September-October Wrap-Up 2016

[@brittabohlerthesecondshelf]

It's so very lovely that you are back!! Missed you!!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you! That's so nice!

[@clarissas5651]

So happy to hear you're going to be making videos more regularly now! I can know how overwhelming teaching can be, so I'm glad you're settled. Great video!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you! Yes, teaching has definitely settled down. Of course, the actual teaching part is not all that stressful, it's dealing with all the legislation that comes at you every week!

[@CuriousReader]

I've seen Ghostland around for a while and was curious, but you have convinced me I want to read it. I'm with you on finding it interesting how people create stories or deal with the unknown, in terms of occult, paranormal, etc. What an interesting way to write a historical fiction in old English style.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes, Ghostland is perfect if you're interested in those kinds of things!

[@bookishsabrina]

I find it interesting that you listened to Zeroville on audiobook. I would have never thought about that. Having read it for a class, frantically taking notes in the margins, I wouldn't naturally think that it would work particularly well on audio, although I'm glad to hear that it did! It has been a few years, so I don't remember exactly, but didn't the chapters count down to zero and then start counting back up? I remember finding that very interesting while reading, waiting for zero. I would love to revisit that novel, especially because the film adaptation is supposed to come out soon. I also don't imagine Zeroville working spectacularly as a film, despite being about film, but we'll have to see.

[@KayAmpersand]

I am so glad you are back! I missed your videos. I have never read anything by Steve Erickson, but you make his books sound so intriguing...

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you! Intriguing is the perfect word for his books. They are both accessible and supremely weird. You should give him a try!

[@vivastory6425]

"Ghostland" was really fascinating. I really liked his comments on ghost stories being as much about history we have not yet grappled with as much as the troubled history that we have (the lack of ghost stories about slaves, etc.) Also found his observations about architectural abnormalities in sights of so-called haunted places to be very insightful.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes! I loved the stuff about race in America and which demographics talk about which ghosts. That spiritualist house without the corners was so cool, too!

[@Robbieleecats]

Great to see you back! I just read Ghostland. I thought it was pretty great. I like the way he brought up the history surrounding these places. Many of them are not what you would think would lead to a ghost story. Some are different than what I've heard about the place before like some of the stuff about the Winchester Mystery House.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Cool that you read it, too! It was full of fun facts that I get to throw at my friends all the time and look smart. I love nonfiction like that!

[@ThatsWhatSheRead]

Yay you're back! I loved Ghostland! Looks like you've been reading some great books during the break and I'm glad you've found your groove with school

[@alltheshelves9142]

I'm glad you liked it! I was excited when I saw that you were reading it on Twitter.

[@mursalinmosaddeque8999]

I am so glad to see you again! You will be regularly uploading videos from now on, right?

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks! Yes, I'm going to try for two a week from now on.

[@alibaileylovesyou]

Happy to see that you're back

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you!

[@SaraiTalksBooks]

So glad to see you back!

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thank you! I'm so glad to be back! Filming another video today!

[@timetoread1795]

I AM SO HAPPY YOU ARE BACK!!! YAYYYY!!!

[@dsweet_library]

I just stumbled on this channel and you are already one of my faves. I already had 'Born To Run' on my TBR but now I've added 'Ghostland' and 'Tours of the Black Clock.' Sounds super interesting. 🙌

[@alltheshelves9142]

Aww, thanks! If you do read Born to Run, let me know. I'm dying to talk about that with anyone I possibly can.

[@dsweet_library]

All the Shelves will do. 😊

[@dsweet_library]

funny thing is the title Zeroville sounded familiar. It turns out I downloaded the Kindle version about a year ago. I completely forgot I even had it and can't remember why I would have downloaded it. So there is that.

[@littlespider9]

Yay, you're back! And just reminded me I seriously have to pick up Ghostland.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Yes! You should it! It's really fun nonfiction.

[@WhatKamilReads]

I would pick up The Wake but thinking about translation which I never do in terms of English literature but this old English and me being non native speaker ... might be too hard to handle

[@AmandaQuotidianBooks]

I'm hoping to get Ghostland for Christmas! I heard Caitlin Doughty from AskAMortician on KZbin recommend it, and I'm so glad you enjoyed it too :D

[@alltheshelves9142]

I hope you get it! I was on hold at the library, but they ordered enough copies that it came really quickly. Luckily! Because it was a great read for Oct.

[@splitreads]

I feel the same about Rainbow Rowell - it's cute at times but so unrealistic and not my style. I've only read Attachments though and I have heard better things about others so maybe I'll try Fangirl one day. I admire Bruce Springsteen... I loved him on Fresh Air talking about his book, def a memoir I'd pick up!

[@alltheshelves9142]

If you pick it up, will you please let me know? I'm dying to talk more about that book with people. I want to know if people who are not ridiculous fans of Springsteen have the same emotional reaction as I did.

[@LauraFreyReadinginBed]

Nice to see you! THE WAKE! My fav book of 2015. I read outloud for 40 pages. Language as point of view, exactly! How did your friend make out with it?

