Dwayne Wade has accomplished a lot in his career. He won a gold medal as a member of the U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team. He won an NBA championship as a member of the Miami Heat. He was even named Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year. But to Edward Leonard Sr. all of this is overshadowed by another of Wade's accomplishments: he kept his boyhood library from shutting its doors.On September 10, 2009 Wade donated $25,000 to the William Leonard Public Library in Robbins, IL., a suburb of Chicago. The library, founded by and named for Edward Leonard's father, was...
The World’s Strongest Librarian
Never let it be said that all librarians are alike. Librarians come in all shapes and sizes, and both genders, too. And if when you hear the phrase "male librarian" you envision a bespectacled, 98-pound weakling, you might want to take that up with the man who calls himself "The World's Strongest Librarian." Then again, you might not.Josh Hanagarne is the director of a public library located in the Rose Park section of Salt Lake City, Utah. He does wear glasses. He is also 6 feet, 8 inches tall and his hobby is weightlifting. Serious weightlifting.In his office at the...
Hot Off The Press Delivery, Version 2.0
This morning when I checked my email, I had a message from Dustin, the CEO of a company called Paperspine. He was kind enough to take the time to write and inform me that I was remiss in not including his company amongst the online book delivery services I mentioned in yesterday's post.Well, Dustin, consider this a valentine to Paperspine. A verbal bouquet to thank you for giving me another piece of information to share here. Dustin informs me that Paperspine offers the largest number of titles (200,000) available from any book rental service, and also offers 500,000 titles for...
Free, Fast, And Hot Off The Press Delivery
You're perusing the latest issue of your favorite magazine, The New Yorker. (Let's be honest here, if you're like me it's more likely you're taking a gander at the latest People Magazine-- we have to keep up with Kate Gosselin, right?) Anyway, next you and I check out the book reviews, and there it is: a four star review of the newest E.L. Doctorow novel, Homer and Langley. Terrific! Doctorow is one of our favorite writers, and he's writing about the legendary Collyer Brothers, who wrote the book on disposophobia, and eventually died as they lived: in a Harlem brownstone...
"The Library, The Library": This Brit Hit Just Won’t Quit
We all know that annoyingly awful auditory head trip. The brain is stuck in a loop. A terrifyingly relentless tune is played by our own mental deejay over, and over, and over again. And more often than not it's something we can't stand, the musical equivalent of the sharp squeaks of sneaker soles on a basketball court.So I warn you in advance that like a Kenny G smooth jazz riff or Katy Perry singing the praises of her girlfriend's Cherry Chapstick, once you hear the siren song in this video you can't unring that bell. This tune will remain on...