Help finding an inexpensive, yet totally awesome, book!
September 4, 2010 11:20 AM Subscribe
What book should I choose to be dedicated to me in honor of my recent graduation?
It's service anniversary/graduation celebration time at the library where I work, and each of us being acknowledged have been asked to choose a book that we would like to have dedicated to us and put into circulation. The caveat is that it must be in print and in the range of $25.00-$30.00.
What the heck should I choose? I'm being honored for recently earning my Masters in Library and Information Science, and my undergrad degree is in biology. I don't want to choose a popular title, because we get those anyway, but I also don't want to choose something so totally obscure that it will languish in the stacks and get withdrawn from non-use in 18 months.
In addition to the library and biology thing, I like trivia and random facts. I'm addicted to Mental Floss and Jeopardy, so something along those lines would be great.
Any ideas?
It's service anniversary/graduation celebration time at the library where I work, and each of us being acknowledged have been asked to choose a book that we would like to have dedicated to us and put into circulation. The caveat is that it must be in print and in the range of $25.00-$30.00.
What the heck should I choose? I'm being honored for recently earning my Masters in Library and Information Science, and my undergrad degree is in biology. I don't want to choose a popular title, because we get those anyway, but I also don't want to choose something so totally obscure that it will languish in the stacks and get withdrawn from non-use in 18 months.
In addition to the library and biology thing, I like trivia and random facts. I'm addicted to Mental Floss and Jeopardy, so something along those lines would be great.
Any ideas?
What book has been instrumental to your life? Something that made an impact or affected you in a positive way?
Your name is going on it, so you're endorsing it, so why not something you're familiar with and have enjoyed?
Cue a few months later:
A patron is browsing the stacks and finds your book, they open it and see the dedication. "Wow, this book must have been important to jenny75, I'll check it out." (no pun intended)
posted by NoraCharles at 11:41 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Your name is going on it, so you're endorsing it, so why not something you're familiar with and have enjoyed?
Cue a few months later:
A patron is browsing the stacks and finds your book, they open it and see the dedication. "Wow, this book must have been important to jenny75, I'll check it out." (no pun intended)
posted by NoraCharles at 11:41 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: That's the thing: I don't *have* a book that has been instrumental in my life. I've read so many things over the years, that I can't pick out just one that really speaks to me. Now, there are a ton of children's books that I just love, but we already have lots of copies of them so I don't want to add more.
posted by jenny76 at 11:53 AM on September 4, 2010
posted by jenny76 at 11:53 AM on September 4, 2010
What about a book about local history in your area?
posted by slmorri at 12:00 PM on September 4, 2010
posted by slmorri at 12:00 PM on September 4, 2010
I know you said not popular... but I always loved the little hints of science in Madeline L'Engle's books. And maybe it's cliche, but Origin of the Species might tie in to your biology background
But really I agree with Nora above, choose something you love. What was the last book that you stayed up late to read? That you finished and then paused and sighed? It doesn't have to be pivotal and life-changing. Just something you loved.
Failing that, do you have a favorite author with some more obscure works?
posted by maryr at 12:07 PM on September 4, 2010
But really I agree with Nora above, choose something you love. What was the last book that you stayed up late to read? That you finished and then paused and sighed? It doesn't have to be pivotal and life-changing. Just something you loved.
Failing that, do you have a favorite author with some more obscure works?
posted by maryr at 12:07 PM on September 4, 2010
How about a hard cover of one or more of the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson? It covers a lot of natural sciences, historical trivia, etc. and should be modestly popular.
posted by heh3d at 12:45 PM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by heh3d at 12:45 PM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
If you're truly stuck, maybe look at your library's recent circulation figures and identify a category of books that seems popular among your patrons but which is otherwise under represented in the library's holdings. Within that category, look for a well-reviewed title currently not in the collection. Unless you work for the Library of Congress, there's got to be a bunch of such categories and hence titles to choose from.
posted by 5Q7 at 1:17 PM on September 4, 2010
posted by 5Q7 at 1:17 PM on September 4, 2010
OK, new librarian. Imagine someone came to you with this question. Wouldn't you be a great person to help figure out the answer? What I mean is, can you apply your librarian-brain to the problem and maybe work your own way to an answer that way?
