Books, The Library and Notes on Life

Guess what? I am off the bike! Because of this, I have a little more time to hang out, and therefore you get a bonus post this week! Today I am going to talk about a book I recently read, more reasons to love the library, and a tool I have been using to help me think and get things done more efficiently! 

Books, but Specifically One Book: After reading Jonathan Haidt's book, The Coddling of the American Mind, a few years back while on a hike, I could not help but regale my hiking buddy Bugsy with blurbs from the book. It was very thought provoking and I had to get the thoughts out of my mind tout suite. I probably drove him crazy. However, now I can't wait until our next hike, because I just finished The Anxious Generation, and I have some things to say about it! There were a lot of things in it that resonated with me, or caused me to ponder how our future generations (mostly Gen Z and beyond) are going to be, and if that is necessarily going to be a bad thing or not. 

It also made me nod my head on some of the points about our current generations (boomers, Gen X, millennials). For example, he talked about our lack of ability to really truly multitask efficiently, and how we don't really listen to our friends/companions/colleagues when our phone notifications are going off, or we are distracted by our phones. One of my biggest pet peeves is when I am in the middle of a conversation with someone and they keep glancing at their phone. I am sure that whoever is texting (or more likely, whatever spam email is coming into their inbox) is VERY important, but maybe we need to work on focusing more on what is in front of us rather than what is in a distant cloud of possible better things. 

This could really get me going on a rant, and/or make a lot of people angry at me, as I am a firm believer of no phones at the dinner table (or at meals out at restaurants etc.), no out loud conversations on  your phone unless you are having a call with grandma as a group in a private place, and definitely no out loud conversations in public places. Also, this goes hand in hand, but no out loud music/podcasts/news/YouTube in public places. How have we let our phones take over our lives, and were we always rude, or have they exacerbated our rudeness?? Let's discuss! Or better yet, read The Anxious Generation and let me know what you think. (PS if you do any of these things, I am sorry, but please enlighten me on why I should change my mind about how I feel about them, or why you do them). 

The Library, and Even More Reasons to Love It: As you all know, I love the library. While traveling, I can still get audio and e-books, and I have gone into the library in places like Wonewok, WI to ask where I can get lodging or in Lucknow, Ontario to use the internet and bathroom. Thanks librarians! But! Did you know that you can also borrow tools from some libraries? Yup. In Oakland, you can borrow house tools, like skill saws and screw guns (drills) and nail guns etc. You can also borrow yard tools, and you can also borrow bike repair tools. Some libraries have an area where you can fix your bike too, so if you are riding around, you can stop and work on your bike along the way. 

But wait, there is more! The other day my brother was talking about digitizing some photos and he was considering buying a photo scanner (his printer/scanner is a flattop scanner, which is a bit of a pain when you have hundreds of photos.) I told him to check the library and he did, and not only do they have top of the line photo scanning equipment, but they also have VHS digitizing equipment, so he is going to also digitize a couple of old home movies. I am sure they probably have CD and DVD digitizing equipment, so now we all have no excuse not to declutter! 

Library Extension: If you don't already have this, it is a game changer; it is an extension where you can add your library or libraries and also Hoopla and Kanopy. When you are looking up a book on Amazon or Goodreads or whatever, a sidebar will pop up, telling you where that book is available at your libraries! For example, when I went to get a screenshot of The Anxious Generation, here is what popped up! 

So Many Things to Talk About: As you may know, Engie recently did a little miniseries about books and it was so fun to not only read her posts, but to read through the comments and the back and forth about what people read, where they read and how they read! 

Ask AI: Speaking of the above...I know, you are wondering what AI has to do with it. However, I have found that if there is a really long article that I am struggling to get through, I will ask AI to summarize it. You can even do this with a blog post. For fun, I used one of Engie's book posts including comments and asked AI to summarize it for me. Here is an excerpt from the answer. It was given to me in bullet form, but I have condensed it into a paragraph. 

Do you read multiple books at a time? It turns out many of us are multi-taskers when it comes to reading! NGS regularly reads three books at once—one physical, one Kindle, and an audiobook. Birchwood Pie and Kyria are also fans of combining audiobooks with traditional reading. Jenny and Ernie are more of the “one book at a time” crowd, finding it easier to immerse themselves in just one story. Life of a Doctor’s Wife juggles multiple books, with physical copies, audiobooks, and even reading aloud to her kid. Others, like Ian & Pat and Lindsay, balance multiple genres by keeping one fiction and one non-fiction book on the go simultaneously.

