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pattydsf's review against another edition
2.0
I decided that I would be a librarian when I was in junior high school. I was a student aide in my school library and the librarian taught us about the library. She did not just show us the Dewey Decimal system and have us shelve books. I learned that some books were appropriate or inappropriate for 12-14-year-old students. I got to help discard books that were too damaged or outdated.
As I got older, somehow, I determined that to be a good librarian I would need to read the classics. That is when my love of lists of books blossomed. I encountered my first edition of Good Reading: A Guide for Serious Readers, a book that in its last edition (1990) contained recommendations for “3,000 enduring nonfiction and fiction titles.” I kept my own lists and thought long and hard about what I needed to read to do my best work as a librarian.
One thing that never occurred to me while I was doing this massive and impossible project was where the books I was reading were coming from. I knew that many of them were not originally written in English, but the idea of “reading books in translation” was not in my vocabulary. That is a thing now, just search that phrase in Google. (I got 2
81,000,000 results in 0.62 seconds) It is a good idea, just more 21st century than 20th century.
Which brings us, finally, to Novakovich and his unusual short stories. All my lists would have never brought me to this book. This is a contemporary book, not a classic. My hometown library rarely has books that were not originally written in English.
Although this was not my favorite book of 2019, I was glad to be transported to Novakovich’s world. I would not fit into these war-torn, stress-filled poor places because I could not survive what his protagonists manage as part of their lives. However, this is what I read for. I do want to be taken places that are so unlike my world that I have to revise my worldview. I am grateful to Novakovich for helping these worlds find a place in mind.
As I got older, somehow, I determined that to be a good librarian I would need to read the classics. That is when my love of lists of books blossomed. I encountered my first edition of Good Reading: A Guide for Serious Readers, a book that in its last edition (1990) contained recommendations for “3,000 enduring nonfiction and fiction titles.” I kept my own lists and thought long and hard about what I needed to read to do my best work as a librarian.
One thing that never occurred to me while I was doing this massive and impossible project was where the books I was reading were coming from. I knew that many of them were not originally written in English, but the idea of “reading books in translation” was not in my vocabulary. That is a thing now, just search that phrase in Google. (I got 2
81,000,000 results in 0.62 seconds) It is a good idea, just more 21st century than 20th century.
Which brings us, finally, to Novakovich and his unusual short stories. All my lists would have never brought me to this book. This is a contemporary book, not a classic. My hometown library rarely has books that were not originally written in English.
Although this was not my favorite book of 2019, I was glad to be transported to Novakovich’s world. I would not fit into these war-torn, stress-filled poor places because I could not survive what his protagonists manage as part of their lives. However, this is what I read for. I do want to be taken places that are so unlike my world that I have to revise my worldview. I am grateful to Novakovich for helping these worlds find a place in mind.
pattydsf's review
2.0
I decided that I would be a librarian when I was in junior high school. I was a student aide in my school library and the librarian taught us about the library. She did not just show us the Dewey Decimal system and have us shelve books. I learned that some books were appropriate or inappropriate for 12-14-year-old students. I got to help discard books that were too damaged or outdated.
As I got older, somehow, I determined that to be a good librarian I would need to read the classics. That is when my love of lists of books blossomed. I encountered my first edition of Good Reading: A Guide for Serious Readers, a book that in its last edition (1990) contained recommendations for “3,000 enduring nonfiction and fiction titles.” I kept my own lists and thought long and hard about what I needed to read to do my best work as a librarian.
One thing that never occurred to me while I was doing this massive and impossible project was where the books I was reading were coming from. I knew that many of them were not originally written in English, but the idea of “reading books in translation” was not in my vocabulary. That is a thing now, just search that phrase in Google. (I got 2
81,000,000 results in 0.62 seconds) It is a good idea, just more 21st century than 20th century.
Which brings us, finally, to Novakovich and his unusual short stories. All my lists would have never brought me to this book. This is a contemporary book, not a classic. My hometown library rarely has books that were not originally written in English.
Although this was not my favorite book of 2019, I was glad to be transported to Novakovich’s world. I would not fit into these war-torn, stress-filled poor places because I could not survive what his protagonists manage as part of their lives. However, this is what I read for. I do want to be taken places that are so unlike my world that I have to revise my worldview. I am grateful to Novakovich for helping these worlds find a place in mind.
As I got older, somehow, I determined that to be a good librarian I would need to read the classics. That is when my love of lists of books blossomed. I encountered my first edition of Good Reading: A Guide for Serious Readers, a book that in its last edition (1990) contained recommendations for “3,000 enduring nonfiction and fiction titles.” I kept my own lists and thought long and hard about what I needed to read to do my best work as a librarian.
One thing that never occurred to me while I was doing this massive and impossible project was where the books I was reading were coming from. I knew that many of them were not originally written in English, but the idea of “reading books in translation” was not in my vocabulary. That is a thing now, just search that phrase in Google. (I got 2
81,000,000 results in 0.62 seconds) It is a good idea, just more 21st century than 20th century.
Which brings us, finally, to Novakovich and his unusual short stories. All my lists would have never brought me to this book. This is a contemporary book, not a classic. My hometown library rarely has books that were not originally written in English.
Although this was not my favorite book of 2019, I was glad to be transported to Novakovich’s world. I would not fit into these war-torn, stress-filled poor places because I could not survive what his protagonists manage as part of their lives. However, this is what I read for. I do want to be taken places that are so unlike my world that I have to revise my worldview. I am grateful to Novakovich for helping these worlds find a place in mind.
kristinaskliffnotes's review
3.0
I always feel like short stories are so hard to rate. I might really like one and not another. I found this short story to average on the I liked it. I liked the most Honey in a carcase, Wool, and peak experiences.
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