Monday, April 02, 2012

Masked Mom's Media Monday: This I Believe (Repost)

[Among the many things I believe, I believe that this is a repost of a review from December 4, 2006.]

The library is automated now--all fancy, shmancy and I can search from my bedroom while still in my pajamas for books and authors I'm trying to track down. Then I can go to the library, directly to the shelf they are on and pick them up and be in and out in a few minutes. (Or if the book is interloan, from another library, I can just walk to the desk and have it handed to me practically on a silver platter.) It's all very modern and convenient, but sometimes I miss the Library Accidents that used to happen while doing a card catalog search. I'd flip through the little cards looking for a specific book or author and stumble across an intriguing title. (I'm pretty sure this is how I ended up reading Saddles For Breakfast in fourth or fifth grade. I mean who could resist that title? And who knows how many other books I would never have had the pleasure of without the act of flipping through title after title in the catalog?)

I do keep lists of books I want to read--lists I compile by reading book reviews and taking recommendations, but I don't kid myself that every good book somehow magically makes it to my list. So, every once in a while, I set aside time for Library Accidents to happen and wander around the shelves and stop to look at the books on the new non-fiction tables just inside the library door and just wait for something to catch my eye. Suffering, as I do, from some sort of compulsive reading disorder, it never takes long.

This I Believe was one of those Accidental Books. It is full of essays from the NPR project of the same name, which was originally begun in the 1950s and was restarted in April 2005. Being from my media-deprived little corner of the world, I didn't know anything about the radio show (of course we don't have a local NPR station!) so the book was an eye-opener for me and led me down the rabbit hole of the website, where I've spent some time happily clicking from one essay to another.

The project asks participants to write short essays stating their core beliefs--the essays are a few hundred words in most cases and both the book and the site showcase a wide variety of people from well-known to unknown. What's amazing to me is how much true wisdom is out there in the minds of otherwise very ordinary people. I can't help but think that having a forum where people can discuss their personal philosophies can only be beneficial. It's also comforting to see essays from the 1950s reflecting some of the same issues we are facing now--it helps soothe that panicked feeling I sometimes get in thinking that things are dramatically worse at the moment than they've been in a while.

Masked Mom's One-Word Review: Extraordinary.

7 comments:

  1. I loved this book! I may just have to read it again. I had forgotten until now that I had read it. I also may have to read Saddles For Breakfast. There is no resisting that title. I love card catalogs and I must admit that now when I'm at the library, I wander a bit at a loss for what to do without the cards to flip through.

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    1. I only discovered last night, as I was checking the links from the original post that there's a variety of follow-up books, some of them divided by topic. I just added a BUNCH of books to my To-Read list. I loved Saddles For Breakfast.

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  2. My only experience with NPR was SNL skits until a few years ago. Suddenly, it's always on our car radio, and we all enjoy it. Love NPR!

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    1. We don't even get NPR out here in the boondocks. But I really loved this book and look forward to the others in the series.

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  3. This I Believe is indeed extraordinary. It is an inspiring essay collection and I have read the original and several of the offshoots. I may have to read it again too!

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    1. Rereading this made me want to read the book again as well as seek out the others.

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  4. WHAT?! No NPR?! I would...I would...I don't know what I would do without NPR but it wouldn't be good or pretty.

    So many of the essays they recorded and broadcast brought tears.

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