23 New Things….Shelfari and Goodreads
I gave both Shelfari and Goodreads a whirl – neither are new to me – I had a shelfari account in February when a friend asked me to join and share book lists with her and then I joined goodreads a few months later. I think I prefer goodreads for its ease of searching book titles, and because all the cool kids are there. If you haven’t read one of Marya’s reviews of the YA books she reads, you’re missing a real treat. She’s not *quite* at Steven Colbert’s level, but she’s pretty darn close. Most of the time I agree with her, but not always.
Reading other people’s reviews of books is as enlightening as reading the books themselves. I got caught up in a vitriolic discussion of Phillip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series. People were frothing at the keyboard – how DARE an author invent a world where the church was evil!! How DARE an author write a fiction book where a deity was less than all knowing? What gives him the right to make stuff up that’s offensive to other people, and then actually publish it? My take on it was that an author of fiction is paid to make stuff up – it’s what he (or she) does for a living. And he didn’t need to make stuff up about an evil church. Can you say Inquisition?
It was somewhat reminiscent of the brouhaha over Harry Potter. All you have to do to get the paranoia rolling is toss in a broomstick or two, a black cat and a pointy hat, and POOF! instant book banning in those enlightened places where the answer key for the science tests reads “God did it. God did it. God did it. God did it.”
Which doesn’t mean that the other side was any less reasonable or more polite. There was an equal amount of frothing on both sides. The poor guy who had posted the original scathing review was a librarian in a Pennsylvania library system. To say he really disliked the book would be a monstrous understatement. The library director from Pennsylvania responded calmly and politely to all posts and comments about his review and in the process revealed that he found the book highly inappropriate for young readers, that he tore parts of his books out that he found inappropriate (boy did I do a double take there…..a librarian tearing parts of books out?!?) and that a few years earlier a young man had read a book with some graphic crime depicted in it, then went out and did the same acts described in the book, thus the book was responsible for the crimes committed.
Despite the glaring logic errors in his arguments (if punk rock is what causes someone to go commit murder and mayhem, that would mean EVERYONE who listens to punk rock would immediately run out and commit murder and mayhem. And since Charles Manson slaughtered a slew of people after listening to something as innocuous as the Beatles, does that mean we have to ban the Beatles? Or how about Son of Sam, who claimed a dog told him to murder people. Since we’re not holding the person responsible for his actions, that would mean we ought to go shoot every dog. Right?) the library director was courteous. Unfailingly courteous, even.
He reported on the site that about a week later, he had been contacted by the ALA and was under review. Apparently someone reported him for his comment about tearing parts of books out….without realizing that it was his own personal collection he was tearing parts out of. I don’t know what happened after that, but it was a little surprising to hear that he was getting called on the carpet for posts on goodreads.com.
Guess I digressed a little bit there, didn’t I? 
Tags: 23 new things, ALA, goodreads, shelfari
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August 9, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Wow! That _is_ surprising! To think that he was reported for a post on goodreads… but at the same time, I have to agree that I was a bit shocked and appalled myself that a librarian, whom one would think knew enough to respect literature, had torn up a book. I mean, it’s one thing to toss out a book you didn’t like, that’s a little much. It’s his property though, I suppose. :shrug:
On a brighter note, Goodreads rocks! Especially with the groups and authors on there.
August 10, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I was a little shocked, too – hopefully it was all cleared up. I mean, if I want to burn one of MY own books, wouldn’t that be MY business? Sure, maybe it’s in really bad taste, but isn’t that what America is all about? Being allowed to have really atrocious taste and not get in trouble for it other than to have people think you have particularly poor taste? One would hope that the ALA would understand that.
And also, this is what the person reported on goodreads, so I was getting it all second hand.