Month: November 2016

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Black Hawk College Chamber Singers

Join us for a holiday concert at the library.bh-chamber-singers

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Author’s Birthday – Here comes December

William Blake (b. November 28, 1757, London, UK; d. August 12, 1827, Westminster, UK)

Fine looking gentleman“If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: Songs of Innocence and of Experience

For more information on William Blake, click here.

 

Rita Mae Brown (b. November 28, 1944, Hanover, PA)

CATS!!!“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: Wish You Were Here

For more information on Rita Mae Brown, click here.

 

Louisa May Alcott (b. November 29, 1832, Philadelphia, PA; d. March 6, 1888, Boston, MA)

Oh, Louisa May“Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: Little Women

For more information on Louisa May Alcott, click here.

 

C.S. Lewis (b. November 29, 1898, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK; d. November 22, 1963, Oxford, UK)

Not how I pictured him. I thought he would look more... lion-y“It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Out of the Silent Planet

For more information on C.S. Lewis, click here.

 

 

 

Jonathan Swift (b. November 30, 1667, Dublin, Ireland; d. October 19, 1745, Dublin, Ireland)

Hmmm. He doesn't look like he'd be very fast.“Where there are large powers with little ambition… nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: Gulliver’s Travels

For more information on Jonathan Swift, click here.

 

Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) (b. November 30, 1835, Florida, MO; d. April 21, 1910, Redding, CT)

The man.“There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

For more information on Mark Twain, click here.

 

Winston Churchill (b. November 30, 1874, Blenheim Palace, UK; d. January 24, 1965, London, UK)

The British man.“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Gathering Storm

For more information on Winston Churchill, click here.

 

 

T.C. Boyle (b. December 2, 1948, Peekskill, NY)

I don't know where to start“The compulsively readable events of my life occurred mainly in infancy, and it’s been pretty humdrum ever since.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Tortilla Curtain

For more information on T.C. Boyle, click here.

 

Joseph Conrad (b. December 3, 1857, Berdychiv, Ukraine; d. August 3, 1924, Bishopsbourne, UK)

Looks like a solid guy“I don’t like work… but I like what is in work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself, not for others – which no other man can ever know.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: Heart of Darkness

For more information on Joseph Conrad, click here.

 

 

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Happy 128th Birthday, Lord Greystroke!

Better known as TARZAN of the Apes!Tarzan_All_Story.jpg

Tarzan was born 128 years ago today (in fake history) on November 22, 1888. I believe it was a Thursday. Orphaned and stranded in the jungle at a tender age, young John Clayton, the only son of the Earl of Greystroke, was taken in and raised by a band of gorillas. With the strength of a great ape and the cunning of a man he lived quite contentedly in the deepest, darkest jungles. Until a chance meeting with a young Englishwoman named Jane, that is.

Intrigued? If you’d like to learn more you should come to the library and check out Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Or at least the Disney movie version.

 

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I’m thankful for Author Birthdays!

Voltaire (aka François-Marie Arouet) (b. November 21, 1694, Paris, France; d. 30, 1778, Paris, France)

What a normal looking fella“What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly – that is the first law of nature.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: Candide

For more information on Voltaire, click here.

 

George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans) (b. November 22, 1819, Nuneaton, UK; d. December 22, 1880, London, UK)

Eyes“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss and Silas Marner

For more information on George Eliot and her works, click here.

 

Shel Silverstein (b. September 25, 1930, Chicago, IL; d. May 10, 1999, Key West, FL)

Always thought he would look at home on the back of a fine calvary horse, wielding a saber on some central/eastern European plain - wearing a ludicrous, plumed hat of course“It’s always a nice feeling, having people think that you feel things much deeper than you’re allowed to say, but this isn’t true. If you want to find out what a writer or a cartoonist really feels, look at his work. That’s enough.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk Ends

For more information on Shel Silverstein, click here.

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Your novel should be halfway done!

NaNoWriMoNaNoWriMoNaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), aka November, is half over!

Do you know where your manuscript is?!

Don’t panic if that book you have always intended to write is still sitting unfinished in a desk drawer (or your brain). There is still plenty of time left – 15 or 20 pages a day and you could have a respectable novel by the end of the month. It may also be worth remembering that you can write during the other 11 months as well.

Regardless of when you write, if you need research materials, inspiration or just a quiet place to work you could do a lot worse than the library. We even have Java Lab Cafe for those of you that go in for things like coffee and cookies while you write. So come over, grab a cup  of coffee and find a nice quiet place on the second floor to try not to stare aimlessly out the window for a couple of hours. I mean write.

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Author Birthdays – November

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (b. November 11, 1821, Moscow, Russia; d.February 9, 1881, Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Not nearly as mad looking as Tolstoy“The cleverest of all, in my opinion, is the man who calls himself a fool at least once a month.” You can find more quotes here.

What you should read: Crime and Punishment and The Brother Karamazov

For more information on Dostoyevsky, click here.

 

Robert Louis Stevenson (b. November 13, 1850, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; d. December 3, 1894, Vailima, Samoa)

He doesn't even look real“Every heart that has beat strongly and cheerfully has left a hopeful impulse behind it in the world, and bettered the tradition of mankind.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

For more information on Robert Louis Stevenson, click here.

 

 

Shelby Foote (b. November 17, 1916, Greenville, MS; d.June 27, 2005, Memphis, TN)

One of the few people with a southern accent that I have admired“I think making mistakes and discovering them for yourself is of great value, but to have someone else to point out your mistakes is a shortcut of the process.” Find more quotes here.

What you should read: The Civil War: A Narrative 

For more information on Shelby Foote, click here.

 

Margaret Atwood (b. November 18, 1939, Ottawa, Canada)

I need to read more of her work“Heroes need monsters to establish their heroic credentials. You need something scary to overcome.” Read more quotes here.

What you should read: The Handmaid’s Tale and Oryx and Crake

For more on Margaret Atwood and her books, click here.