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What have you been doing this summer? Have you been caught reading? Danbury Library wants to know! Send us your favorite pictures of your summer reading activities to photos @ danburylibrary.org and you could win a one-year Flickr Pro Account!
Last day for submissions is August 15, 2008! The winner, determined by the Danbury Library staff, will be announced August 22, 2008.
Click here for more information, contest rules and submission guidelines.
Burned in public bonfires, denounced by all 'responsible' adults, measures passed to outlaw them--such was the plight of comic books in post WWII / pre TV America as author David Hajdu chronicles in The Ten-Cent Plague. It was not a good time for comic artists--by the time the dust settled the majority were out of jobs with an industry close to extintion.
As we know, comic books survived, thrived and morphed into the new form of graphic novels. Scan the list of top playing movies at any given time --you'll find several based on graphic novels: Wanted. Batman and Hellblazer, to name a few.
Anyone who has seen the movie Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House knows that it is an extremely witty and humorous story (starring Cary Grant & Myrna Loy) about a Manhattan advertising executive who decides to move his family to the bucolic Eden of Connecticut and buy a house and then rebuild it. The adventures which ensue from this are hilarious. What many people do not know is that the movie was based on a novel of the same title by Eric Hodgins. The book was one of the first to depict urbanites fleeing to the suburbs. It was Hodgins' fictionalized version of his own experience in having a house built in New Milford. The house Blandings Way still exists on Indian Hill Rd.. Also nearby is the country house of Dore Schary who was the executive producer of the movie. For more about Hodgins' life go to our Biography Resource Database.
Danbury will be the host city for the 20th Nutmeg State Games, Connecticut’s celebration of individual and team sports. The Games will be held Saturday, July 26th through Sunday August 3rd at venues around the city. The games include everything from archery and BMX bike racing to gymnastics, judo, track and field, and wrestling. A full schedule of events and ticket prices can be found on the website of the Nutmeg Games. Opening ceremonies (and fan fest!) will be held on July 26th at Danbury High School.
Danbury Library's Summer Wii Tournament is in full swing, and it's been a great, successful three weeks! The Teen Wii Tournament, held from 3pm to 5pm on Tuesdays in July, pits teens from grades 6 to 12 in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and the Family Wii Tournament, held from 5:30pm to 7:30pm on the same days, features great matchups between families in Wii Tennis. We only have one week left to determine the final spot for our Grand Finale Tournament on Tuesday, July 29th! Join us July 22 for your chance to be the final contestant and win a Flip Video Camera!
Congratulations to our Teen and Family Wii winners so far:
Week 1: Carolyn and Team Hinh
Week 2: Aaron and Team Blue
Week 3: Jordan and Team Purple
Week 4: To Be Determined on July 22
Click on the photo above for all our photos from our Summer Reading Programs!
On a first visit to someone's home I look at their book collection--reading choices reveal alot. A friend scopes out the kitchen first to find out what kind of cook she's visitiing--though the author points out that even if someone has a Viking stove, it doesn't mean they actually use it. All the 'stuff'' we have and how we arrange it tells others a great deal about us.
In Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You, author/psychologist Sam Gosling offers tips on how to be expert 'snoopers'. Using science and humor, Gosling takes us through bathrooms, closets, offices, yards to show us how we can very quickly size up the resident by their stuff. Couldn't help but think of the late George Carllin"s hilarious routine about us and our stuff--he points out that a house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.
On June 24, 1812 Napoleon invaded the Russian Empire and set in motion his downfall. Stanley Kubrick had wished all of his life to make a movie of Napoleon's life but alas he was never able to do so. Kubrick was fascinated by Napoleon and did indeed have a script written for the movie. His script covers Napoleon's entire life from birth to death. One of the reasons for his intense admiration for Naploeon was that he admired his ability to coordinate the logistical reqiurements for the arrival of his armies at the battlefields at the right time. Kubrick felt that a good film director should display similar talents in coordinating the logistical side of film-making. Kubrick likened the Russian campaign to the big-budgeted disaster in which Napoleon, like some directors, ignored the evidence which suggested the campaign would be a disaster.
During this hot and humid weather, take a mental trip to a cooler climate with some “chilly” reads. The unforgiving conditions and challenges of climbing Mount Everest are featured prominently in Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air, View from the Summit by Sir Edmund Hillary, and The Second Death of George Mallory: The Enigma and Spirit of Mount Everest by Reinhold Messner. For a look at an “alternate” Alaska, try Michael Chabon’s excellent The Yiddish Policeman’s Union. The Soviet Union/Russia is the setting for Martin Cruz Smith’s wonderful detective series featuring Arkady Renko (Gorky Park, Red Square, Polar Star, Wolves Eat Dogs, Stalin’s Ghost). Chills of another kind can be found in Peter Straub’s Ghost Story, and Stephen King’s Misery, Dreamcatcher, and The Shining, all of which are scary, scary stories set in snowy surroundings.