It's a very personal question, but the guidance of a librarian-brain could be a huge help.
Beyond that, I'd look for something that you believe deeply, and maybe look for an author that explores those ideas.
Finally, here's a possible suggestion. If the library doesn't already have a copy of Stephenson's "The Diamond Age", you might want to consider it. It centers around the power of a "book" (in quotes because it's a technological object) and how that focus of communication might or might not change a life and the world. It's about more than that, of course, and if you haven't read it I hope you will.
posted by amtho at 2:09 PM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
It's a very personal question, but the guidance of a librarian-brain could be a huge help.
Beyond that, I'd look for something that you believe deeply, and maybe look for an author that explores those ideas.
Finally, here's a possible suggestion. If the library doesn't already have a copy of Stephenson's "The Diamond Age", you might want to consider it. It centers around the power of a "book" (in quotes because it's a technological object) and how that focus of communication might or might not change a life and the world. It's about more than that, of course, and if you haven't read it I hope you will.
posted by amtho at 2:09 PM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]
Natalie Angier's "The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science is just a fantastic book that I think meets your criteria of popular-but-not-too-popular. It's a great read, and suitable for people of all levels and backgrounds, and you'd be supporting a writer who is herself at the intersection of science and humanities.
posted by judith at 4:59 PM on September 4, 2010
posted by judith at 4:59 PM on September 4, 2010
'Labyrinths' by Jorge Borges has a very good story about a library. It's a pretty good allegory for graduate school, to boot.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:04 PM on September 4, 2010
posted by kaibutsu at 7:04 PM on September 4, 2010
Popular-science biology books, I've read and enjoyed, off the top of my head, in no particular order:
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin is a fascinating popular-science biology book.
Matt Ridley's The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, though written by a journalist not a scientist, is a good introduction to the problem of why sex exists.
VS Ramachadran, a behavioral neurologist, has written a number of entertaining books on that subject, drawing on his research and clinical practice.
The late Harold Klawans's Defending the Cavewoman & Other Tales of Evolutionary Neurology, similarly draws on his clinical practice; his story of a patient who worked around stroke-induced total dyslexia by learning Hebrew -- and why that worked -- amazes me.
Richard Dawkins's popular works are all very much worth reading, from The Selfish Gene to The Greatest Show on Earth, but The Ancestor's Tale is perhaps the widest-ranging (temporally) and (for Dawkins) relatively less strident.
EO Wilson's ground-breaking Sociobiology: The New Synthesis or perhaps his new novel Anthill;
Melvin Konner's The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, something of an answer to Wilson;
posted by orthogonality at 2:38 AM on September 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin is a fascinating popular-science biology book.
Matt Ridley's The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature, though written by a journalist not a scientist, is a good introduction to the problem of why sex exists.
VS Ramachadran, a behavioral neurologist, has written a number of entertaining books on that subject, drawing on his research and clinical practice.
The late Harold Klawans's Defending the Cavewoman & Other Tales of Evolutionary Neurology, similarly draws on his clinical practice; his story of a patient who worked around stroke-induced total dyslexia by learning Hebrew -- and why that worked -- amazes me.
Richard Dawkins's popular works are all very much worth reading, from The Selfish Gene to The Greatest Show on Earth, but The Ancestor's Tale is perhaps the widest-ranging (temporally) and (for Dawkins) relatively less strident.
EO Wilson's ground-breaking Sociobiology: The New Synthesis or perhaps his new novel Anthill;
Melvin Konner's The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, something of an answer to Wilson;
posted by orthogonality at 2:38 AM on September 5, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 11:30 AM on September 4, 2010 [1 favorite]