Following up on a previous post On the Road: Bibliotherapy for Hungarians Abroad, I’m sharing what can be gleaned from a full semester bibliotherapy group session with fellow Hungarians living abroad. The first rule of fight clubs (i.e., don’t talk about fight clubs) applies to bibliotherapy groups too. Joking aside, the confidential setting is a powerful … Read More
What Students Say About the Library Following up on the Books They Read post, miniposters SEBS students created during their library session as part of their Academic Mentoring course in Fall 2022, here is recap of the humbling experience these classes pose to each librarian. One can’t expect miracles from a one-shot, 80-minute session. The “less is … Read More
Library instruction sessions can be boooooring! Unless students feel the urge, pun intended, to pay attention (paper due, a strict course instructor is watching, the librarian is rolling their eyes, or all of the above), 80 minutes can fly away quickly, with zero impact. Time wasted, for all parties. Nothing new under the sun, not … Read More
We hear you, Chepito! This would be my message to the author of one of the most remarkable books published this fall on a topic that might divide the readers of this blog, just as it does this country and the world. Solito: A Memoir, written by accomplished poet Javier Zamora, is a captivating story … Read More
Poodle Springs sounds like an intriguing title alone. The eighth novel in the famous Philip Marlowe series has two authors listed, Raymond Chandler, the original writer of the series, and Robert B. Parker. What’s going on here? With only four chapters written, Poodle Springs was left unfinished in 1959 when Chandler died. For his 100th … Read More
Planning to attend the Celebration of Scholarship at New Brunswick Libraries? To be held in Douglass Library on Wednesday, October 26, 2022 from 4 pm to 6 pm, this event highlights accomplishments of Rutgers authors with displays of books, book chapters, journal articles, recordings, and more published in 2020-2022. Register now! Pictured here is my … Read More
“Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us” is the theme of Banned Books Week 2022, observed from September 18 to 24 this year. Committed to intellectual freedom, Books We Read joins the American Library Association’s annual event, which has brought together the entire book community to support the freedom “to seek and to express ideas, even … Read More
Welcome to the new academic year, whether you are back or here for the first time. Books We Read staff will continue what we do the best: Recommend books to read for fun from the collections of Rutgers University Libraries, print and online, as requested by students. If you become more comfortable using our resources … Read More
Speaking of his poetry in an interview in 2005, Borbély claims that he doesn’t intend to discuss deep philosophical questions in his works. Instead, he works on solving the task of creating a system of rules that builds on his previous works, but breaks away from them or obliterates them. Admitting that he doesn’t think … Read More
Circling back to Kafka shows the long-lasting effect of early experiences and influences continually revisited that is discernible in Borbély’s works. One step forward from the practice of “the novel writing itself,” Kafka’s Son seems to follow another modus operandi, that of the text itself rewriting itself. Borbély turns to Kafka’s texts three times by … Read More