Two New (to me) Authors

Mary Roberts Rinehart is a name I've seen in other mystery books. Wanting to expand my repertoire, I checked Fantastic Fiction and learned that The Man in Lower Ten was her first mystery novel published in 1906.

Checking through C/W MARS, that title was only available as one of a set of 3, so I requested it.

I'm afraid my first impression was disappointment. The book, while newer than 1906, was still old and had been rebound in a less-than-appealing plain red cover. Because it had been rebound, the inner margins were minimal, making the book hard to keep open and I had to work to read the ends of the lines on the left-hand page and the beginnings of the lines on the right. And the print was small. I considered returning the book and forgetting about this excursion.

It is a testament to Mary Roberts Rinehart that I finished all three stories.

Her writing style reminds me of Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories are somewhat convoluted and not always easy to follow. But I found myself enjoying them.

Typical of her times, she tends to make sweeping generalizations such as this sentence from The Case of Jennie Brice written in 1913. "There was something big about her, something which is often found in large women, a lack of spite." While that's a nice thing to say about someone (in this case Jennie Brice), I'm not sure that all "large women" can be described that way. Another comment about another character was that if he left his light on at night he must be a murderer.

My preference, however, is to read contemporary mysteries and I recently read my first book by Louise Penny Kingdom of the Blind. It had just arrived at my local public library and was listed in the
Wednesday morning email Wowbrary.

This series takes place in the Canadian province of Quebec and features Chief Inspector Gamache. Like Donna Leon and Faye Kellerman, there is a lot of character development and description of family life. It makes the characters more real and gives me a real appreciation of a different culture.

Since this series started in 2005, I'm adding Louis Penny to my list of authors to read from the beginning.

Where My Money Goes

It's not that I have a lot of extra money. After paying the mortgage (yes, at my age my house is still mortgaged), utilities, the cable bill, property taxes, buying food and clothes, gas for the car (not to mention maintenance of the car), and other necessities, I'm left with what's called "discretionary" income.

It's not a lot, but I have choices. I can buy more clothes (which I sometime do). I can buy more shoes (which I did just last week). Or I can donate to a worthy cause. And there are lots of worthy causes.

Rather than give $5 or $10 to every solicitation I receive in the mail, I've chosen to focus my efforts on to the areas that are most important to me.

1. Education. Not everyone is academically inclined, but while I was still in junior high school, I decided I really wanted to go to college. I'm not sure why. No one in my family had gone to college. I didn't even know anyone who had gone to college. In my family's social circle it was something "other people did". But I wanted to do it.

For me it was a good choice (though sometimes difficult as I was not a great student). It presented opportunities I would never had otherwise. Before I graduated, I realized that having a B.A. in History was no guarantee of a great and exciting career, but I had also discovered that I wanted to go to Library School and become a Librarian and I needed that B.A. to do that.

Being a Librarian has been a a great (and, yes, sometimes exciting) career for me. It's important to me that as many people as possible have a chance to go to college if that's what they want. I regularly donate as much as I can to UMass/Amherst and Simmons College School of Library Science.

2. Libraries. Since libraries contribute substantially to education, and since being a Librarian has meant so much to me, I also contribute regularly, and as much as I can, to the W.E.B. DuBois Library at UMass/Amherst and my local public library.

Of course there are other worthy causes that sometimes strike my fancy and when that happens I contribute to them. But the bulk of my "extra" money goes to Education and Libraries where I feel it will do the most good.

The End of an Era

I'm bummed! I found out about this situation a few months ago, but I've been in denial and too depressed to blog about it.

The Dewey Decimal Classification schedules will no longer be printed on paper. The last books were published in 2011. Since new editions have been published every 6-10 years, I fully expected a new edition soon. It won't happen. The Dewey Decimal Classification will be available online only via WebDewey.

I know this makes a lot of sense. It costs a lot of money to publish a physical book. The unabridged, 4-volume set cost nearly $500. The abridged, one-volume version was over $100. And before they hit the market, they were out-of-date.

Since the schedules are updated regularly, it makes sense to access the information digitally, but for some reason, I've always preferred to hold those books in my hand.

In contrast, when the Library of Congress subject headings were made available online, I rejoiced and wondered why anyone would bother to buy those "big red books". Even better, once they were online, the Name Authority File was included. And all FOR FREE!
 
WebDewey requires a subscription fee. And I do not find it very easy to use. Perhaps it's because I'm used to the books and I need to practice more with WebDewey. Regardless, I still have my DDCs and will keep them for a LONG, LONG time.