Politics and Satan

Two quotes that caught my attention this week regarding books/authors:

1.) "Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you fail, you can always write a book."

Ronald Reagan, quoted in the New York Times (published November 25, 2006 in The Week magazine)

2.) "It's a bit of a bone of contention."

Zafar Rushdie (age 26), quoted in The Independent (published November 18, 2006 in The Week magazine), regarding his lack of literary aspirations, was "crap" in English literature at university, and has not read any of his father's books (Salman Rushdie, author of "Satantic Verses" among others).


Reader survey -- which is the better of these two books, "It Takes a Village" (Hillary Clinton) or "The Audacity of Hope" (Barack Obama) ??

Reading to Children

Quoting a quote of an excerpt here [Source: The Week magazine (UK) quoting The Times newspaper (UK) ] but still useful information for anyone with a child in their life:

Jim Trelease, author of The Read Aloud Handbook, offers these tips for making your child enthusiastic about reading --

• It is never too early too start - reading to a baby in utero helps it associate its parents' voices with comfort and security
• Read books with repetitions to infants and toddlers
• Encourage involvement - ask the child to turn pages and fill in key words
• Occasionally challenge children by reading above their intellectual level
• Try to set aside at least one regular time each day for reading
• Don't read stories you don't enjoy. Your dislike will show and defeat the purpose
• Don't stop reading aloud to children too soon. Children understand on a higher level than they can read themselves. Read aloud to adolescents

Overall my wife and I follow these guidelines with our daugther today and have already seen the "reading above their intellectual level" effect. Our daughter likes to have me read a history/profile book of the State of Iowa which is probably written at a high school reading level but she likes to discuss the photos with me and to have me sing the Iowa song to her.

For opportunities to help children read in some of the world's poorest countries please visit this website for Room to Read which builds libraries -- www.roomtoread.org

Open a new chapter for your child,

Todd

Census Data

The "Statistical Abstract of the United States 2007" was publicly released on December 15th by the U.S. Census Bureau -- www.census.gov/compendia/statab/

My local newspaper's overview of the Abstract included a section of "Television and Other Media Use" statistics that caught my attention. This section noted that throughout the year 2006 Americans will spend the following amounts of leisure hours and dollars per person on the following activities:

Watching television -- $283 and 1,555 hours
Listening to radio -- $5 and 975 hours
Internet use -- $139 and 190 hours
Reading newspapers -- $49 and 179 hours
READING A BOOK -- $91 and 106 hours
Watching movies/video/DVD at home - $151 and 84 hours
Playing videogames -- $36 and 82 hours
Watching movies at theatre -- $39 and 12 hours

Breaking these statistics down on a weekly basis shows us that Americans do the following on average:

Watching television -- 30 hours per week

and

Reading a book -- 2 hours per week


Wow, this is a dramatic difference which tells me that I would have to quit my job so I could have enough free time to watch enough TV to be an "average American" -- who the hell are these people anyway???

Open books, open minds,

Todd

Helping Children

While working in Phoenix, Arizona last week I had some free time on Sunday so I stopped by a Borders book store in my old neighborhood -the Biltmore area.

As I was paying for my books I noticed a small box of book markers on the counter that shoppers could get for making a donation to the "First Books" (www.firstbook.org) program which works to donate new books to poor children. What could be better!!

First Book has an impressive roster of corporate, non-profit, and campus partners which range from Time Warner Cable to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. As you consider supporting charity groups for an end of the year contribution this might be a good way to support if you are shopping in Borders.

See you in the bargain books section :)

todd

Cities for Readers

While reading the December 12th edition of USA Today I noticed this year's ranking of "America's Most Literate Cities" which ranks the nation's 70 largest cities (population 250,000 and higher) using criteria such as -- library usage, newspapers in circulation, etc. -- to rank these cities in terms of overall literacy. The Top Ten cities for 2006 include:

1. Seattle
2. Minneapolis
3. TIE: Atlanta and Washington DC
5. St. Paul
6. Pittsburgh
7. Cincinnati
8. Denver
9. San Francisco
10. Portland

Source: America's Most Literate Cities 2006
www.ccsu.edu/AMLCO6

I am proud to report that my adopted state of Minnesota is the only state having 2 of these top 10 cities -- hey, it is usually winter here so you better know how to read!! :)

But which cities were ranked at the bottom of this list of 70 American cities? The Bottom Ten cities (of the 70 researched) -

http://www.ccsu.edu/amlc06/Overall_Rankings/Numbers51-69.htm

produce the following tally count by state:

California -- 5
Texas - 4
Colorado - 1

The most interesting city in this Bottom Ten from my perspective is Aurora, Colorado since it is a suburb of Denver which ranked #8 overall. Perhaps these suburbanites need to visit downtown Denver more often -- in fact I suggest they combine a trip to the local book stores with a restaurant in the "LoDo" area of Denver. A wonderful place to spend an evening.

Keep reading,

Todd

City of St. Paul

The City of St. Paul (Minnesota) recently announced a list of seven books selected for its citywide book club, "St. Paul Reads", which is currently in its sixth year of operation.

One book on the list caught my attention because I have read it -- "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien -- which is based on O'Brien's service in the Vietnam War (Conflict?) in the late 1960's. O'Brien is a native of Worthington, Minnesota.

I do appreciate O'Brien's military service and empathize with his personal struggles regarding the war. Sadly, I can't help but think the St. Paul Reads leaders selected this book as a political statement against the current war in Iraq. Regardless of their motivation let me highlight a much better book about Vietnam called -- "Patriots" -- which is a collection of oral histories from a number of perspectives including American soldiers, the Viet Cong, civilians, etc. This book is a very good read that I would highly recommend.

Give peace a chance, Todd