So there I was, on the internets... when I came across this story. Sort of reminded me of Dave's Singularity blurb that he shared a while back, and since I know the readers of this blog (all 10 of us) like neat, geeky ideas...

Time Travel May Be Possible...!

Check it out, as they say.

Top Ten Vampire Books

In no particular order, these are my favorite vampire books. I have a real love of the vampire story but I prefer the ones that break out of the mold. What are your faves?

1. Sunshine by Robin McKinley *Recipe for tasty vamp yarn*Place in plot one young Minnesota girl working hard for the money, fold in turf war, vampire kidnappers, charming vampire lord and romantic involvement. Allow to slowly rise. Sprinkle with sardonic wit and a post voodoo war US and bake at 416 pages. This is a clever vamp romance with cinnamon buns what could be tastier.
2. Agyar by Steven Brust - Steven Brust has always written lovely rich characters. He has a penchant for biting humor, noir dialog and twisting traditional genres. Who better than to write The Spy Who Came in from the Cold for the neck biting set. Agyar is an old vampire with old enemies. He is tired after generations of cruelty and horror. He just wants to settle down somewhere and live a quiet life. Saddly, for him but not the reader, this is not to be.
3. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - Using vampire as the definition of monster, Mr. Matheson crafts a post apocalypse story unlike any other. Blending equal parts horror, thriller and survival tale with a strong dose of science fiction, he creates not only a ripping tale but a calculated examination of what it means to be a monster.
   
4. The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice - Lestat, a bi-sexual eighteenth century French rogue with the morals of a rutting cat, tells what is like to be a vampire from his own charming ego centric point of view. This is a vamp tale with none of the Bram Stoker posturing just a happy serial killer trying to find love in the world. This book and the next virtually started the Romantic Goth movement and paved the way for Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
5. Interview with the Vampire: Anniversary edition (The vampire chronicles) by Anne Rice - This is the Lestat tale from the other side. Though it was written and published before Lestat it feels like its sequel. It is darker, moodier and yes, a good deal more frightening. If Bram Stoker had ever written a sequel to Dracula, after getting drunk on Faulkner and Dashiel Hammet, with a vampiric John Harker as the protagonist, it might sound a lot like this.
6. The Blood Books, Vol. 1 (Blood Price / Blood Trail) by Tanya Huff - It is practically its own genre now, the street savvy detective yarn with the occult oriented protagonist and this is one of the best of the breed. Take one tough street smart lady cop with a fouled up love life add a true prick of a sixteenth century English lord vampire (with a penchant for little boys no less) and you have the makings of one of the best buddy cop teams ever. It is a classic clash of cultures between these two, funny, clever and with just enough pathos. Oh, and the mysteries are good too!
   
7. Sunglasses After Dark (Borealis) by Nancy A. Collins and Thom Ang - If your a vampire and you want to push the envelope don't hunt humans hunt the other vamps. This is a no holds barred dark vampire thriller, in fact a series of them, that places the vampire mythos where it belongs far from mansions, money and the elite and down in the grime and grit, graft, lowlifes and murder. This eighties look at the world is nicely vicious and cool.
8. The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen - The classic meeting between the Great Detective and the original Prince of Darkenes. Move over Moriarity this is the real test of Holmes' intellect.
9. Twilight (Twilight, Book 1) by Stephenie Meyer - It's a natural. There is nothing more teen angst than a vampire romance. Don't think I am knocking it, far from it, if you have to talk about teenage love, use a metaphor, and there is no better one than a romantic encounter with the undead. Twilight just might be the best of its breed here. A somewhat naive, though smart and well read, high school girl, must move in with her dad who lives in the middle of nowhere. There she deals with being an outsider, cut off and unhappy. Unhappy, that is, until she meets Edward. He is one of the most beautiful boys in school but because of a dark secret he is also alone. They immediately bond, beginning a wonderful and tragic love story. Really good read here, I highly recommend it.
   
10. 30 Days of Night Hardcover (30 Days of Night) by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith - It had to happen some day. Those poor vamps condemned to only hunt and kill at night, a measly few hours of darkness, hardly enough time to wet your appetite, let alone, slake an undead thirst. Finally, somebody somewhere, points out the Arctic Circle. A place where it is night for a month or more at a time. And what's more, it is dotted with these little, lonely, out-of-the-way towns just begging to be rampaged by a horde of fierce, ravening killers. This is a true piece of horror fiction, graphic, wicked and savagely vile and best of all it is a graphic novel lavishly illustrated by a master. One of the best.

Top Ten Teen SciFi for the HS Set

SciFi is a difficult subject for a lot of teachers and librarians I find. It is rarely their favorite genre. So here are ten great reads that no student should leave high school without reading, in no particular order.

