Read All About It!

One thing I miss about being in high school English class is the engagement that went along with our reading assignments. While I love reading and treasure it for the “me” time that it gives me, I miss reading as a collaborative activity. Many books, I feel, are better appreciated when you can talk over their fine points and their controversial aspects with other readers.

The internet is bringing this ability back to readers who are no longer in school in various ways, one of which is the BookGlutton website.  BookGlutton’s aim is to “build an experience that is simultaneously a book group, a computer, and a book.”  How does it achieve this?

By making reading a group experience.  On BookGlutton, you read a book, but you can annotate it while you do so.  I personally abhor writing in books, but with these BookGlutton e-books, you can highlight a sentence or paragraph and ask for other readers’ opinions on it.  You can link to websites that explain what the word means.  You can say why that particular sentence makes you happy/sad/angry/excited about the book or character.  So even if you aren’t in an English literature class, you can still read, enjoy and engage with others about books while you read them.

Another site with a similar goal is Book Drum, where readers annotate their favorite books with graphics, links, articles and other information that makes reading a more multi-dimensional experience.  And one that can be much more interactive and social than reading has been in the past.

What do you think?  Should reading be a solitary activity or do you like the idea of engaging with a community?

Greetings Readers!  Marissa De Haan here.  After an epic battle of poetry, lyricism, and communication skills, English studies trumped all when I was called upon to declare my major.  I’m gearing up to graduate from Trinity Christian College in May.  Open Books has welcomed me with open arms (not the Journey song) and I’m excited to dust off my English knowledge of grammar, spelling and punctuation to help champion the literacy movement and take ownership of some of Open Books’ projects in Chicago.

I moved to the south Chicago suburbs three and a half years ago, following my two brothers and decent scholarship, thinking mostly about all of the great places there would be to see and all the restaurants at which I could eat, and entirely forgot about a crazy little thing called Winter; coming from Hanford, California, the snow and sleet are foreign, but after observing and taking notes, I’ve learned to brace myself against the wind.  I’ve also taken to wearing snow boots and puffy coats, even if I don’t look attractive.  “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” et cetera.

Though it’s sometimes difficult for me to recognize the immediate differences between an Alexandrine and a Canzone, I still love poetry.  It’s a rush (of nerdy-ness and fun) to work for Open Books and will continue to be as long as I’m working with books and literacy—which will be all the time, really. 

Haikus are my favorite form of poetry because the format is easy to remember, to follow, and to read.  However, I don’t always write about seasonal things, as one of the tenets requires…

Haikus to a bibliophile

Pull from the bookshelf
A dusty first edition
Archaeologist

Check the call number
Look at the neighboring texts
Accurate archer

Wipe off the cover
Delicately crack the spine
Trained chiropractor

Flip to the ending
Ruin all hope for surprise
Impatient child

Find a nearby lounge
Discuss humanity’s themes
Philosophizer

Count all the chapters
Flip through the pages in each
Mathematician

Softly worn pages
The smell of musty leather
Bibliophile

Apart from haiku wars (competitions of written conversation that only use haiku form) I love to eat.  Thai food, Chinese food, Mexican food, or anything that will probably clog my arteries is generally a good choice.  My hobbies include being a performer, appreciator, purveyor, and criticizer of all kinds of music (I am a general music minor, after all).  If you can’t find me, look in a library or a coffee shop.  I’m always on the lookout for my next cup of coffee, and another poet to explore; the smell of musty pages or the freshest French Roast draws me in every time. 

Talk to you soon,

Marissa

It is my extreme pleasure to introduce you to volunteer all-star, vol-star, if you will, Liza Verzijl. Liza first came to us last October for our Volunteer Work Days and quickly proved to be quite the catch. The piles of immaculately folded Open Books t-shirts were only the beginning of what Liza had to offer! A tremendous help at the Open Books store (Liza was shelving books before we had officially opened our doors!) and now a stellar writing coach at Adventures in Creative Writing field trips, Liza is a true pleasure to have on our team. On top of all of this, she is also a blast to have around! Thank you, Liza, for all that you do!

