Answering questions at Boston College O’Neill Library
I’ve been branching out from walls to read about other upstanding beings: trees. My two favorites on the subject right now are The Overstory by Richard Powers (bit.ly/worldcat-overstory) and Barkskins by Annie Proulx (bit.ly/worldcat-barkskins).
You can recommend titles Pop.Reading@bc.edu or request books by Interlibrary Loan bit.ly/ILLatBC. We have books that might be considered enjoyable/recreational reading throughout the collection. Literature is on Level 4 in the P call numbers. Non fiction is everywhere – ask at the Reference Desk for suggestions in areas that interest you. And don’t forget we have popular eBooks and audiobooks through Overdrive (bc.overdrive.com). Happy reading!
I’ll have my colleagues ask around and get back to you.
The library would certainly consider providing space for such an event were someone to organize it; perhaps you could reach out to faculty in the English Dept. affiliated with the Creating Writing Seminar (bit.ly/bc-cw-seminar) or Creative Writing Concentration (bit.ly/bc-cw-concentration), or perhaps students who publish a student literary magazine such as Stylus, Epicenters or Elements. If you would like to schedule an event in library space, contact the administrative office at 617-552-4470.
Everything in the Pop Collection (just to the left of me) has been suggested by library staff as current best-bets. I highly recommend browsing there.
I can’t say whether it would be possible, but I will forward your request for the print version to our librarian for Irish Studies. The content is available through the database Nexis Uni (bit.ly/BCNexisUni); current, though not in a great format, or in microfilm on Level One (with a several month delay.)
According to the latest Factbook, at the end of fiscal year 2017, there were 2,326,205 books available from O’Neill Library. Defining what a “book” is gets kind of tricky (librarians love to nerd out on this stuff), but the oldest printed book in our collection is Jean Gerson’s De Spiritualib[us] Nupciis (On Spiritual Marriage). It has been digitized and is available to read online: bit.ly/BurnsOldestBook. The oldest item we have is a Mesopotamian clay tablet from 2000-3000 BC.
This is done for preservation purposes. Book covers tend to be slightly larger than book pages. Therefore, shelving these books with their spines facing up would damage the binding. We are currently conducting a library-wide collection maintenance project that includes the expansion of the oversize section to accommodate items that are currently shelved sideways.
Materials on Course Reserves circulate for 2 hours because they are high-demand items that are set aside for class reading at faculty members’ request. The number of copies the libraries can purchase is limited by budgetary, space and copyright restrictions. What the BC Libraries are doing to address this issue is prioritizing the purchasing of ebooks for Course Reserves.
I recommend a site called LibraryThing, a crowdsourced booklovers’ project in which people share the titles in their personal collections. You can type in a title (like Catch-22) and see a list of recommendations, which are the books most commonly owned by people who also own Catch-22: bit.ly/LT-catch-22. You can do the same for Catcher in the Rye. Movies? Sure: The 1970 version of Catch-22 with Alan Arkin is brilliant: O’Neill Library PS3558 .E476 C3 2006 (behind the 3rd floor reference collection). Other military comedies: The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, and of course M*A*S*H.
1984 is a member of a group of 20th century dystopian novels. There are many who like to read them and argue about which author predicted the future most accurately. Check out Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (O’Neill Stacks PR6015.U9 B65 2013), Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (PS3503.R167 F3 1993), Animal Farm by George Orwell (PR6029.R8 A6 1946), or The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (PR9199.3.A8 H3 1986). These books tend to be pretty popular, so they might be checked out. But we often have online versions you can read as well.
This controversy seems to stem from the tragic encounter with the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dûm described in the FOTR. The text reads, “…the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings,” and later, “…its wings were spread from wall to wall.” Yet, Gandalf’s description of the defeat of the Balrog in The Two Towers suggests the it was unable to fly: “he fell from the high place and broke the mountain-side.” Did Gandalf so destroy the Balrog that it was unable to fly to save itself? Are Balrogs the penguins of Tolkien’s universe? Were the wings merely a simile? In his foreword to the second edition, Tolkien admits that he “finds many defects, minor and major,” but “will pass over these in silence.” So perhaps this is one of the minor defects of this otherwise brilliant epic.
There are just so many good poems that this is a really tough one! What subjects do you enjoy? What styles? Eras? One place to go is the Poetry Foundation (bit.ly/PF-poems), where you can find editors’ picks, or browse by subject or school (style) of poetry from Poetry Magazine’s 100+ year history of publishing, with over 40,000 poems. On their newsletter page, you can sign up for poem-a-day via email. Here’s a nice poem about a wall: bit.ly/goodman-wall.
The best piece of advice would be to read more than one! There are many lists of best American novels available online. Some favorites that seem to show up on most of the lists are “To Kill a Mockingbird” (PS3562 .E353 T6 1960), “The Great Gatsby” (PS3511 .I9 G74 1980Z), “The Grapes of Wrath” (PS3537 T3234 G8 1989), “Beloved” (available online), and “Invisible Man” (PS3555 .L625 .I5 1995). Happy reading!
954,044 as of this morning. We have a similar number of ebooks, but most of those do not live here, coming only when called upon by you from the vast and mysterious Cloud.
Being is definitely better than not being. Please recall that this quote, in Act III, Scene 1 of Hamlet, was asked by a young man who suspected that his mother and stepfather had arranged the murder of his father. He was thinking that not-being would “end/ The heartache and the thousand natural shocks/ That flesh is heir to.” If you’re suffering heartache that makes you think about not being, please get help immediately: call the counseling office at 617-552-3310 (8:45-4:45 M-F) and ask to speak to the Psychological Emergency Clinician (PEC), or visit the office in person in Gasson 001. (If you’re just quoting Shakespeare’s Hamlet to show your appreciation for a fine play, here’s a 3-minute version you might find entertaining: bit.ly/3-minute-hamlet. Click “show more” for the lyrics, so you can understand the thick Glasgow accent.)
How could I possibly pick just one? Hadrian’s Wall: A Life (O’Neill Library DA146 .H56 2012), by Richard Hingley was one of my recent favorites. A classic, of course, is Peter Wyden’s Wall: The Inside Story of a Divided Berlin (O’Neill Library DD881 .W93 1989). The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC – AD 2000 (O’Neill Library DS 793 .G67 L584 2006) by Julia Lovell covers an epic span of history. But I’m not a complete monomaniac! I also like art. The artist Andy Goldsworthy is well known for his works in stone and wood, and I’m especially fond of his art book Wall at Storm King (Bapst Library NB198 .G64 2000).
There are so many great options, it is hard to choose just one! If you’re a science fiction fan, check out Y, The Last Man (PN6728 .Y2 V38 2003). They recently announced that it is being turned into a TV show, so you can be ahead of the curve. Plus, it is a great read! If superheroes are more your speed, check out Planet Hulk (PN6728.I47 P35 2008) to check back in with the Hulk before the upcoming Avengers movie. Or, if you like a good memoir, how about Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley (TX715 .K6985 2013)? It is a great read (though warning, it may make you hungry!). If you want us to get any other comics for the collection, just let us know!
Pick any of our ebooks. They are much easier to download than to open.
Email the relevant subject librarian with your recommendation (libguides.bc.edu/ask-a-librarian/contact). If you need it quickly, do place an interlibrary loan request (illiad.bc.edu/illiad/bxm/logon.html) and check “yes” for “Should BC purchase this item”.
We do! There’s a copy available in the Popular Collection (just to my left) and an online version available through OverDrive (bit.ly/bc-overdrive). Both appear to be in use right now–it looks like others agree with you!
