Raining and Reading
March 20, 2011

We bibliophiles often talk about drowning in books. Of course we don’t mean we literally drown, but I suppose we could die. There are stories of people who hoard things and are killed by their possessions, sometimes books.

The reason I am thinking of this today, Sunday, is because we in Santa Barbara—actually nearly the entire coastline of California—are feeling as if we are going to drown. In rain. Here, it started Saturday afternoon and by 8:00 pm had metamorphosed into a storm that sounded like the house was being pelted with rocks and that has not stopped since it started. Four and five inches were being reported early this morning. (Whoa, at time of writing, Sunday early afternoon, 8.24 inches have been recorded at San Marcos Pass, only a few miles away in the fire-devastated hills just behind me.) I can’t do much about the rain other than stay off the roads but it has occurred to me that taking some time today to see what a Google search about “drowning in books” might produce. Interesting? Let’s find out.

The first result that comes up is a drowninginbooks.blogspot.com that, sadly, is not being used. A shame; it’s a good title for a blog.

Second is an image of a guy surrounded by books, a picture he entered in a Flickr group called “Get me inspired.” (I think the group was supposed to be music rather than books, but he prefers “not to follow instructions to the letter.”

The third result goes to a blog titled Transitus Tiber: Life as a Catholic wife and mother. “I was pleasantly surprised today to find a gift card to use at Amazon from Yale University in exchange for answering some questions a psychology research student was asking,” she wrote, then listed the books she bought with the card.

The next two results are side-by-side videos. Drowning in Books and Hunting for Moochka is a quirky and amusing young woman sharing her bookshelves, her current reading, her newest purchases, and her cat. The other is Drowning in Books … a story from an Italian library. It is in English. The interviewee is Lucilla Conigiello, director of the Biblioteca di Scienze Sociali at Florence in Italy, one of the largest academic libraries in Italy with more than 830,000 volumes of which about half are accessible to all students. (Though it’s more than ten minutes long, it stops at 1:37 for me. Might be my older computer.)

The Thriller Guy wrote about Drowning in Books and the Writing Life in which he bemoans the piles of ARCs surrounding him.

Thriller Guy has too many books. They are piled high around what the family laughingly calls his office, threatening to topple over and crush him as he wends his way between stacks to get to his chair and computer. Like one of those obsessive recluse collectors they unearth every once in awhile in an old Manhattan brownstone, entombed in a pile of old newspapers. The photo above is a pile of approximately 100 Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of recent thrillers that have already been reviewed. There are many such piles around the room, and many more reference books used in the creation of TGs novels. What, oh what, is to be done with all of these books?

Of course he then goes on—I love this blog!—to talk about both the places he has tried to donate as well as his writing room. Wonderfully snarky and funny.

Over on eBay, one of the archived discussions is devoted to “drowning in books sales.” It apparently wasn’t a hot topic as there are only the original post and three responses. And it concerns a complaint about searching. This one is a pass.

Another blog, this one titled “Drowning in Books” even though its URL shows “Random Scribbling,” hasn’t had a new post since June of 2010. Wonder if the flood dried up? I see where she started graduate school in January of that year, though, so that probably explains the drop off.

Jordan Summers, romance and urban fantasy author, was on March 23, 2009, “drowning in books.” She had 9.5 boxes of mostly brand new books she had rounded up and intended to give to the library, but decided to  give away two “flat-rate” boxes of random books. Two people got lucky.

On May 9, 2009, Katikat posted “Help! Drowning in books!” that she was feeling “crazy” and no wonder. She’s got some reading ahead of her.

Two more side-by-side videos. The first is by Traffickohn and he talks about going to B&N to buy books but doesn’t have time to read. 50,000 Books is the name of a bookstore in El Cajon, California run by Tom that is the focus of this delightful short video. You’ll smile and probably emphathize if you run an independent bookstore yourself.

Over at Bonjour, Cass:! a booklover’s blog, this post titled Booking Through Thursday: The Drowning in Books Edition deals with a book challenge. “Give me the list or take a picture of all the books you have stacked on your bedside table, hidden under the bed or standing in your shelf – the books you have not read, but keep meaning to. The books that begin to weigh on your mind. The books that make you cover your ears in conversation and say, ‘No! Don’t give me another book to read! I can’t finish the ones I have!’ ” I like the way she lists them: from left to right and from top to bottom.

A tweet (?) on Twitter is up next with the simple note: “We’re drowning in books about Marilyn Monroe” and a link to Eureka Books having just purchased a huge collection on November 19, 2010. Hurry; some might still be available.

The Marzipan Elf, in a 2008 post titled I’m Drowning in Books, she notes that three days into school she already feels overwhelmed and “I made a goal this summer to read at least 100 books. Last summer I read 50, no problem. But I guess doubling it was not good because I only  read 87. . .” (And did you know there are 330,000 species of beetles?)

Devourer of Books posts about books … and rain! In regards to the books, she says, “I’m drowning in books here as well. I have been consolidating my bookshelves, getting rid of display shelves for some of the pretty, old books we have in order to try to eliminate the piles that were sitting in front of the shelves. My TBR pile now takes up 1.5 bookshelves (the 1 being one of our bigger shelves) and I’ve STILL got some TBR and other books piled up on shelves, in front of the books that are put away nicely.” How familiar that sounds.

A blank Facebook page. Maybe the books did her in?

