Year: <span>2018</span>

As the year draws to a swift close, it’s inevitable that we look back on the 12 months past. Some of us will do so with regret or even anguish, while others will do so with satisfaction or a warm glow. Where do you stand?

For a change of pace, nothing this week about books, libraries, reading, book signings and similar events, or such. Instead, we’re going to talk about words,or more specifically word choices. And, even more specifically, this will be a rant about other people’s rants.

How is a writer to write about Christmas when there’s no snow on the ground? Is that your question? Yes, I live in South Florida, where the only snow is artificial (or in snow globes),but what many non-writers don’t realize is that Christmas books are, of necessity, written long before the holiday season. In fact,...

What do you think of, what picture comes to mind, when you hear the word “librarian”? A spinster (to use a quaint term, as outmoded as this mental picture), tending dusty books in a musty library? Or perhaps, more specifically, Marian the librarian, of THE MUSIC MAN fame?

We live in the “land of the free,” as our national anthem tells us, and that includes freedom to read whatever we please. While there are still groups that successfully petition to have certain books removed from library shelves or schools, there is no overarching governmental entity decreeing that certain books may not be read...

Can books lead to world peace, or simply peace in our country? Can they put an end to school shootings, Pittsburgh-style atrocities, 9/11s, and overseas genocide? Well, they can’t put a total end to war or domestic violence. The world will always have troublemakers, agitators, and those who are, to put it nicely, off balance....

Today is Halloween. You know what REALLY scares me? It’s not the ghosties and ghoulies afoot today and tonight, nor the fake cobwebs draped in my chiropractor’s office, nor the spectre of running out of candy early in the evening–actually we don’t get ANY trick-or-treaters in this 55-and-older community. What really scares me is the...

“We interrupt this program…” or this blog. Or as the Python folks used to say, “And now for something completely different.” This week’s post isn’t about books, reading, or writing. Instead, I want to urge all our American readers to get out and VOTE. This is NOT a partisan rant. We are not siding with...

I’ve written in this space before about the problem of having too many books, when storage becomes an issue, and good ways to find new homes for them. Today I’ll discuss an idea for a related problem: How to dispose of books you no longer want, not because you have no room for them but...

We just celebrated Banned Books Week last week—if “celebrated” is the appropriate word to use when discussing books that have been removed, or requested to be removed, from libraries, schools, bookstores, and other venues.