Nostalgia and RL
I finished reading Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One today. I checked it out for the Kindle from the North Carolina Digital Library (which made me feel super cool and “future is now!” and everything, fitting pretty well with the book). I hope Mr. Cline doesn’t mind that I didn’t pay anything for it…
It took me about five days to finish the book, which is a pretty good clip for me, these days. And I really enjoyed it. It’s not that the world of Ready Player One is particularly original, or even that the characters are that interesting–it is, and they are, but not any more than those of most books–but that Cline’s ability to capture the love and nostalgia for the 1980s is superhuman.
I was born in the ’80s, so I’m really a child of the ’90s. That’s the era in which I did most of my formative obsessing: listening to music (The Smashing Pumpkins, Weezer, Dinosaur Jr.), playing games (any and all Zelda games, Final Fantasy, and, of course, Dungeons & Dragons), watching loads of movies (I worked as a projectionist and in a video rental store), pining after girls, etc. But I have–had, even then–a healthy respect for the culture of the ’80s, including many things that Cline touches upon in his book. So I ate up every reference to WarGames and Pac-Man and 80′s arcade culture.
Another amazing and dangerous thing is that the instant I was finished with the novel, I began to miss my time in Azeroth. I’ve only ever played one MMORPG and, like most other gamers, it was World of Warcraft. There was something in Cline’s descriptions of Parzival and his friends’ exploits throughout OASIS that made me long for those days where some guildmates and I would work together to bring down a difficult dungeon boss. That teamwork and camaraderie is so often missing from day-to-day RL. Which is, of course, why it is so damned attractive. And dangerous.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to go play some Zork.
Read MoreRare Children’s Books
Children’s literature is big business these days. Just go to any mega-chain bookstore and check out the square footage devoted to the kids. It’s fantastic that there are so many options for young readers, but the popularity of children’s literature is hardly a new phenomenon.
The bookn3rd blog, which focuses on book history, has some great links and commentary for rare children’s book scans from the early 20th century. My favorite is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book For Girls & Boys, from 1893. The color plates (see the thumbnail to the right) by noted illustrator Walter Crane are absolutely amazing.
Rare Children’s Books at the Library of Congress (from bookn3rd.com)
Also see: Children’s Book Online: The Rosetta Project
Cross-posted from GeekDad
Resources for Reading Out Loud
My wife just finished listening to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere on audiobook. She’s been gushing all month about how fantastic of a reader Mr. Gaiman is–he narrated the book himself–and how he gets all the accents just right. This is something very important to the two of us, as we both love stories read aloud, but we hate when they aren’t narrated well.
To prepare for our own upcoming adventures in delivering memorable storytimes–our boy is nearing the age where he’ll soon appreciate such things–I thought it would be wise to gather together some resources on reading to children and getting them interested in books.
- The Read-Aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease. This is the book for parents who want to read to their kids. Trelease first details the benefits for reading to your kids–longer stays in school, better vocabulary and comprehension–and then goes on to discuss methodology and reading materials appropriate for kids of all ages. There’s also a section of read-aloud stories for you and your kids to enjoy. Excerpts of The Read-Aloud Handbook are available online, and Trelease has an additional collection of great read-aloud stories called Hey! Listen to This.
- How to Get Your Child to Love Reading, by Esmé Raji Codell. Another good resource for finding good books to match your kids’ interests. It’s more than an index, though, because Codell has lots of fun experiments and activities to make lasting memories about each story.
- United Through Reading Read Aloud Resources. A few techniques and suggestions for reading to your kids, as well as some recommended books.
- The British Library Collect Britain Project. For those of you planning on reading the Harry Potter books to your geeklets, spend a few hours here listening to over 650 extracts from the Survey of English Dialects. Search by place name or date to find that perfect Hagrid accent.
Cross-posted from GeekDad
Read Moreb00kn3rd: Really Cool Blog on Rare Books
My friend Laura recently started up a blog called b00kn3rd.com that focuses on all things related to bibliophilia: rare books, the modern bookselling trade, and the history of books. I have to admit, I’m much more up-to-speed with the book trade than I was before I added her blog feed to Reader. She has a lot of fun with the subject, and it really comes through in her posts.
My favorite so far: scans of old advertisements from the Georgia Tech archives.
Read MoreSteampunk Novel Checklist
My lovely and talented wife, Natania Barron, who is hard at work on her second book–a steampunk novel of sorts called The Aldersgate Cycle–has posted a fairly humorous steampunk novel checklist. So far, it looks like she’s meeting all the right criteria.
It really is a wonderful book and I’m really looking forward to where Natania goes it.