[@alltheshelves9142]

I love that you read The Wake, too! It's such a commitment! My friend absolutely adored it. Maybe even more than me. She's very smart. :)

[@Teofane]

If you're interested in the relationship between academics and the paranormal, I highly recommend Deborah Blum's "Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search Scientific Proof of Life After Death". I read it this year for Hallowe'en.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm fascinated by William James and spiritualism from that time period, so I will for sure read that. Is it more of a popular nonfiction, or more academic? Because lately I don't have much energy for stuff that's too difficult.

[@finickityreader5274]

I thought the story behind the Winchester house was that she thought if she stopped building the ghosts of the people killed by Winchester guns would come after her, and she needed a confusing house to trick them and keep them away? I know I heard that somewhere...

[@BlatantlyBookish]

Hooray! You're back! I was just thinking yesterday about how I missed your videos. Ghostland sounds fascinating. I'd love to learn about why people perceive the paranormal as paranormal. I've been really interested in the paranormal, witches, and the occult this fall. I think watching the entirety of Penny Dreadful in the span of a week spurred my interest. And I read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, which played with the perceptions of paranormal in my mind. As a reader I definitely felt haunted, and wondered how much of the story was simply the narrator's perception of events rather than a portrayal of the events themselves. Have you read Rebecca? Anyway, I've acquired a few books relating to haunting, witches, feminism, etc., though I haven't read them yet. Perhaps next October I'll get around to them.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Thanks for the kind words! Is Penny Dreadful worth watching, then? I'm on the lookout for a new show to binge when I've got a bunch of time off next week! I love Rebecca! I've read it a couple times and I love the way the book thinks about feeling haunted versus actually being haunted and how someone might be haunted by the physical manifestation of an idea! So cool!

[@BlatantlyBookish]

It's a decent show to binge watch, but I had issues with the ending. Still, I think it was worth watching. I would binge watch one of the Marvels series instead if you haven't gotten around to them though.

[@elizabethabraham2695]

I'd love a video about what your high school kids are reading.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Like, what they're reading for my class? Or what they're reading on their own? (Because we have 10 minutes of silent reading time at the beginning of class and I circulate around the room, so I know a little about that, even though I haven't read most of it).

[@sonyaunrein]

Since you like Ghostland, try Dickey's The Afterlives of the Saints, which is similar to Ghostland in that he talks about how stories about saints and their miracles affected art and religion, even if the miracles had no basis in truth. It's short and often funny, and while I knew virtually nothing about saint iconography, I was interested and engaged in the book the whole time.

[@alltheshelves9142]

Oh thanks! I saw that he had written another book about saints, but I didn't know if it would be something I'd like. Now that I've got the recommendation, I'll check it out!

[@WhatKamilReads]

Erickson sounds fantastic, need to pick up something by him... beautiful reaction to Obama election... I was moved back then even living in the other side of world, I feel you.

[@alltheshelves9142]

I think you would like him! As for the Wake...I'm not sure. It was really hard for me as a native speaker, but also I'm not very good with languages, and you obviously are! So maybe you would pick it right up!

[@TheJane1775]

I'm very interested in concept of figuring out whether I'm racist or not based on things I say. I mean it sounds kind of like duality. People usually know if they are racists or not before they say something :) I may check out that book :D

[@alltheshelves9142]

Oh yeah, for sure! It's such an interesting idea! Because I think a lot of our unconscious biases and prejudices come out in speech before we even realize we have them. Or maybe it's that when we articulate something we're thinking, and suddenly hear it out loud, we're forced to reckon with how other people might hear those same sentiments. The book was really thoughtful about that idea.

[@TheJane1775]

You know I was thinking lately what if we could change meaning of some words, erase negative connotations and use them as something positive or totelly neutral. I am white but lots of my friend are black and they know that I'm many things but never racist so non of us get offended when we laugh about our diversity or races. Becouse to be honest when someone wants to be hurtful then he doesn't even need to use those "wrong" words. It's all about the way of saying things :)

[@alltheshelves9142]

But we totally can't! It would be nice to somehow come up with some kind of neutral language that we all just learn...wait...haven't there been languages like that? Isn't Esperanto supposed to be like that?

[@Alan-wd7wv]

It's nice that you're back, but are you dead, or maybe just in a comma? You look like you've died and gone to heaven. Or maybe you're in a Steve Erickson novel. I'm so glad somebody on Booktube is talking about this great writer. I've read four of his novels and my two faves so far are Arc D'x and The Sea Came in at Midnight. Magnificent books. I'll be reading Tours of the Black Clock soon and I really need to get around to Zeroville soon based on your review.

[@alltheshelves9142]

hahahaha. I know, right? It's terrible. I thought it looked ok and then I saw the footage on my computer and realized I was fooling myself. I'm in a coma, and those lights in my glasses are the lights at the end of the tunnel. ha. I love that your favorite Steve Erickson novels are two I haven't read!! Did you read These Dreams of You? I'm going to read every single thing by that magnificent genius.