If you dread hearing “How much longer?” or “Counting cows is boring!” check out your local library for things to check out for your Christmas roadtrips. DCPL has tons of interesting, entertaining and educational DVDs, audiobooks and CDs to engage you and your children on the way to grandmother’s house or wherever you’re headed this holiday season.

Try out any or all of the Harry Potter books read by the vastly talented Jim Dale. Or get a life and listen to someone’s biography or autobiography. Watch a holiday classic like It’s A Wonderful Life or Home Alone.

All it takes is a scan of your library card and you can entertain yourself and your passengers for miles. Who knows you might be so engrossed in your story that you won’t want to stop for anything but gas. If not you can always go back to counting state license plates.

I just had the amazing opportunity of spending two weeks backpacking Northern India along with two other friends. We started in Delhi and made our way around the Golden Triangle stopping in Agra, Jaipur, Ajmer, Pushkar, Ranthambore, and Mathura. I can only describe India as one of the most interesting experiences of a lifetime.  Here are my five can’t miss sights and activities:

5. Jaipur aka The Pink City

This entire city is built of pink stucco, even the walls that surround it, hence the name “The Pink City”. It is known for its beautiful palaces, rugged fortresses, and the most amazing sunset colors known to mankind… well at least in my opinion.

During the time we visited, the Indian holiday Dewali was in full force. The streets were exceedingly crowded and chaos surrounded us. After several attempts to fit in with the madness we retreated to a roof top restaurant and enjoyed the views and activities from a comfortable distance.

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The New York Public Library is, as their website states, one of the great knowledge institutions of the world. Historian David McCullough has labeled it one of the five most important libraries in the United States, in such august company as the Library of Congress and Harvard University Library. With a combined total of over 50 million library materials (over 20 million of which are books) held by both the research and branch libraries, it is simultaneously one of the largest public library systems and one of the largest research institutions in the country.

The New York Public Library is organized into a dichotomous system of research libraries (comprised of non-circulating reference collections comparable to many university libraries) and branch libraries (lending libraries similar to municipal libraries country-wide). The system contains a total of 89 libraries: four non-lending research libraries, four main lending libraries, a library for the blind and physically challenged, and 77 neighborhood branch libraries across the three boroughs served (Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island).

Recently, the New York Times published an article titled “Secrets of the Stacks” in which they highlight some of the interesting, quirky, and little known features and offerings of the NYPL. I’ve reposted a few of my favorites from the article below:

• The library’s reference service (accessible online or by calling 917-ASK-NYPL) was established in 1968 and remains popular today. How popular? The service receives a question every 10 seconds.
• The library boasts the world’s largest collection of restaurant menus. The library has 40,000 menus dating from the 1850s to the present. While primarily of interest to chefs, it is also utilized by novelists and researchers, including a marine biologist who consulted menus from the early 1900s for a study on fish populations.
• The library also has stores of historical artifacts bearing some relation to famous authors. Some of the odder holdings include the original Winnie-the-Pooh, the cane Virginia Woolf left on the riverbank the day she committed suicide, Truman Capote’s cigarette case, hair from the heads of Charlotte Brontë, Walt Whitman, Mary Shelley and Wild Bill Hickok, and perhaps strangest of all, Charles Dickens’s favorite letter-opener, constructed with the embalmed paw of his beloved cat Bob as the handle.

If you would like further information on some of the New York Public Library’s more exceptional offerings, there is a book available in the DCPL catalog that discusses and illustrates 300 of the most important manuscripts, books, maps, prints, photographs, and ephemera held by the NYPL. Treasures of the New York Public Library is somewhat dated but still an excellent resource for interested parties. And those fascinated by the decor and architecture of the main branch will want to check out The New York Public Library : its architecture and decoration.

Lately I’ve become a bit of a Brazil-o-phile. I know very little about Brazilian culture except for what I’ve seen in movies, read in books or listened to on radio and in my music collection. All I know is that Black Orpheus is one of my favorite films,  and that I could listen to the music of Bebel Gilberto and Ceu for hours upon hours. And now that Rio de Janeiro has been appointed the host of the 2016 Summer Olympics, I’m clamoring for a trip to Cidade Maravilhoso and for more information about Brazil in general.

It should come as no surprise that the Library has a wealth of information on this incredibly fascinating country. Here are some of the things I’ve been checking out so far:

Portuguese For Dummies: I figured that in learning about another culture, a great place to start is by getting acquainted with the language. Portuguese, particularly of the Brazilian variety, is a lovely yet complex language. But Portuguese for Dummies is a great introduction to the language. For me, it helps to see Portuguese grammar and Brazilian colloquialisms and makes learning less intimidating. Seeing Portuguese in print helps me tremendously by reminding me of its similarities to other Romance languages.

Pimsleur Language Programs Portuguese (Brazilian): Right now I’m on course 1A and it’s a great way to begin tuning the ear to the language. Pimsleur’s also great for learning just about any other language you can imagine…and at your own pace.

Brazil: Nothing helps you plan a vacation quite like a guidebook. DCPL has travel books by Fodor’s, Frommer’s and Lonely Planet. The one that I’m perusing right now is a Moon Handbook which, like most guidebooks, offers helpful lodging, dining and entertainment hints. But I really like the fact that this particular book has a nice little survival phrasebook in back and fascinating cultural tidbits throughout.

