Books – Page 3 – The Answer Wall

Hiya wall! What are your top books that you'd recommended? I'm up for anything! -Student that likes books — Hiya wall! What are your top books that you’d recommended? I’m up for anything! -Student that likes books

You are definitely in the right place for books. It is hard to recommend without knowing anything more about you, so browsing may be the best way to proceed. The Popular Collection (just to my left) and the books on OverDrive (bit.ly/bc-overdrive) can be good places to find a book. You might also be inspired by looking through the shelves of New Books and Comics and Graphic Novels, both on the first floor of the library.

But here are a few suggestions: For a golden oldie: Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman (PS3562 .I45397 E38 1993) is a short read that can get you thinking of all kinds of possibilities. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (PL856.U673 N6713 2000 or OverDrive) is another golden oldie, with the narrator looking back on his college days. Two more recent books are Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (PS3558.A42169 E95 2017a or OverDrive or Popular Collection) and Pachinko by Min Jee Lee (PS3612.E346 P33 2017 or OverDrive). Happy reading!

Could you recommend a good book of personal essays (an author you like)?

I don’t know your interests, so I’ll recommend several. For humorous & honest essays about writing, it’s hard to beat Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (O’Neill PN147 .L315 1994). For intriguing & dreamlike essays about personal growth, art, and the loss of a difficult mother: The Faraway Nearby, by Rebecca Solnit. (O’Neill PS3569.O585 Z46 2013) For powerful essays about race, either the well-known Between the World & Me, by Ta Nehisi Coates (BC Libraries, check catalog for many listings) or the lesser-known but equally powerful How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, by Kiese Laymon (O’Neill PS3612.A959 Z46 2013), both of which owe a major debt to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time (O’Neill & TML E185.61 .B195 1993). If any are unavailable, any other books by these authors are worth pursuing. Happy reading!

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.