And finally, some books.

17 Problems Only Book Lovers Will Understand

“Gifted” kids do not, in fact, have all the fun.

If an average student got a B, it was cause for celebration, but if I got an A I was simply meeting expectations.

This attitude really sticks in my craw. When my elementary classmates [who weren’t “gifted”] got A’s, their parents rewarded them; some got money, some got a special meal. I know, because they would brag about it the next day at school. When I got an A, my parents said, “Oh, good.” I merely met their expectations. “Checkmark, our kid is maintaining the expected average. Back to the news on the TV.” It made me feel that my grades didn’t matter, that I didn’t matter.

My parents often told me the standard line, “You don’t have to be the best, you just have to try your best.” Hah, what a joke. When “my best” wasn’t an A, The Inquisition™ always happened. What did I do incorrect? Did I study the wrong material? Was I slacking? On and on and on.

In high school algebra I got my first B, and I cried for hours. Obviously, there was something wrong with me. There was no way it couldn’t be my fault; no matter that the teacher didn’t like me, nor that my previous maths didn’t prepare me. I had to be deficiant, somehow.

It was a revelation when I learned in college how “normal people” study. Just the minimum? How did they expect to pass anything? Then I tried it. Suddenly I had free time. I could read, or play on the computer, or anything. Since I always took copious notes in lecture, I had my studying already done.

It’s ridiculous, my grad program is entirely online, and I’ve never studied less in my life. I can read, hang out with friends, go dancing, and spend hours online if I so desire.

“Gifted” kids reading this: I implore you, don’t study more, study smarter. Find a studying method that works for you but also lets you live, and don’t take shit from anyone. Younger me was miserable. Don’t be younger me. Please. Be someone that future you won’t pity.

Parents of “gifted” kids reading this: ease up on the whip. Thanks.

This book is a collection of gorgeous libraries.

LibraryThing

At LibraryThing, you can catalogue all of your books. I’ve restrained myself from jumping in all the way since I have classes, but it looks *fascinating*.

Where the rules are made up and the points don’t matter!

Have you played Calvinball? It’s highly amusing.

On a related note, the card game sometimes known as President has such varied ways to play, we’ve taken to calling it Calvincard.

(The title of the post, of course, is from the show Whose Line Is It Anyway?)

Profiles of the Future

Arthur C. Clarke was an incredible science fiction writer. He wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey. But he also published compendiums of his essays, and that’s where we get Clarke’s Three Laws from:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

That is NOT a Good Idea!

This adorable children’s book has a significantly different ending than you think. I found it while preparing a stack of books at the library I volunteer at. Read it, seriously! Or rather, read it humorously!

Greek Myth

Robert Graves translated much of Greek mythology with innovative interpretations; he published The Greek Myths (in two volumes) in 1955, Greek Gods and Heroes in 1960, and Greek Myths and Legends in 1968. While his interpretations were mostly rejected by hard scholars, he claimed that they didn’t have the poetic capacity to examine mythology.

Beware the Puns

Piers Anthony is quite a character- and so are his characters! Piers has written well over a hundred books, from the sixties to the latest Xanth book that will come out next year. I recommend my favorite series he’s written, The Incarnations of Imortality. These books explore the concepts like Nature and Death as if they were jobs, set in a future where magic has caught up with technology.

The Secret Bookstore of New York

After rising rent forced his secondhand bookstore out of New York City, Michael Seidenberg runs his shop out of his house. He’s less-than-optimistic about the future of literature; he says, “I don’t feel like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this and now everyone’s going to read all the books and the forgotten authors.’ It’s a losing battle, we’ve lost. I just want to do as much as I can.” An admirable sentiment. What can each of us do for books?