reading diary

RECENTLY FINISHED
Arthur Conan Doyle: Through the magic door. Kindle edition
I admit I downloaded this book because I assumed it contained mystery stories, but when there simply was no crime and no sign of Watson or Holmes I discovered that it is even better ;-) Doyle invites us to join him at a journey through his library and to close the magic door behind us: "I care not how humble your bookshelf may be, nor how lowly the room which it adorns. Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more". I discovered that Doyle and I have something in common: "Personally I must confess that anything bearing upon the Arctic Seas is always of the deepest interest to me". Conclusion: "For the time the magic door is still shut. You are still in the land of faerie. But, alas, though you shut that door, you cannot seal it. Still come the ring of bell, the call of telephone, the summons back to the sordid world of work and men and daily strife. Well, that's the real life after all—this only the imitation. And yet, now that the portal is wide open and we stride out together, do we not face our fate with a braver heart for all the rest and quiet and comradeship that we found behind the Magic Door?"

	Maia C: "Library door", 27. April 2006, Flickr, CC-BY-NC-ND

Eduard von Keyserling: Dumala. Kindle edition

Ian Sansom: The Bad Book Affair. William Morrow 2010 (The mobile library 4)
I think this is the best book in the series. I had some difficulties with its predecessors and only bought them for the sake of completeness. But after reading part four I hope there will be a another instalment. Sansom really has wit and a talent for needing few sentences for saying much about a person.

IN PROGRESS

G.K. Chesterton: The man who knew too much. Kindle edition (status: 3%)
collection of detective stories

W.G. Sebald: Austerlitz. Carl Hanser 2001 (Status: page 175 of 416)

mournful, withdrawn, unhappy

"Buffy was probably one of the things that had made him want to become a librarian in the first place. That, and the fact that he was a mournful, withdrawn, unhappy individual who preferred books to people" (Ian Sansom: The bad book affair, p. 209)

Ich lese gerade den vierten Band der "Mobile library"-Serie und halte ihn für den gelungensten Band der Serie. Die an sich nicht wirklich sympathische Hauptfigur gewinnt hier meiner Meinung nach an Tiefe. Auch die lokale Bevölkerung, in den ersten drei Bänden zu einem großten Teil wie der Sprache kaum mächtige Volldeppen dargestellt, kommt hier bisher ein bisschen besser weg, kommt mir vor.

Neu von Ian Sansom: The bad book affair

In der "Mobile Library Mystery"-Reihe von Ian Sansom ist - nach "Mr Dixon disappears" und "The Book Stops Here" [ergänze: "The delegates' choice"] - der dritte vierte Band "The Bad Book Affair" erschienen. Mir hat der erste Band gut und der zweite [oder dritte?] Band nicht gut gefallen, ich lasse mich vom dritten vierten also gerne überraschen: "Israel Armstrong — the hapless duffle coat wearing, navel-gazing librarian who solves crimes and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland — finds himself on the brink of thirty. But any celebration, planned or otherwise, must be put on hold when a troubled teenager — the daughter of a local politician — mysteriously vanishes".

reading diary

recently finished: Ian Sansom: The delegates' choice - for me it was certainly not the best volume in Sansoms series "The mobile library". I liked the first two volumes, and there are also some hilarious paragraphs in "The delegates' choice", but the main character, always complaining librarian Israel Armstrong, somehow annoys me by now. Armstrongs perceptions of the northern irish rural population were funny in the beginning, but are a bit overstated now. A review from culturenorthernireland.org concludes: "However, while The Delegates' Choice suffers from some comic misfires, too flimsy a plot and the crippling weight of its voluminous dialogue, it will no doubt be welcomed by confirmed fans of Sansom’s mystery series. It just may not win him any new ones".

recently finished: J.B. Stanley: Carbs and cadavers - This is the first volume of the series "A supper club mystery", and I immediately took the supper club members to my heart: five overweight people with hearts of gold - a guybrarian, a postman, a teacher, a pet groomer and a police assistant - trying to lose weight together, making friends and solving a crime. The characters are authentic and likeable with little eccentricities. I bought the novel only because it features a librarian and was surprised of its funny and heart-warming nature (the title doesn't sound really sophisticated ;-). I certainly will purchase the other two installments soon.

currently re-read: Larry Beinhart: The librarian.

BBB news

Die neuesten Einträge in meiner Bibliographie Berufsbild BibliothekarIn im Überblick.

