Karen's 2006 Reading List

Things really start looking up in 2006, at least as far as the amount of reading I was doing and the records I was keeping. I was still at St. Catherine's, working on my MLIS, so reading a lot of research articles and textbooks. No wonder that I found time to do some "fun" reading!

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Clark Fowler
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Clerkenwell Tales by Peter Ackroyd
Trace by Patricia Cornwell
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith
Black Wind by Clive Cussler
Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfield
Runny Babbitt by Shel Silverstein
Codex by Lev Grossman
Ya-yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells
The Day the Universe Changed by James Burke
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Evening Land by John Crowley
Fire Sale by Sara Paretsky
True Believer by Nicholas Sparks
44 Scotland St. by Alexander McCall Smith
Mercy Falls by William Kent Krueger
Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire
Predator by Patricia Cornwell
Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss
Morality for Beautiful Girls by Alexander McCall Smith
The Full Cupboard of Life by Alexander McCall Smith
Dreaming the Hound by Manda Scott
The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250-1150 BC by Nancy K. Sandars
Grendel by John Gardner
Gilgamesh by Stephen Mitchell
The Book of Job by Stephen Mitchell
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Not So Fast by Phoebe Hansen and Joan Murphy
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth by DianeWolkstein
Atrahasis: The Babylonian Story of the Flood by W.G. Lambert
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts by James P. Allen
The Truth (With Jokes) by Al Franken
The Preservationist by David Maine
Nineveh and Its Remains by Austen Henry Layard
Fallen by David Maine
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies by Alexander McCall Smith
When In Rome by Ngaio Marsh
How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith
The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith
The Right Attitude for Rain by Alexander McCall Smith
The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil
Celtic Mythology by Proinsias Mac Cana
Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith

So, I read 52 books in 2006.

Karen's 2005 Reading List

The record of my reading in 2005 continues very patchy. I was continuing my read of Elizabeth Peters, and that's all I have to post for 2005:

Crocodile on the Sandbank
The Curse of the Pharaohs
Legend in Green Velvet
Devil-May-Care
Secret of the Five Moons
Summer of the Dragon
The Love Talker
The Copenhagen Connection
Silhouette in Scarlet
Die for Love
The Mummy Case

Karen's 2004 Reading List

In summer of 2004 I started my Master's program at St. Catherine's. I was still limited in the outside reading I could do, and I wasn't keeping really careful track. But here's some books I read that year:

Dreaming the Bull by Manda Scott
Metamorphoses/The Golden Ass by Apulius
The Jackal's Head by Elizabeth Peters
The Camelot Caper by Elizabeth Peters
The Dead Sea Cipher by Elizabeth Peters (are you sensing a trend?? I was reading through Peters's book, chronologically)
The Night of Four Hundred Rabbits by Elizabeth Peters
The Seventh Sinner by Elizabeth Peters
Borrower of the Night by Elizabeth Peters
The Murders of Richard III by Elizabeth Peters

Karen's 2003 Reading List

In 2003, I was still a student at the U of Minnesota, keeping up with class reading, not much time to read non-school books. I still managed to get a few things read.

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl
The Dogs of Babel by Caroline Parkhurst
Marie Chapdelaine by Louis Hemon
Henry V, War Criminal and Other Shakespeare Puzzles by John Sutherland
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon
Eragon by Michael Paolini
Blacklist by Sara Paretsky
Blowfly by Patricia Cornwell
The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
Dreaming the Eagle by Manda Scott

I'm back!

Gone from this blog for too long, I want to start posting here again. I've forgotten so much, but I hope to continue my learning odyssey here. Good to be back!

Thing 24 -- Refresh Your Blog

Hi, there! Here I am, on the last day to register for "More Things on a Stick," finally getting around to it!

I had planned to use my blog a little more diligently in the off season. It did come in very handy for me when I wanted to post a slideshow of photos for a group of friends. I used "23 Things" to point me to Zoho Show, made a slideshow, and had my group's webmaster add a link to my blog. I actually got a comment! And it was a very positive one!

You know, I wonder if I've been using Facebook as a mini-blog. That's been my favorite "thing" from the first project, and I am a fairly faithful daily user. I've linked up with people from all parts of my life--relatives, friends, library school people.

So...I did a little refreshing of my blog. I looked at the different templates, but I really like the current one, so I didn't make any major changes. I tweaked the fonts and colors a little, to try and brighten the look (I think I'll keep working on this). I added a "subscribe to" gadget (to make it easier for all of my fans to read the latest, don't you know?!) Actually, I think having the "subscribe to" functionality would be a very library-type thing to have. I changed my profile picture and updated the profile information. I've become fond of my current avatar, so I left that alone, too.

As I mentioned, I haven't done much blogging since "23 Things" finished, but the things I learned there have kept me in the world of 2.0 and social networking. I have used the 2.0 tools in practical applications. I've kept up with a few of the blogs I was watching as part of "23 Things" and have been really happy to see new posts every once in a while. I'm all set to get back into blogwatching mode.

So, here we go!

Minnesota Quilters 2008 Holiday Brunch Slideshow

Welcome to my blog! I'm Karen O'Brien, and "Library Ratatouille" is a blog that I started to help me learn new ways of being a librarian. If you are here just to see the MQ pictures please don't be confused by all of the "23 Things" talk going on. Just see the slideshow at the top of my blog. I'm using something called "Zoho Show" to present my pictures to you. Just hit the "play" button, or I find it pretty easy just to click through the 47 pictures one at a time. Some of the pictures may take a few seconds to load (please be patient).
We had a great time at the brunch, and I wanted to share these pictures. I'm hoping that there can be a link from the MQ website (http://www.mnquilt.org/) to this blog--in any case, I'm thrilled that you are here! Come back again, please!