What is reading but silent conversation?
Walter Savage Landor, 1775 - 1864, English poet and prose writer
(The International Thesarus of Quotations compiled by Rhoda Thomas Tripp, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, NY, 1970, p: 60)
Librarian Beth Nieman asked me to remind everyone about Interlibrary Loan. When resources aren't available in the Carlsbad Public Library, Interlibrary Loan may provide them from another library. So if you can't find something you want in the CPL catalog, ask about the extra service, won't you?
Special Points of Interestnoted in the Spring 2007 Biblionews
- March--National Women's History Month
- March--National Craft Month
- April 15 - 21, National Library Week; Note: Amnesty on all overdue library books and materials turned in during National Library Week
- April--National Poetry Month
- May--National Older Amricans Month
- My Addition--National Park Week, April 22 - 29, special events nation-wide and at Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Friends of the Library Annual Book Fair--August 3rd, 4th, and 5th
- Women's History Month at InfoPlease
- American Library Association at InfoPlease
- National Poetry Month
- May 2007 : National Older Americans Month
- April 22 - 29 : National Park Week
Libraries and You at The American Library Association
| Librarian Beth Nieman asked me to remind everyone about "InterLibrary Loan." When the library doesn't have what you want, perhaps it can be borrowed from another library. So when you don't find what you are looking for, ask a library staff member about ILL service, won't you? |
Book Recommendation: by Bob Hoff
Title: Living, Loving, and Learning
Author: Leo Buscaglia
Location in the Library: 158 BUS
For web information on Leo Buscaglia, see Leo Buscaglia at Answers.com
I read this book first in the 1980s and saw Professor Buscaglia on PBS. His enthusiasm for his subject--human love--was amazing then and legendary now. I recently reread the book and have been reminded of his extraordinary wisdom. Here are quotations from book.
"I have a lot of things in my classes that I call 'voluntarily mandatory.' One of the things that is voluntarily mandatory is that every student come to see me in my office at least once. I cannot teach bodies. I can only relate to people. And so I say, 'Come in, and we will sit across from one another. I don't want to talk about the texts or the class. We can do that another time. I just want to know the last time you saw a unicorn and do you still believe in primeval forests. And when you come, I am going to touch you— and if that bothers you, take your tranquilizer.' It is amazing how many are intimidated by someone who says, 'I want to touch you.' I was raised in a large Italian family, as most of you know, and everybody hugs everybody all the time. On holidays everyone gets together, and it takes forty-five minutes just to say hello and forty-five minutes to say goodbye. Babies, parents, dogs— everyody's got to be loved!(bolding added my me) And so I have never suffered that existential feeling of not being. If someone can hug you and not go through you, you are. Try it sometime."
"About two years ago a young lady came into my office, and I knew immediately something was wrong. Here eyes were kind of glazed, and her head was nodding, and I asked, 'What's the matter"' She replied, 'Oh, Dr. Buscaglia, in order to get enough courage to come to see you, I had to drink a whole bottle of Ripple! And I think I am going to be sick!' Imagining... having to drink a bottle of Ripple to summon up the courage to come to see me. All I do is put my hands out and say, 'Hi.' I cover their hands with mine and lead them into my office, and I can see a look of panic on their faces, 'What's he going to do to me?' I am not going to do anything to you! I just want you to know that I cry, too, and I feel, too, and I care, too, and I don't know everything, too, and therefore, we can start with a common frame of reference— human being to human being. If anybody tries to play the game of 'follow the guru' with me, they will be lost, for they will learn that I am just as confused as they are. The difference may be that I know it. A Buddhist teacher once said to me, 'Why do you keep moving? You are already there.' And all of a sudden it occurred to me— my goodness, I am!"
"I started my Love Class as a result of the suicide of one of my most talented students. She showed no sign of her despair. Then one day she took her life. I had to ask, "What's the good of all our learning, knowing how to read and write and spell if no one ever teaches us the value of life, of our uniqueness, and personal dignity?" So I started my Love Class. I taught it free of salary and tuition just so students could have a forum to consider the truly essential things. I really didn't "teach" the class. I facilitated it— helping the students to discover their own magic."
"We take love for granted. We assume we are all perfect lovers and all we need do is wait and our love will grow and blossom as readily as a flower in spring. Not so. Love doesn't grow unless we do. It takes patience, knowledge, experience, determination, and every positive trait we possess. In addition, love is always changing and unless we stay aware and change with it, it eludes us."
Quotes from: Leo Buscaglia at WikiQuote
I heartily recommend this eye-opening book about human love and the need for most of us to pay more attention to cultivating it.
Note: THe library has other titles by Leo Biscaglia
Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself.... You bring to a novel, anythingyou read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.
Angela Carter,1940 - 1992, British Author
The Colombia Book of Quotations at Bartleby.com
Happy Reading!!
© Bob Hoff, 2007
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