I also used this on a page from the Social Security Administration to summarize something that was just not sticking and it was great. Actually, this may be helpful to some of you so I will explain what I did. Basically I took the entire SSA page and asked AI to summarize it (you have to copy and paste it into the chat box), then once I read through that, which was a six or seven paragraph bulleted summary, I asked it to sum it up in one paragraph and here is what I got: 

Understanding Social Security retirement benefits is crucial for effective retirement planning. To qualify, you need 40 credits, typically earned over 10 years of work. Your benefits are based on your Averaged Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME) over your highest 35 years of income, which determines your Primary Insurance Amount (PIA) — the monthly benefit at your Normal Retirement Age (NRA). You can start collecting benefits as early as age 62, though payments will be reduced, or delay until age 70 for higher benefits. Tools can help simulate different filing scenarios to optimize your decision.

So it can be a useful tool and is not just used to write poems about hats, although since I mentioned that, and today seems to be shout-out-to-Engie day, I thought I would ask it to do one for her, and here is what it came up with. 

Ode to Hats for Engie

Oh, hats, the word that makes her glow,

In every song and book you show.

A simple brim, a crown, a cap—

Engie’s heart skips with each "hat" snap.

Obsessed, she finds you everywhere,

In stories, lyrics, and the air.

A fleeting mention, quick as that—

Her joy ignites at the word "hat."

And though Dr. BB's hat’s absurd,

It’s still a "hat," her favorite word!

For in her world, no hat is wrong—

Her love for them is lifelong strong.

And with that, I will bid you all adieu! What book have you read lately that has sparked a fire in your mind? Have you ever borrowed tools from the library or used their equipment for a job you had? What do you use AI for? 

Use This: The Library

I recently had a friend who was taking a class where she had to watch movies and analyze them. She was talking about how expensive it was getting, as she was often buying the movies, since she never knew how long she was going to have them, and she usually uses Redbox. She does the same kind of work as me, where she moves from place to place, so Netflix was not as easy for her to use. I asked her why she wasn't using the library and she said she didn't realize that the library had movies.

Did you know that the library has movies? For free? And most libraries let you keep them for 7 days.

I have considered going back to school to get a Masters in Library Sciences, so when I was working in Missouri, I went to the local library and offered to volunteer, so I could get more of a handle on what a librarian actually does. To tell you the truth, I was surprised that a librarian does a lot more than I realized,  but one of the main things was helping patrons, aka customer service. So I am still on the fence about that decision. However, I also learned a lot about the things the library offers while I was there.

They have computers, and often a computer lab, with free access to the internet, printers and scanners. And if you are a 12 year old boy, games.

They have books, obviously, but they often have the most recent books out. I even got to help buy books while I was working there (They call it acquisitions. It sounds much more professional that way!) But did you know that if they don't have a book you want, they can get it on an inter-library loan, which means from outside the city, county, state or even country! A lady I know had a book transferred to her from Canada! If nobody has it, fear not, they can even buy it for you if it's in the budget!

They have books on CD. Lots of them! New titles and everything! I borrowed a lot of these, downloaded them and put them on my iPod where I now listen to them while I am running! Move over Ira Glass!

They have eBooks. These you can download without even going into the library. I think that they usually let you keep them for a couple weeks and then it goes away if you don't renew.

They have magazines. Yes. And you can take them out. If you have a flight coming up, you can stock up on Glamor before you go.

The have TV shows. These are the same as the movies; I think you can only rent them for one week, instead of two or three like books. But they have good shows and recent enough ones too! 

They have many reference materials, genealogy materials, newspapers, professional journals and the like.

Many libraries also have: a language learning program (there is one online called Mango), help with a job search, car repair information, practice tests like the GRE or Citizenship tests, tutorials for Microsoft applications and my favorite: Novelist.

Novelist is something the library has to pay for, so not all of them have it, but it's a book recommending site. If you just read a great book, The Hunger Games, for instance, you do a search and it gives you suggestions for books you may want to read next. Or if you are looking for historical fiction about WWII, you can find out that the top books for that, based on popularity are: The Postmistress, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Day After Night (which I am putting on my To Read list right now). Not only that, but it gives you a synopsis of each book. The only thing it's missing is a way to auto upload to Goodreads.

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is....I love the library! Sometimes you don't realize what resources are available to you! I didn't!  One last thing. My best friend: the HOLD. Before even going into the library, you can look up what you want and see if your local branch has it. If not, you can place a hold, so they will transfer it in for you and then hold it once it gets there. So you just sit back and wait! It's great! As you can see, I am a fan.

Do you use your local library? If so, what do you utilize the most? Have I missed anything useful?