more. These books are EXTREMELY popular at my library, and on Thursday Vickie did a program at the main library that had like 200 people in attendance. A lot of the people that write TCP books write them when they're in prison; I learned that one of the authors is currently incarcerated in Michigan, and so she only gets half of the money from selling her books...that state of Michigan gets the other half. Isn't that BS? And she can actually only have like $1000 at one time, so she set up some kind of fund with Vickie to put the money in there. Crazy. Anyway, I knew some of this stuff already, but one girl that I work with sent out an email about the program so I did find out more about Ms. Stringer and TCP in general. Check out the TCP website for more info...the story is actually very cool.

Saturday:

Today I learned about the Flickr group Stick Figures In Peril which is fucking hilarious. HILARIOUS.

I need to put more links in with all of these entries, but really I am too lazy.