1. Ringworld by Larry Niven - Eons ago, a race, long gone, utilized the entire material of their solar system to create a habitable ring surrounding its star. The ring is populated with uncounted races and cultures and is many, many times the size of Earth. Louis Woo and his companions have discovered it and intend to exploit it and make their fortune. These would be Conquistadors have definitely bitten off more than they can chew.
   
2. Peeps by Scott Westerfeld - Did you ever wonder about vampires? Legends of blood suckers that walk the night abound in almost every culture of the world. How could they exist? Why would they exist? And if they did exist, why does everyone think they don't? Scott Westerfeld uses Science Fiction to tell a phenomenal adventure story that rings so true you may go to sleep clutching garlic after you've read it.
3. Neuromancer by William Gibson - This is the absolutely frigid cool story of a terrifying future. A future when humanity is clicked into a cyber-spacial world where business is transacted by multi-national countries who pull the strings while nations dance. A future filled with people all but living online. This absolutely killer thriller tells a tale of a time not so far from our own and is a must read.
4. Sagramanda by Alan Dean Forester - India is one of the most populous countries on the globe. It's civilization is eons old. Now it is rapidly becoming the source of high tech labor for the West. What happens when fabulous new wealth, an ancient culture, unimaginable overcrowding and high technology meet? A police detective, a shop owner, a technology embezzler, a hired assassin, a father, a serial killer and a tiger are about to all find out in a town called Sagramanda.
5. World War Z an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks - This is one of the finest pieces of Science Fiction written in the last few years. What would happen if the world were overrun by zombies? How would civilization cope? Could it cope? In a brilliant novel written as a series of interviews with supposed survivors of the war, Max Brooks ask a question that should be on every American's mind. Can we prepare for real disaster?
6. The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven - A true classic of interstellar empire fiction, The Mote in God's Eye takes an all powerful stellar empire and runs it straight into a truly alien race. This is a war story of the finest sort and at times a mind bending examination of what we are willing to do to protect the status quo.
7. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson - This is arguably the best post apocalypse story ever written. The story pits a single man against a society of night dwelling horrors that live on a diet of blood. It is a story of vampires, survival and horror. It is also a terrific examination of what constitutes a true monster.
8. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov - What is the nature of slavery? What constitutes intelligence? How do we decide if something is a living sentient being? The three laws of robotics are probably the greatest creation of that most prolific of writers Isaac Asimov. I, Robot allows Asimov to once more to twist those three laws and apply them in a classic defense of what constitutes sentience.
9. The Time Machine by Herbert George Wells - Now more than one hundred years old, H. G. Wells masterpiece defines time travel stories and its trappings have suffused our zeitgeist. We fear a future filled with beautiful morons hunted by dark technologists who live underground. This beautiful Victorian tale of a scientist who travels both to the extreme future and the extreme past is haunting in its simplicity and far too familiar today.
10. Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - The story that became the movie Blade Runner is a noir thriller of the best variety. A bounty hunter attempts to hunt down and "retire" a group of dangerous androids. This simple story holds a magnifying glass over what makes people become enemies of the state.
    

Your Host...

...The Rotten Librarian himself.

Okay, it's my blog and I oughta post

Hi, I am LibrarianRandy and I am...ahem...a rotten librarian, actually I am a professional rotten librarian. I have been working in a public library as a teen librarian for five years now.

It is my job to assist teens with finding fulfilment - no not that kind of fulfilment, the literary kind, and not that kind of literature either *sheesh* get your mind out of the gutter. Teens comprise about 25% of the usership of public libraries but receive the least service therein. Most public libraries, and fewer and fewer public schools, have librarians who work directly with teens full time. Which is really too bad since kids between twelve and twenty have been having dropping literacy rates for the last decade or two. Anyway, it is what I do and something that I enjoy talking about so you will definately hear about it here.

I have seen my share of rotten librarianship in only five years. I have made a fair number of mistakes myself and have witnessed some of the pitfalls my fellow book pushers have fallen into, not to mention a pretty varried collection of general weirdness from both the patrons and the staff. I thought it might be cool, and dare I say it, useful, to host a blog about those trips and traps as a warning to those who may follow. Beware, from this point on there may be dragons, so bring your own weenies.

Welcome to RottenLibrarian! If you have been visiting this site for a bit you will have noticed that it is as much about slamming your host, me, as anything else. So go ahead hit me with your best shot I can take it, after all sticks and stones may break my bones but groupings of pixels can never hurt me. This site is for librarians and so it stands to reason that there would be a shoe blog on it. We librarians are nothing if not fashionable, or at least well shod. Since it is my library blog it also includes a healthy amount of information about role-playing games, fantasy, science fiction and movies. So, if you have anything you wish to share about librarianship, best practice or worst, shoes,questionable pictures of gamer folk or just want to take a pixalated roundhouse at me, feel free! Post your heart out and enjoy the show.

