A Tollbooth to Adventure

Finally - another Nosy Bookworm post! This one is so old that I can't even remember what book I had on hold when I saw this title in the stack next to mine. I do put a lot of books on hold - but most of the other holds surrounding my hold are CDs or DVDs, both of which defeat the purpose of finding new books to read.

To recap those who have forgotten since my last Nosy post (including me!) a Nosy Bookworm post involves picking books to read based upon the books next to mine in the hold pickup area at my local library. No, I don't take the other person's hold, I note down the title and put my own copy on hold. Several weeks or perhaps months ago, I was picking up a book and saw beside my hold the classic children's book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Despite the apparent classic nature of this book, I had never read it, so I decided to give it a try. It apparently is very popular, as I had to wait awhile before my copy came in.

However, I could see why the book was so popular as I began. This book was amazing! My only regret - that I never read it as a child and had to wait to read it as a grown-up.

The Phantom Tollbooth is about a young boy named Milo. Milo is very bored and uninterested in things: school, life, education. He doesn't see the point of learning all the things he's taught in school. He doesn't really know what to do with himself. One fateful day, Milo returns home from school to find that a parcel has been delivered to him in his absence. He opens the parcel, follows the directions, and soon finds that he has built himself his very own tollbooth! Included with the tollbooth is fare for the booth, a rulebook, and a map. Milo is puzzled by the map - none of those places exist! However, this tollbooth promises a brief diversion from his usual boredom and so he picks a place at random, hops into his little toy car, and heads through the tollbooth.

Oh, what delights await the reader beyond that magic portal! After a few quick stops in Expectations and the Doldrums, Milo finds himself along the road to Dictionopolis, where he learns the origins of words, meets some new friends (the dog Tock and the Humbug) and ends up on a quest to restore Rhyme and Reason to Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. The quest is filled with magical places and creatures - the beautiful symphony that plays the colours of the world, a silent valley where sound was taken away, and the Island of Conclusions.

The author teaches the reader several important lessons, but wraps up the pill of learning in the most terrific jam of sparkling wordplay. Juster is rather Ffordian in his imagination and I do wonder if Jasper Fforde read The Phantom Tollbooth before embarking upon his Thursday Next adventures, as I can see the similarities in tone, style, and idea. If you liked Jasper Fforde, you will love The Phantom Tollbooth.

Because the book is, nominally, for children, it is short, the type is big and the pages are interrupted by scratchy pen and ink drawings that I could have rather done without. (I prefer to picture things for myself.) It would have been fun to read it as a child and enjoy the adventure and excitement, and then to read again as I grew older to absorb all the lessons tucked inside the wordplay. Nearly every adventure teaches Milo and his companions an important lesson, but the reader is so entertained by the author's cleverness that they either don't notice or don't mind the lessons being taught. The lessons are good lessons about the importance of learning and thinking and understanding and the book itself is a perfect example of how learning can help you.

In sum, this book is a lovely afternoon's read. And I would suggest such a read - just one big gulp all in one sitting. (Make sure you don't have anything else you're supposed to be doing first!) This is a classic of children's literature, and I do recommend placing a copy in every home with a child who can read. The child, and the parent, will probably be better off for it.

As you can see, Avro really loved the book this week. Cessna just had to come over to have a look and see what Avro was up to!

Mind Virus

A few posts ago, I mentioned my initial concept for this blog - the Nosy Bookworm concept. I finally had a chance to put my plan into action, and this is the result. I picked up Isobel Gunn a few weeks ago and looked at the materials on either side. One was a DVD, but the other was a book. I made a careful note of the title, put the book on hold, and picked it up in a few days (even before the original holder had picked up his or her copy!).

The book: Virus of the Mind by Richard Brodie. Definitely not something I would have picked up myself! The book is about the field of memetics. Thoughts, ideas, and concepts are broken down into units called the "meme". This has occurred through evolution. Memes infect our brains, forcing us into certain patterns of behaviour that follow the meme. In short, the book applies the theory of evolution to thoughts and concepts which are made up of memes, instead of people and animals, who are made up of DNA.

I'm not sure the idea is entirely successful. I don't know that evolution applies to thoughts - or that thoughts are independent of people and can be carried over somehow (genetically?). It seems like he's trying to use scientific terms to quantify something that is not scientific. Mr. Brodie is not a scientist - he's a former Microsoft programmer who has written a few books and now is a professional poker player. Generally not the first person I would look at to teach me about the new science of memetics. I hesitate to classify it as a science - perhaps pseudoscience? According to the book, all good sciences are laughed at initially. Then the public jumps on board. Well, except for those sciences that are later discredited.

Mr. Brodie spends most of the book discussing evolution and how we have been hardwired for certain behaviours and the role memes play in all of this. However, by the end of the book it becomes the usual self-help patter about finding your purpose in life and doing everything you can to follow that purpose. Does everyone really have to have a purpose? What if someone's self-declared purpose is to be a singer, but they suck. Really, really suck. Can you have a purpose that you're not good at? I suppose one would argue that singing is not the calling for them - even if the singer would disagree. What if someone's purpose is to be a serial killer? Not a purpose to foster. I am not a big fan of self-help books and try to avoid them like the plague.