As you may know, DCPL is in the process of renovating several of its existing branches as well as constructing three new ones. A list of the new branches, as well as those being renovated, is available on our website, and the profiles include photos, blueprints, dimensions, and collection size. Looking at the beautiful new branches made me wonder how we compare to other libraries around the world, so I took a look online and discovered a couple blogs boasting photos of some really impressive, really gorgeous library buildings, which I’ve linked here and here.

In addition to online offerings, the DCPL catalog has a book entitled The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World, which is 247 pages of library goodness, profiling over 20 institutions across 12 countries. Check it out.

I’ve always liked accents.  Every day people speak the same language very differently to each other, reflecting their unique backgrounds.  When I found out that there are websites that track and study accents in an organized fashion, I was hooked.

The Speech Accent Archive has an archive of people from all over the world saying the same (rather ridiculous) sentence.  You can browse by language or by geographical region. Their website stresses “that accents are systematic rather than merely mistaken speech,” and it even provides a guide to show you the common characteristics of each accent.

International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) is another similar website, which also accepts online submissions of samples.  These websites can be very useful for people as diverse as the ESL teacher trying to teach English to non-native speakers to actors who are trying to master a certain accent.

The last accent-related website I found is the Language Trainers Group’s Can You Guess Where My Accent is From? game.  It’s pretty fun.  See if you can beat it!

This month kicks off TrailFest ‘09 on the Southern Literary Trail. The Trail is a loose association of 18 southern towns in Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi that celebrate famous writers and playwrights from the twentieth century and the hometowns that inspired them. Georgia trail sites include Atlanta’s own Joel Chandler Harris and Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O’Connor, Lillian Smith, Erskine Caldwell, Carson McCullers and Alice Walker. In Mississippi, they’re celebrating the Eudora Welty Centennial this year, a very big deal indeed; although I’m disappointed that there’s no field trip to the post office. I once got to wait in a hallway at the Algonquin Hotel with Ms. Welty when our magnetic cardkeys wouldn’t work. It turned out a lot of things in that hotel room didn’t work, but it was all worth it because I got to chat with Eudora Welty.

It’s Mardi Gras time again…and we’re stuck here in Atlanta. No offense, ATL, but I can’t help but envy all the Fat Tuesday revellers who’ll be traipsing down to New Orleans getting their fill of food, fun and festivities. But that’s okay. We book-lovers and, um, vacation-planning procrastinators still can kick up our heels–albeit quietly–here at the Library. There are lots of great titles at DCPL to satisfy one’s appetite for all things related to the Big Easy. So browse around, have fun and behave yourselves. But no beads, guys! Things get too out-of-hand…

Here are some fun Mardi Gras titles for the kiddies;

Mardi Gras by Dianne M. Macmillan (Enslow Publishers)

The Greentail Mouse by Leo Lionni (Alfred A. Knopf; Random House Children’s Books)

On Mardi Gras Day by Fatima Shaik (Dial Books for Young Readers): This one is a lively and beautifully illustrated book about Mardi Gras custome and festivities.

For more grown-up reading here are some more suggestions:

Carnival, American Style: Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile by Sam Kinser (University of Chicago Press): I, for one, didn’t know there were Mardi Gras festivities in Mobile, Alabama. I’m gonna try to get my hands on this one myself–it seems really fascinating.

Gumbo Tales: Finding My Place at The New Orleans Table by Sara Roahen (W. W. Norton): Now this title isn’t so much a Mardi Gras book but isn’t this the perfect time to delve into New Orleans’ culinary customs and traditions?

Up From The Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II by Jason Berry, Jonathan Foose and Tad Jones (University of Georgia Press): Here’s a book that I’ve been reading that discusses New Orleans’ rich musical and cultural heritage. For those, such as myself, who are looking to gain insight into the Crescent City’s history and an introduction to such musical greats as Fats Domino, Professor Longhair and others, this is a great starting point.

All of this Mardi Gras jazz has really made me want to see New Orleans even more. For anyone looking for a tour guide into the Big Easy don’t forget the ever-popular and informative Frommer’s and Fodor’s guides to the city. If I get started planning right now, who knows? This time next year I may be doing this blog post from the French Quarter.

Can you recognize these legendary album covers?  If so, what about where these photos were actually taken?  Word magazine has created a Google Maps mashup called Album Atlas that makes it really easy to find out, so that you can be the most knowledgeable guy or gal at the music store (at least concerning this topic).  You can click anywhere on the map with a blue flag and it will show you an album cover taken at that location.  Alternately, you may click on an album title from the full list, and it will show you the location on the map.  Continue reading this post if you want the answers to the above questions… Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re looking for more ways to save gas (and thus, money!), then here is something you’ve probably never thought about before, but can make a big difference.  Cars have an optimal speed for gas efficiency, and that speed is around 60mph or less.  “In a typical family sedan, every 10 miles per hour you drive over 60 is like the price of gasoline going up about 54 cents a gallon,” according to this CNN article.  The reason is simply air resistance!  The savings can really add up, especially if you do a lot of highway driving.

Interested in other ways to save gas?  Check out these older (but still relevant) blog posts:

• Make Money By Not Driving
• Got The Gas Pump Blues?
• Learn How to Fix Your Bicycle