Friday Finds: 21 Dogs Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com and others

What great book titles did you hear about this week? MizB invites you each Friday to share your Friday Finds.

This week, in the tradition of memes where one person adapts the meme to his or her own circumstance, I’m going to expand my Friday Finds to include not only books, but also audio and videos and other assorted links:

I’ll start first with a few I shared in last week’s Sunday Salon (so pardon me, if you’ve heard this one before):

• What I Talk About When I Talk About Running: A Memoir by Haruki Marukami mentioned by Christina at Ardently Pink Reads in a post about summer reads she discovered on newspaper’s book blogs. I’ve read a couple of Marukami’s books and as a runner, I was especially interested in reading. The book is about his preparing for the 2005 New York City Marathon.
• Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin mentioned by Terence Jaggers at Books Do Furnish A Room in a post about a pile of a books he put in his briefcase on a trip to Chile. I have never heard of this book, but it sounds like the kind of mystery I might like.
• The Sound of Language by Amulya Malladi mentioned in today’s Sunday Salon by Swapna Krishna, with a review found at S. Krishna’s Books.
• John Humphrys’ interview of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams; Professor Tariq Ramadan, Muslim academic and author; and Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi a BBC as mentioned in today’s Sunday Salon post by Margaret at BooksPlease.

I’ll continue with articles and video I bookmarked throughout this week in my del.icio.us bookmarks:

• “I’ll never be caught reading an ebook,” says Nick Hornby in the Sunday Times — found thanks to 51stories
  
• Gene Weingarten talks about the impact of losing copy editors in this humorous piece in The Washington Post
• Dr. Horrible: A Jess Whedon Internet play featuring Neil Patrick Harris I have seen this a few places and watched a bit. Pretty funny.

Now back to the topic about which MizB originally asked: books. I discovered three others at the library today as I was picking up a copy of Three Cups of Tea’s: One Man’s Journey to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin for an online book club I’ve joined. The club is called Travel The World (from a Comfy Chair) on Book Blogs. The three are:

• 21 Dogs: Doing Time @ Amazon.com by Mike Daisey: This immediately caught my eye for its title. It’s about Daisey’s rise from temp to customer service rep to “business development hustler,” the book jacket says and is the basis for one of many one-man shows he does. After reading Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe, I need a little lighter reading.
• Talk to the Hand: #?*! The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door by Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves. I admit I haven’t read her other book, but I couldn’t resist this one, especially with the photo of the raccoon with its paw extending out on the cover.
  
• The New York Public Guide to Reading Groups by Rollene Saal: being that I’m trying to become involved with one at Book Blogs, it can’t hurt to find out more about reading groups, right?

Yes, I talk the picture on an unmade bed in our guest bedroom/home office. At least, it’s clear now (well, except for these books) so that it can be made.

Memes: Love them or hate them? Or indifferent?

Meme, according to Merriam Webster, means:

an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture

However, on the Internet, and in terms of today’s discussion, I will be using this definition found at The Daily Meme. This all stemmed from a meme I received from Kristen at Book Club Classics, my responding to the meme somewhat reluctantly and then a discussion she began on her blog about the pros and cons of memes.

In my original post, I said this: “I’ll be honest that I’m not ‘real big’ on memes, except for the few weekly ones in which I participate. Sending them out to others or
having them sent to me, feeling ‘forced’ to come up with an answer on a subject I might or might not have any interest.” And Kristen responded: “Eek! I had no idea people found memes an imposition! It was my first one and I thought they were fun, community-oriented things…”

Then Kristen mentioned, and I’m paraphrasing here, that we should participate in memes only if we want to participate and not specifically tag anyone. Personally, that’s why I like the weekly memes, in which I can choose whether or not to participate from week to week. If I don’t participate, no one is “coming down” on me or judging me.

I’ve done a little reading about the original intent of Internet memes, if there was an intent: that it was to create groupthink. In other words, as you comment on the subject, you are more likely to say “Yes, I agree with you on that,” and if you don’t, you’re ostracized from the group. Personally, I guess maybe that’s why I’m not a fan of memes being sent to me,because then I feel like I have to think a certain way about something.

Sometimes it’s even in the way the questions are worded. Do you like the Harry Potter Books? What do you like about them? What don’t you like about them? Are they a tool of the devil? Now, in the question, it seems like it’s implied if I think they’re a tool of the devil (which by the way, I don’t because I conform to the groupthink on this), then I must be a looney. Instead of creating discussion, sometimes I think memes can stifle discussions and limit you as a blogger to that subject on which you’re going to blog. What if I don’t feel like blogging on that subject?

So bottom line: Am I saying I don’t want to be tagged for a meme? Yes, I guess that is what I’m saying. If I see a meme and I want to participate or comment, I will. But let me decide and don’t make me feel obliged to do it.

What about you? What do you think of memes? Love them or hate them? Oh, and by this way, this is not a meme. I’m not tagging you for this. If you don’t want to answer, don’t. Of course, if you start sending it around to folks and forcing them to answer it, then I guess it will become a meme. (Oh, God, I hope not; the last thing we need around here is another meme. :)

All this said, next up for me, to show that I don’t hate all memes: Friday’s Finds.

Signing up for Book Awards II Challenge at the last moment

Among the rules are:

1. Reading 10 award winners from August 1, 2008 through June 1, 2009.
2. Having at least FIVE different awards in your 10 titles.
3. Overlapping  with other challenges permitted.
4. Changing your list at any time.
5. Making the challenge fit your needs, keeping in mind Rule No. 2, with award winners loosely defined.

With that in mind, here is my list, with all overlapping with at least one challenge, the 100+ Book Challenge, starting with four different awards (none of which overlap any other challenge):

1. American Gods by Neil Gaiman Bram Stoker Award 2001
2. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography 1998
3. The Giver by Lois Lowry John Newbery Medal 1994
4. Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov Hugo Award 1983 since I already had read the Foundation trilogy and don’t believe I’ve ever read this one.

And then six others, including the first four (all Pulitzer Prize winners), which will qualify for The Pulitzer Project, and thus assuring at least FIVE different awards:

1. The Known World by Edward P. Jones, 2004
2. A Death in the Family by James Agee, 1958
3. A Fable by William Faulkner, 1955; also National Book Award winner same year
4. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, 2007; also National Book Critics Circle Award winner same year (which my wife just finished the other day and said was a can’t miss)
5. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1997 Man Booker Prize, which also qualifies for the Classics Challenge 2008 as a bonus classic
6. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson, 2006 National Book Award Winner for Young People’s Literature.

As of right now, only two are not in my possession and those are the Asimov and Roy books. My wife just finished the Diaz book from the library, so we still have that, and I also have the Anderson book from the library, but of course, I think to qualify, I may have to renew these or get them out again to finish after August 1.

I was reminded of this by seeing a post by Terri B. at Tip of the Iceberg. By the time I posted this, though, Erin at Off The Shelf also had posted her list. For the full list of rules, and to sign up if you can get into the challenge, with already 93 out of 100 signed up (from what I understand), click here.