I also have a few quibbles for Mr. Brodie on some specific things in the book. It is very American-oriented. He is an American, so that makes sense, but reading it as a non-American (U.S.A.-American; I'm still a North American) was interesting. He talks a lot about the corrupt government and memes that make the government corrupt and talks about taxation and how direct taxation was illegal under the American Constitution until the 16th amendment was passed. However, he also quotes from the American Constitution, Article I, Section 9, which states "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken." Now I don't know about you, but when I read that sentence, it doesn't say that you cannot tax the public directly. It says that you cannot tax the public directly unless it is in proportion to the Census. That changes his argument somewhat.

According to Mr. Brodie, pets are a meme. They have ultimately enslaved us to cater to their every need. Pets have evolved to be cute so we will take care of them. Now maybe recently this is true (I am a willing slave to my adorable kitties) but I would argue that for a good portion of human history, pets were around because they worked for humans. Humans did not need another mouth to feed - the pets had to earn their keep. Pets were a working member of the family - cuteness did not enter into it. There are many different dog breeds which show all the different jobs humans bred the dogs to do. Of course, now that so many of us no longer require the other skills of the dog, cuteness may win out. But I just don't think he looks into the historical origins of pets here.

Finally, one last beef. Mr. Brodie includes a chapter on religions because religions spread and propagate by memes. None of the religious beliefs are true beliefs; they are memes implanted in your head to serve the purpose of the religion. Further, religious people definitely do not understand science. In fact, you cannot be both religious and scientific at the same time. These are two opposing doctrines. Mr. Brodie implies that all religious people are nutbars who don't believe in evolution and have tons of children. This chapter is very insulting to religion in general and very dogmatic in a sense. It is either black or white: you are either religious or you believe in evolution. He does not seem to grasp the concept that some people can be both religious and believe in evolution. It is not black or what, it is not religion vs. science. Both can co-exist within the same brain. That is certainly not true for all religions, but Mr. Brodie tars all religions with the same brush and does not recognize the diversity present within the religions of the world.

It is also interesting to note that in a book purportedly about evolution, Mr. Brodie does not cite On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin in his Recommended Reading list at the back of the book. No, I haven't read it either, but I thought that was an interesting omission. Maybe Mr. Darwin's opus will be a good winter project read.

Was this a good book? No. I cannot honestly recommend that everyone should rush out and read it. It was good in a sense in that it made you think about the bigger questions in life. But I think it has very little actual scientific value.

This book aside, I'm curious to find out where my next nosy bookworm adventure takes me!

The Nosy Bookworm

Most blogs have a gimmick, a theme, something to keep you tuning in every day (or few days!) for new posts. My general theme is books, but I had a gimmick originally in mind for the blog. I was going to be the Nosy Bookworm.

It all began one day at the library when I was picking up some books I had on hold. I often put books on hold, as the library does not always have the books that I am looking for. With the hold service, I just order them in. And I used to work very close to a library and could run over on my lunch break. Anyway, I was there in the library on my lunch break, loathe to leave the comforting surroundings, but hungry and ready to eat lunch at my desk. I noticed that one of the other hold books near my own selections looked interesting. I believe it was a Jane Austen sequel. I noted the author and title, returned to my desk, and put the same book on hold that evening. The book came in, and, it wasn't bad. I read a whole series by the author - whom I believe is Elizabeth Aston, and quite enjoyed the series.

I should probably explain that at my library, the holds are filed on shelves to the side of the circulation desk, all organized by name and the last few digits of your library card. Essentially, it is self-serve. So anyone can look at the books that are on hold, but only you can take your book out. I found a few more books on hold by the patrons to either side of my selections, and was able to read some new and different books.

Thus, the gimmick for my blog was born. I would be the Nosy Bookworm, putting books on hold and reading whatever book was next to my selection on the hold shelf, no matter what it was (barring, perhaps, books in a foreign language.) However, I hit a minor snag prior to posting. Every now and again I go through phases where my books at home interest me to the exclusion of all others. I became obsessed by my massive collection of Agatha Christies and reread them all. I didn't put any books on hold for weeks!

So, when I came to starting my blog, I decided to broaden the category and discuss books in general, and nosiness in specific when a good opportunity popped up. Such an opportunity presented itself when I picked up the Ngaio Marsh book (that finally came in!) at the library this week. The book on the right, sadly, was a DVD. The book on the left I pulled slightly off the shelf to check the title...it was The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which I am already committed to read for my bookclub (and will begin soon, I promise!). Some times you win and discover a new book, sometimes you don't! I have another hold to pick up next week, so hopefully I'll get some more inspirations for future reads soon.