International Year of the Forest

2011 is the International Year of the Forest
Many projects and programmes have been developed to raise awareness of the importance of conservation and management of forests. (www.un.org.en/events/iyof2011) Deforestation accounts for 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to global climate change. Trees have an important role in biodversity, cultural diversity and environmental benefits. Trees are an integral part of our lives and those of future generations.
Our library is also an integral part of our lives and is a tree of knowledge! The Library is a great center of learning, for young and old, with so many resources (see August Library Newsletter - link) Check out the Bulletin Board in September for our tree craft of re-purposed books. Remember that BOOKS are a great carbon sink!

The book you don't read won't help. Jim Rohn
Some people read so little they have rickets of the mind. Jim Rohn
The images of men's wits and knowledge remain in books. Francis Bacon
True friendship can afford true knowledge.  Thoreau
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing. Socrates
We are drowning in information and starved for knowledge. Anon

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? TE Eliot

Thought is the wind, knowledge the sail, mankind the vessel. Augustus William Hare

A woman, especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can. Jane Austen

Summer Reads

Today is officially the first day of summer! Although rainy and cloudy today, the summer solstice is when we get the most hours of sunlight all year (because the North Pole is tilted toward the sun). When did the notion of "summer reading" first appear? American families seldom had leisure time to enjoy a reading weekend or a week even, until the 1960s. Many people refrained from reading as a bluestocking activity;
e.g. brainfever! However, many people read throughout their lives, during the evenings or stolen moments at lunch, on the bus, during the commute (thank you audio books!). Previously the USA had a great literacy rate, with much self-education as life long learning (much of it by candlelight and gaslight!)
The anticipation of a few leisurely summer days gives readers a destination and goal. I always stockpile new books as well as books recommended by others for summer reads. Ok, I always have a pile of books that I want to read! But knowing that many authors will be having their big debuts/sales in the autumn, summer is a time to read for pleasure - anything that takes your fancy. Classics, mysteries, fiction, history, historical thrillers, romance, period pieces, out of print novels, those yard sale delights that you couldn't resist for a dollar (or less!). To say nothing of reading through that stack you collected over winter, kept warm by the promise of sultry summer sunshine. Share your reading lists this summer - please comment! One bookclub just finished reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - and highly recommends it.

Today is also the birthay of Ian McEwan, well known for his book Atonement (and the movie). Several other distinguished novels include Amsterdam (1998), Saturday (2005), On Chesil Beach (2007), and Solar (2010). I love his reading quote: "My ideal state as a reader when I'm reading other people is feeling I'm vaguely wasting my time when I'm not reading that novel."

Book Quotes

There are worse crimes than burning books.
One of them is not reading them.
Ray Bradbury

Book Quotes

Beware of a man of one book. Robert Southey (1774-1843)

It would be worth the while to select our reading, for books are the society we keep; to read only the serenely true; never statistics nor fiction, nor news, nor reports, nor periodicals, but only great poems, and when they failed, read them again, or perchance write more.  Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

The covetous man who is in the extreme state of book-loving, is the biblioklept, or book stealer.
The Library (Andrew Lang, 1844-1912)

Books may be burned and cities sacked, but truth like the yearning for freedom, lives in ultimate victory, the ultimate victory of tomorrow is with democracy; and true democracy with education.... FDR (1882-1945)

Treat Books gently, for they are friends that never change. We benefit by their advice, and they exact no confessions. Rule 10 from the Art of Bookbinding Josheph W Zaehnsdorf 1880.

Book Quotes

It all comes out of the books I read,
And it all goes into the books I write.
Henry Charles Beeching (1859-1919)

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write: a man will turn over half of a library in order to make one book. The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell (1740-95)

The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work, is put to the torture, and is not obliged to speak the truth. Samuel Johnson (1709-84)

Some books are lies frae end to end. Robert Burns (1759-96)

There is no pleasure like reading a bad review of a fellow author's work, especially if I have written it myself.
A contemporary writer who prefers to remain anonymous.

The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them. Samuel Butler (1835-1902)

Book Quotes

Please feel free to send in your favourite book or author quotes. Here are a few more!

If you steal from one author, it's plagiarism; if you steal from many, it's research.
Wilson Mizner (1876-1933)

I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices a man so.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)

Books describe customs and morals; books do not prescribe them
Theophile Gautier (1811-72)

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

What use is a book that does not even enable us to travel into a land beyond books?
Friedrich Nietzcsche (1844-1900)

Book Quotes

More Book Quotes to start your day!

"Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all."
Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

Learning is acquired by reading books; but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various editions of them.
Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694-1773)

You may judge a man's knowledge by the marginalia in his books. Chinese Proverb

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.  John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Book Quotes

Some interesting Book Quotes = thoughts for the day!

A modern author would have died in infancy in a ruder age. Henry David Thoreau (1817-62)

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to made disagreeable. Augustine Birrell (1850-1933)

I was always of opinion that ....The only help a youth wants is to be directed what books to read, and in what order to read them. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

"Ellen, I was crazy to read your book; but I never found anybody I could borrow it from!"
reportedly said by a friend to Ellen Glasgow (1874-1945)

Kindle options

I should have included the open door of the  helicopter in this shot! A new adventure every day!

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." Johann wolfgang van Goethe author of the epic drama Faust. Goethe spent 50 years working on this two-volume masterpiece.

I spent nearly 10 hours in a plane over a long weekend, and of course was accompanied by my Kindle. I have so many books to share! I downloaded a dozen books, partly in preparation for longer trips, but also just to have them NOW. (The Library has a long wait on several new releases; still with a Kindle book, you can't share it or give it to the library to shorten that waiting period).

But also several comments on word games. I downloaded the two new free games - Shuffle Row and Every Word and found them both fun. It does feel a little restrictive after using another favourite Chicktionary on the iPhone (now iPad/iPod) where I like reshuffling the letters to visualize the words faster. Several of my friends didn't know there were these games available, so I thought I would include comment here!