Ian Sansom: The Delegates Choice. Harper Collins 2008 (= The Mobile Library 3)

Linda Bergström / Marie Böngren: Manliga bibliotekariers upplevelser av att jobba inom ett kvinnodominerat yrke. Borås: Högskolan i Borås, Bibliotekshögskolan 2005

Jana Haase: Chancen nach dem Studium? Befragung von Absolventen des Studiengangs Bibliothekswesen/Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft der HTWK Leipzig zur rückblickenden Bewertung des Studiums, zum Berufseinstieg und zur beruflichen Entwicklung. Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft und Kultur Leipzig, Diplomarbeit, 2007

Brandon Sanderson: Alcatraz versus the evil librarians. New York: Scholastic 2007

Patricia Bernice Huff Ball: African American male library administrators in public and academic libraries. A descriptive study. University of Pittsburgh, PhD Thesis, 1992

Neue Bände der "Mobile Library"

In der amüsanten Reihe "The mobile library" von Ian Sansom, die bei Harper Collins erscheint, sind zwei neue Bände angekündigt: Band 3, "The delegates choice", für März 2008 und Band 4, "The book stops here", für August 2008. - Bisher erschienen sind als Band 1 "The case of the missing books" und als Band 2 "Mr Dixon disappears". Die Reihe dreht sich um den US-amerikanischen Bibliothekar Israel Armstrong, der sich auf eine Stelle in Irland bewirbt, weil sie scheinbar eine große Karriere verheißt, und dann doch als Bücherbusfahrer in einer kleinen, zunächst wenig reizvollen Stadt endet.

Neuerwerbungen

Alfred Bammesberger: A Handbook of Irish, Bd. 1: Essentials of modern Irish. Heidelberg: Winter 1982

T. Arwyn Watkins: Kurze Beschreibung des Kymrischen. Innsbruck: Institut für Sprachwissenschaft der Universität 1992

Shirley Damsgaard: Charmed to death. An Ophelia and Abby Mystery. Avon 2006 (Ophelia Jensen's good witch granny Abigail revels in her paranormal powers. But Ophelia never asked for her bothersome psychic abilities - especially since they proved worthless when the thirty-something librarian's best friend Brian was murdered by a still-unknown assailant...)

reading diary

recently finished: Ian Sansom: Mr Dixon disappears (= The mobile library 2)

currently reading: Jeannie Ebner: Aktäon

reading diary

just finished: Ian Sansom: The case of the missing books (= The mobile library 1)

currently reading: Ian Sansom: Mr Dixon disappears (= The mobile library 2)

reading diary

recently finished: Thomas Bernhard: Holzfällen; Jeannie Ebner: Drei Flötentöne; Alfred Goubran (Hrsg.): Staatspreis - der Fall Bernhard

currently reading: Ian Sansom: The case of the missing books (= The mobile library 1)

currently browsing through: Walter Buchebner-Literaturprojekt: Das Schreiben der Frauen in Österreich seit 1950; Christiane Caemmerer, Walter Delabar, Elke Ramm, Marion Schulz (Hrsg.): Erfahrung nach dem Krieg. Autorinnen im Literaturbetrieb 1945 - 1950. BRD, DDR, Österreich, Schweiz

BBB news

Dennie Heye: Characteristics of the Successful 21st Century Information Professional. Oxford: Chandos 2006

Michelle Knudsen / Kevin Hawkes [Ill.]: Library lion. Candlewick Press 2006 / Walker Books 2006

Yohannis Martí Lahera: "Implicaciones del enfoque interdisciplinar en la enseñanza de la gestión de información". In: ACIMED 15 (2007) 2

Ian Sansom: The Case of the Missing Books. Harperperennial 2006 (= The Mobile Library 1)

Ian Sansom: Mr Dixon disappears. Harperperennial 2006 (= The Mobile Library 2)

María del Rosario Banda Martínez: Cursos técnicos en bibliotecología celebrados en la Capilla Alfonsina Biblioteca Universitaria (CABU) de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL) de 1980 a 1999. Report. 2006

John Bellairs: The treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. Skylark 1985 / Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1978

Pat Mora: Tomas and the Library Lady. Knopf Books for young readers 1997 ("Tomás is a son of migrant workers. Every summer he and his family follow the crops north from Texas to Iowa, spending long, arduous days in the fields. At night they gather around to hear Grandfather's wonderful
stories. But before long, Tomás knows all the stories by heart. "There are more stories in the library," Papa Grande tells him. The very next day, Tomás meets the library lady and a whole new world opens up for him")

Erika Sauerwald: "Zum Berufsbild des wissenschaftlichen Bibliothekars. Eine Erwiderung". In: Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen 75 (1961) 3, S. 130 - 132

Ilse Reinprecht: "Der Bibliothekar - Berufsbild im Wandel". In: Bulletin der Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche LIBER 32+33 (1989), S. 81 - 84