On the Value of Books

"De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus "went for the out-of-this-world price of $2.2 million on Tuesday at a sale of about 300 books of scientific significance" at Christie's auction house, MSNBC reported.

Estimates that the books would fetch $6 million proved to be modest, as the total sales exceeded $11 million. Also included in the sale was a copy of the first phone book, issued in 1878, which went for $170,500."

--from Shelf Awareness Daily News via email, 6/18/08

I remember spending $12 on an old edition of At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald back in my early college days and thinking that was an enormous sum. Guess not.

--Micaela

Too much email?

Video for Merlin's "Inbox Zero" talk at 43 Folders, with some amazing tips.

E-Book of the Month at Butler Community College

What now?

by Ann Patchett
HarperCollins, 2008

Based on her lauded commencement address at Sarah Lawrence College, this stirring essay by bestselling author Ann Patchett offers hope and inspiration for anyone at a crossroads, whether graduating, changing careers, or transitioning from one life stage to another. With wit and candor, Patchett tells her own story of attending college, graduating, and struggling with the inevitable question, what now?

From student to line cook to teacher to waitress and eventually to award-winning author, Patchett's own life has taken many twists and turns that make her exploration genuine and resonant. As Patchett writes, "What now? represents our excitement and our future, the very vitality of life." Praised as "The best graduation present on the market..." by Publisher's Weekly, What now? highlights the possibilities the unknown offers and reminds us that there is as much joy in the journey as there is in reaching the destination.

Memorial Day 2008

I just received this from my niece Jennifer:

Good day to all, I hope everyone is doing well.
I just wanted to share a few thoughts with you.
As a child I never really understood what Memorial Day was all about. To me it was day out of school, Or it marked the begining of summer, but that was about it.

Then I grew up and married a soldier. Though for many years he was just a "weekend warrior" and I still never took the time to understand memorial day and what it truly meant.

Then one day Greg was sent to Germany, all of sudden my life was in a whirlwind. I had to take care of the kids, the bills, the house and everything else that entailed single parenting, while my husband was sent to defend our country halfway around the world.

For 7 months I struggled to survive each day, not used to this "new life" I was undertaking. It was very hard and I often times felt so alone, but I thank God for getting me through those months and making me a stronger person.
Finally the day came when he returned home to us.

Then almost 3 years to the day of his return from Germany, he was sent overseas again, this time to Iraq.
I knew this deployment would prove to be much harder to get through. It wasn't just about single parenting again, it was much more then that. He was going to be gone for over a year and he was being sent to a war zone. A place that so many dear soldiers were not returning home alive from.
The love for my country, for our freedom and for my soldier sank deep into my heart. During this time I taught my children what true patriotism meant. I couldn't guarantee them that their daddy would make it home alive, but I could promise them that God had a plan for him and that he was soldier of God and that he was called to help defend our country.

They swelled with pride knowing that their daddy was a soldier. That he was "piting da bad guys" as Sean who had just turned 3 years old would say. God brought our soldier home safely 14 months later.

While he was in Iraq I watched the news intently. My heart broke each time another soldier died.
As this war continues on, I continue praying for the families of the soldiers who pay the ultimate price for our freedom.
Let us not forget those that lay down their lives in a foreign country, to ensure your freedom here in America.


Now here we are on this Memorial Day 2008. Away from our dear soldier as he finishes up training in Montana. He has been gone all month but will be home with us again on Friday. Shortly the kids and I will be going over to the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery and pay our respects to the many soldiers buried here who have fought for our freedom in the past and laid down their lives for this country.
Today let us not only remember those soldiers across the nation and over seas who work so hard each day to train and fight to defend our freedom, but let us also honor the memory of the countless soldiers over the many years and past wars who have fought and died for this Great Nation.

Because of them and through the blood, sweat and tears they shed; we can proudly stand and call ourselves 'An American'.

God Bless You,

Love, Jennifer

Bookstores and Authors

We have a treasure of a bookstore in Wichita, Watermark Books, over in the Lincoln Heights plaza at the corner of Oliver and Douglas. And another new treat in El Dorado, the used bookstore "The Book Grinder" at Central and Haverhill.

My email today contained these thoughts from Shelf Awareness:

In a Twin Cities Daily Planet piece headlined, "So, you wrote a book--now what?" veteran bookseller and publisher David Unowsky offered writers "a short primer on placing your book for sale in an independent bookstore and, after that, possibly scheduling an author event to spread the word to readers."

According to Unowsky, "The first thing to understand is this: bookstores are not public service organizations. They're in business to make a profit and, these days, they are having great trouble achieving that goal. . . . Now more than ever, bookstores are making decisions about what books they carry based on what they think readers will buy."

His advice, detailed and straightforward, included often overlooked subtleties like, "pick a different spot in the store to chat than where event took place so the bookstore staff can reassemble for the rest of the day's business. Don't forget to thank the audience. And thank the bookstore and staffpeople who set up the chairs and sold your books."


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We have some authors on campus, and my husband's first book, Finding the Story, was published by a small press this year, so I've sent him this article. It seems like a lot of work, but so is raising a child, and if your book is your baby, I can see it would be helpful to have this advice.

Friday work

The Willa Cather Archive [pdf]
http://cather.unl.edu/

Born in Virginia in 1873, Willa Cather's family moved to Nebraska at age 10. She would later attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and would of course share her vision of the Great Plains in novels like "O Pioneers!" and "My Antonia". In 1997, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln began a very ambitious project to digitize hundreds of Cather-authored texts and Cather scholarship for this excellent website. Currently, this collection includes digital transcriptions of five Cather books, all of her short fiction from before 1912, the complete run of "Cather Studies", multiple biographies, and several virtual tours of Cather-related locales. These materials can be located by using the search engine offered here or by clicking around sections that include "Writings", "Letters", "Life", "Gallery", and "Multimedia". Overall, it's a tremendous site, and one that merits a number of return visits.

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2008. http://scout.wisc.edu/

~~~

Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors, especially for what she wrote about creativity and talent in "Song of the Lark." Red Cloud, her hometown, could be any of a number of small Kansas towns - it felt like Leon or Kingman, KS.

So I submit this for your consideration. And to those to whom it applies, have a great graduation tomorrow.

Micaela

Wow, love the Periodicals

Seriously, this is not just cute, it's for good quick information on the elements on the Periodical Table. I received this email this morning:

Hi Micaela,
I’m in the Academic & Periodicals Dept. at American Elements. One of my colleagues showed me your list of useful science/chemistry links at http://www.butlercc.edu/nixon_library/electronic_resources/subject/rsci.cfm#chem (Thanks Mike!) Would you be interested in adding as a resource americanelements.com ? In it, we describe the research and uses of each of the elements, including properties, safety data and applications, e.g. see americanelements.com/nanotech.htm

We are a commercial enterprise (we produce advanced materials for governments, universities and national labs), but the scientific information is unbiased and solely intended to be useful. Let me know if this is of interest—no charge of course!


Best Regards,

Laura Lovekin
Academics & Periodicals Dept. (U.S.)
laura.lovekin@americanelements.com

American Elements

http://www.americanelements.com/
T. 310-208-0551

*****

I thank you, too, Mike. And thanks, Laura. I often get good sites from "The Scout Report", and we are hoping to go to more of a Wiki-style, live links page for all of our internet starting points. But this helps.

Micaela