Dust and Fear 07

We have arrived at scenic Indianapolis for GenCon!
We have liqour and swag bags. I have taken pictures. Bruce is outdoing Brian on the Fart O Meter.

Requests?

Requests, do we take 'em?

'Cause I, for one, would like to see some fabulous combinations of the varied intellectual and blogerial powers collected here.

Like, for instance, a pic of Dave's dog in those Fab orange pumps. Reading a book.

With a chicken.


C'mon....admit it. I'm not the only one.

Hooray for librarimen, a quote..

..."While on the subject of burning books, I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength, their powerful polical connections or great wealth, who, all over this counrty, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shevles, and destroyed records rather than have to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.

So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House, the Supreme Court, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or the media. The America I loved still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."...

- Kurt Vonnegut

To : Friends of Librarimen around the world

As we all know libarimen (in their own minds) live in the late 1800's, and as such, know not how to craft these technical missives we call 'blogs'. It's not their era, or area of expertise.

So if we want to see actual writings from libarimen, some kind soul will have to instruct, nay, apprentice a libariman, and school him in basic arts of 'blogging'.

Any volunteers ?

Gah! Not the shoes!

In an effort to un-shoe the blog, here is a picture, a pic of my dog:

Fugly Shoe Friday

<sigh>

So, everyone, here's today's fugly shoe. I have to admit, I was actually on the fence about these for awhile. I mean, I love a platform, I could work that heel, and maybe with a cool pair of jeans and a pink fitted shirt?

But then I started to wonder about the colors. And the weird sheen from the satin in that dark orange. And the proportion is off--the peep toe is too small a window and the heel is too stiletto for the platform front.

Anyway, I say nay. And as I'm the arbitrary arbiter of all things fashion on this blog that is, ostensibly, about books, what I say goes. They are thus the inaugural pair of shoes for this blog's new weekly feature, Fugly Shoe Friday.

TTFN, boys. I'm off to spread my friendly faerie of fab fun elsewhere I'm needed.

Is this a shoe blog yet? Shoes are like dandelions, you know. Eventually they just take over.

UPDATE: oh, sorry, almost forgot: in case you're interested, they're by Marni, and go for about three hundred. In the UK--i.e., three hundred Pounds.

WARNING

To all libarimans and non-librarimans "posting" on this blog:

FRIDAY will see the dawn of a new age here at rottenlibrarian.blogspot.com: the inauguration of a new weekly feature we friendly faeries of fab like to call "FUGLY SHOE FRIDAY."

Well, it would be a new age. Except, erm, the last freaking post to this blog before this one is, you might note, also a post about shoes.

If "somebody" that is not a superfabulous non-librarian --some actual librarian, perhaps???-- doesn't post to this blog soon, there is a very real chance that the blog will become KNOWN in the blogosphere as essentially, well, a blog about shoes.

Shoes, Randy. Shoes, shoes, shoes, more shoes, and, finally, shoes.

I'm just sayin'.

Best wishes,

Your fabulously fab faerie friend.

Fabulous Shoe of the Week

So, I'm not a librarian either (DO any real librarians actually post to this blog???), but what every good blog for and about and/or authored by librarians needs, in my opinion, is a good dose of fabulosity.

As a non-librarian lucky enough to have been gifted by the great goddess with extra doses of fabulousness, I consider it my duty to ensure that there is SOMETHING shiny posted to this blog every week. Like a friendly little faerie of fab, if you will.

In that spirit, I hereby inaugurate the "FABULOUS SHOE OF THE WEEK" feature.

Because this blog is supposed to be informational, I feel like I should at least TRY to teach you something that will help you begin to become more fabulous non-librarians all on your own. To wit: These beauties are by the famous shoe designer Christian Louboutin, and are called "Pigalle." As you've probably already guessed, both the shoes and the designer are Elvish, erm, I mean, French in origin. These pumps have Mr. Louboutin's signature red sole and six-inch stiletto heels. They're quite rare, but if your feets are the right size and you have a spare $600-700, you might be able to pick up a pair on e-bay.

Cursed Roland

Damn Randy!

That is all.

Wait, do I have to BE a librariman to blog here? I mean, I was invited...

Or does general geekiness apply well enough to enable this? I think I qualify there.

Maybe I will post, and see if I get tossed out... :)

For my very first blog post ever, I want you all to know that Comcast is the work of the devil. That is all for now. -M

Several invitations have been sent out in hopes of helping our Librariman to get this blog started right. If you have something to share...please do.

Librariman Unite!

This is a call to arms for all able bodied librariman.. If you are a man or a near facsimile of a man and you are a librarian then you are a librariman.