Oh, this was a thrill. A link to my blog post, Drowning in Books!

The Amherst Student published The Reading Room; Drowning in Books just over a year ago. This essay talks about the role of reading literature when students are already overwhelmed with required reading.

What happened when one woman accepted on behalf of her homeschool group a donation of ten-year-old books from a parish school? She ended up drowning in books—but only temporarily. They all found appreciative homes.

Two pages. All those are what Google produced on just two pages of hits. If I had been willing to go on, the total number of results (excluding the “entries very similar” that Google eliminates unless requested) was 385 over thirty-eight pages. Just these, however, show how so many of us, when we feel as if our lives are being taken over by our books, are not alone. I don’t know if that is scarier than the overflowing creeks, rivers, and Lake Cachuma.

Upcoming Book Festivals:
The South steps up this week with two festivals, one geared specifically to its most famous literary son, the other to the book but that this year focuses on the same son as well as the famous King James Bible.

From March 23 through March 27, New Orleans, Louisiana, will host the Tennessee Williams / New Orleans Literary Festival. Unlike most, this costs money but you can pick and choose your access level, ranging from $500 for an “All Access Pass” to a “Single Ticket Panel” for $10. This festival offers a huge variety of events including an art exhibition, a special presentation of the playwright’s one-act plays, lectures, panels, talks, author chats, writers workshops, presentations, literary walking tours, readings, live theatre presentations, music, poetry readings; and special events including the Festival Gala Celebration, a Scholars Conference, a Quintessential Brunch, a Breakfast Book Club, Cocktails and Cinema, Literary Late Night, the Serazac Cocktail Academy; and so very much more. If you can do, do. It looks amazing.

The Eighteenth Oxford Conference for the Book takes place from March 24-26 in Oxford, Mississippi. Included will be a program of readings, talks, and panels by authors, editors, educators, literacy advocates and readers of all ages that will celebrate two major literary events: the centennial of Tennessee Williams’ birth and the 400th anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. Special events include a fiction and poetry jam, writers workshops, and a marathon book signing. From the time the conference opens at 11:30 am on Thursday to the book signing/closing at 6:00 pm on Saturday it will be busy. Probably the highlight of the event began on March 20: the Mississippi Delta Literary Tour and they are probably sold out. Keep this in mind for next year, though. It sounds fabulous.

The Pub House:
Catbird Press is a small, independent book publisher with specialties in Czech literature in translation, American and British fiction, and sophisticated humor. It no longer publishes new books but you can see a (slightly) more detailed description of their books that they are keeping in print. Living Parallel (written by Alexandr Kliment, translated by Robert Wechsler) is the story of an unusual love triangle—a man, a woman, and a countryside. Where will Mikulá’s heart end up? This is described as a “contemplative novel about conflicts of conscience,” and Publisher’s Weekly described it as a “finely wrought novel.” There’s also a small but nice collection of humor for adults—not erotic humor but humor built around situations that most of us have encountered in one form or another. It Came with the House by Jeffry Shaffer tells stories of “a boot camp for laundromat offenders, a right-wing private school, and a cold-cream testing site; considers the what-ifs of catastrophes like an asteroid striking the earth, the collapse of the dollar, and the destruction of television; and introduces such characters as insurance adjusters who follow the destructive path of Godzilla, an “orthopractor” whose manipulations out-manipulate Hollywood, and a guy who’s been frozen for years in Alaska” without resorting to sophomoric, clever, or trendy tricks. Under Miscellany are a variety of book types. One is In the Image and Likeness by Saúl Yurkievich. This is described as consisting of “prose pieces that are neither stories nor essays nor prose poems.” Instead the author “ looks at four great artists [Velázquez, Goya, Picasso, Kurt Schwitters] and in four very different ways for the first part of the book, and in the second part offers “many short pieces that are indescribable as poetry, that simply are.” These books may sound unusual, and they are, but given the short excerpts that the publisher makes available (scroll down to the pages linked) they seem to be excellent!

Imaging Books & Reading:
In March read the books you’ve always meant to read is the title of this poster created as part of the WPA (Works Project Administration, formerly the Works Progress Administration) between 1936 and 1941) for the Statewide Library Project of Illinois. Now, of course, it is part of the poster collection at the Library of Congress but it’s message is as relevant today as it was then.

Of Interest:
Book review sites and blogs are, well, a dime a dozen. Actually online, they are much cheaper than a dime and much more common than a dozen. But high-quality book review sites are like blue diamonds: rare jewels that shine with a virtuosity rarely seen online. The Washington Independent Review of Books (WIRoB) is one of them.

This new venture was begun by dozens of writers and editors, most of whom reside in the Washington area and who are “dismayed by the disappearance of books reviews and book review sections in the mainstream media.” David Stewart, the author of three books about history, a trial lawyer, writer of fiction, a former columnist, a blogger  heads up this fantastic team. (BiblioBuffet has an upcoming interview with Mr. Stewart.) What you’ll find in this “labor of love” are thoughtful reviews of new books, Q&As with authors, essays and blog posts on book topics, podcasts of interviews, a listing of local literary events, the latest publishing news, and more.

I have already bookmarked it  and have been reading it daily for about ten days now, and I can recommend it to all our readers. You should too because WIRoB is going to become one of the standards that define the new era of book websites.

Until next week, read well, read often and read on!

Lauren