Name: Liza Verzijl

Neighborhood: Streeterville

Job: Looking for one as a Dutch teacher

Open Books programs/events you’ve participated in:

Volunteer Work Days, Open Books Store, Adventures in Creative Writing Field Trips, Office work



The 1o Questions We Always Ask



If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Sugar. Ah, that’s an ingredient. Unhealthy sweet food, then.

Have you ever met (or even seen) anyone famous randomly in public? Who?

Willem Defoe was sitting a few seats away in the cinema. He walked out during his own movie.

If not, what famous person would you like to meet?

Oprah. I know it sounds tacky but she is well known in The Netherlands. Chicago = Oprah. At least all the women know that the Oprah Show is recorded in Chicago so the question that keeps popping up is “have you already been to/on the Oprah Show?”  Pfff, just invite me and get it over with.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

At home: Electric shocks from light switches.

In Chicago: Too few bike paths in the city and people that cannot pronounce ‘Van Buren’.

Globally: Green living is still not on the minds of enough people.

What is the earliest book you remember reading, and why was it special?

Eric Carle – Rupsje Nooitgenoeg (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). The drawings in that book, the shape of the pages because of the bites of the caterpillar, it was magic.

What was your first job ever?

When I was 15, I had a summer job at the city hall pouring coffee and tea for the civil servants. It was extremely boring so I entertained myself by remembering how everybody liked his/her coffee or tea. It was the first time I had a young foreign colleague that was just learning Dutch. I remember my boss talking to her with an extremely loud voice like that would help her understand Dutch. I think that made me a Dutch teacher for foreigners.

If you could instantly be good at any given thing, what talent would you choose to have?

Being diplomatic. I’m just not.

If you were a pattern, what pattern would you be?

OMG, I would be a ferocious Sudoku pattern.

Who is your favorite character from a fiction or non-fiction book?

Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

If a book were written about your life, what would it be called?

Liza’s Great Foreign Adventures

Are you a dog person or a cat person?

More a cat person but I try to not like them too much; they lose their interest for cuddling if you’re too eager, haha.

Once again, we had the amazing fortune of filling two rooms with excited field trippers ready to slam some poetry this past Tuesday. Both groups came from St. Barbara Elementary School, and were a compilation of 4th/5th graders and 8th graders. Per usual, each kid rocked in his and her own literary manner. The 4th/5th graders used some beautiful imagery to describe the ways they used to be, while the 8th graders told the tales of who they are today. While hesitant at first, the latter crowd was inspired by the quirks of a science teacher to get over their teenage selves and write with conviction (hey, weren’t we all that way once? . Here are a couple samples of the awesome work done by both groups on the 26th of January:

Boredom
8th grade Class Poem

Boredom is science class
It tastes like gum that has lost all its flavor.
It sounds like the clicking of your teacher’s heels.
It smells like coffee breath.
It looks like a clock without batteries.
It feels like you’re stuck in slow motion.

I Used to Be…
By Isabella (5th grader)

I used to be a puppy
Energetic and full of life
Bur now I am ignored, thrown away with no one to comfort me
I used to have one family with joy in my heart
But now I am heart-broken and miserable without a thought
I used to be a rich young girl with all the toys in the world
Someone with toys to play with
But now I am a young teenager with no toys to enjoy
Having a dull time and bored with no toys to play with
I used to be a caveman without a channel to enjoy
I didn’t have cable or a channel to enjoy
But now I am full of imagination with channels from here to there

J. D. Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, died on Tuesday at 91 years old.  He was famous, in the first half of his life, for his writing.  He was famous, in the second half of his life, for not wanting to be famous.  His stories about teenage angst and rebellion were required reading across American high schools, where so many students shuddered at the thought of ever becoming phonies in adulthood themselves.

There are a great many beautiful and detailed obituaries about Salinger, but I think The Onion catches the tone of his writing and his life perfectly.  Salinger will be missed, but Holden will live on.

Here are some selected quotes from Salinger.  His characters swear a lot, so this is a self-selective list.  What are your favorites?  Feel free to share!:

“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”

“It’s funny. All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they’ll do practically anything you want them to.”

“I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”

“Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behaviour. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them—if you want to. Just as some day, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

“All morons hate it when you call them a moron.”