Posts from Columbus Library

Anyone who has seen the Seinfeld finale, whether they loved it or hated it, remembers that it was about the characters getting their just desserts for being such terrible people. By extension, New Yorkers sometimes have a reputation of being rude. I don’t think this is true, and I’ve seen New Yorkers be incredibly polite, but I do think that in a city full of people with such varying backgrounds in such close proximity, there are bound to be misunderstandings. I once saw a pedestrian hold up four or five 

The steampunk genre has been around for some time now, and while some may disagree, I most strongly associate it with The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a graphic novel, by Alan Moore.

More recently, the novel, Phoenix 

I've been thinking about this post ever since Lady Gaga and Mayor Bloomberg hosted the New Year's ball drop, which made me think of her Monster's Ball tour, and of monsters, in general. Unfortunately, I have been a wee bit tardy in posting it, so some of these books are not exactly hot off the presses, but I think they are all great horror and science-fiction reads for 2012. As a bonus, some are available as e-book titles. Readers, engage!

The Bailey Weggins mystery series by author Kate White is a cross between Nancy Drew, Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City, and occasionally, the cutthroat office politics from Lauren Weisburger’s The Devil Wears Prada. Like NBC’s Castle 

Now that the ING New York City Marathon has wrapped up, here are some titles to inspire you to take on next year’s marathon, or to participate vicariously through them. Some runners like to listen to long audiobooks to while away the hours spent training. Of course, you can always read them and just consider it sports nutrition for your mind.

Heart of Iron: My Journey from Transplant Patient to Ironman Triathlete by

Lately, I’ve noticed some interest in crossover titles for video game players who are looking for good fiction reads. I know I’m not the first person to think of this. Scott Pilgrim vs the World is a good, if somewhat obvious, example. Here’s a list of some other titles that may not immediately spring to mind.

In many video games, food increases health and fights illness. Use 

Thanks for joining us for this month's edition of the Reader's Den! We have a special treat for followers of the Reader's Den... a live appearance by Michael Scott Moore, author of Sweetness and Blood, at Columbus Library! More details >>

Also, be sure to check out October's Reader's Den: The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester.

Library patrons might be interested to know that Jack London, as well as Agatha Christie and her husband, frequented Waikiki Beach:

"The focal point of that surfline and the wave riding connected to it was the Outrigger Canoe Club. There, Agatha Christie and her husband extended their stay in Hawaii so he could surf longer, and Jack London and the Prince of Wales who abdicated his throne, and the King of Persia, as well as Rudolf Friml, Doris Duke, 

Michael Scott Moore's debut novel, Too Much of Nothing, is very different from Sweetness and Blood, but it is similar in that they are both odes, at least in part, to his hometown of Redondo Beach, CA. Moore is a reporter and chief stage critic for SF Weekly in San Francisco. He has also written for salon.com, San Francisco magazine, Bostonia magazine, and the New York Times, and runs a website at

Welcome to the September Reader’s Den! This month, we’ll be discussing Sweetness and Blood: How Surfing Spread from Hawaii and California to the Rest of the World, with Some Unexpected Results by Michael Scott Moore. This nonfiction book begins with the author’s apology that it is far from 

With the English-language version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo film due to come out in December of this year, fans of Stieg Larsson who have already seen the Swedish films and read the trilogy may be searching for more. Here is a loosely inspired reading list. For a more comprehensive list of Swedish crime writers, see this blog post on Nordic Whodunits.

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Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse has been a London stage play for four years running and has now come to Broadway. The Spielberg film version is slated to be released December 28, 2011.

The story takes place during World War I and describes the horrific conditions and loss of life, both human and animal, that took 

Fans of the ABC Family television series Pretty Little Liars rejoice – new episodes began airing on January 3, 2011! The hit drama, based on Sara Shepard’s series of books by the same name, premiered this past summer to less than favorable critical reviews, but the fans ate it right up. The series won the 2010 Teen Choice Award for Choice Summer TV Show, with awards also going to Ian Harding (Ezra) and Lucy Hale (Aria) for Choice Summer TV Star: Male and Female, respectively.

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