"There's an unwritten compact between you and the reader. If someone enters a bookstore and sets down hard earned money (energy) for your book, you owe that person some entertainment and as much more as you can give." ~Frank Herbert in Forward of Heretics of Dune (1984)

All these great writers are giving up fiction. A few speculate in this article that maybe they are giving up fiction because they've lived enough of life to know that novels aren't true to form or there is a saturation of storytelling. For me, I stopped fervently reading fiction after my first Master's degree in History. I read so much non-fiction at that point that I just couldn't comfortably transition back into fiction. I read books on Buddhism, psychology, society and it's ills, dogs, travel - you name it. Everything but fiction. Now, I'm the fiction librarian at my library. I order all the fiction for the entire system. And I'll confess . . . I still don't really read that much fiction. I read reviews and listen to what my co-workers and patrons are saying and it works very well. I like the book How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read by Pierre Bayard. It's easy to do this and I learned very well from my time working in the bookstores that you certainly don't have to read everything you can talk about!

This being said, there are a few novels that make me swoon. I just finished The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Moshin Hamid - it was written very differently and had me riveted to the end. I finished it in four hours. 2030 by Albert Brooks was interesting because it was nearly non-fictional. You can clearly see how we can get ourselves in this healthcare/economic bind. Likewise, The Olive Readers by Christine Aziz is a dystopian future you can logically see happening. And there are the ever-present Dune novels - you can count on Brian Herbert to continue to milk this literary cow and regardless of the terrible reviews, I will still read them, soaking in every last bit of Frank Herbert's creativity, no matter how bastardized Brian and Kevin Anderson make it.

But you know what I'm really into now? Short stories. Maybe this is because I'm a victim of short-attention-span-itis with all of the gadgets and facebook and Internet articles and blurbs and blogs. I'm not sure why, but I'm finding that short stories tell me a better story than dragging on too long with a character or story line I don't care about. I feel like I just read half of The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb because I truly did not care to read the letters of that other character. So, flip, flip, flip -- it made the book go by so much faster! Which is good, because I'm too busy reading short stories and blogging. :)

Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power . . .

" . . . And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning 'that path leads ever down into stagnation.'" ~Dune

Great article on changing libraries. I know it's hard for some librarians to wrap their heads around the new roles for libraries - I see it all the time in my library. We still have several of the shushing librarians! We are also in the process of examining our current public desk set up. We have eight desks strewn around the library and we struggle to keep them staffed throughout the day. The old way of thinking about desk scheduling is meeting the new way of dealing with staffing shortages and cutbacks. I'll provide data on here as I can. It's very interesting so far.

And I'd LOVE to see a cafe in our library. Along with becoming a Yes You Can! library.

If wishes were fishes, we'd all cast nets - Gurney Hallek

I had fun looking through many of the other blogs - very nice! I've gotten some good ideas to emulate. This is going to be fun!

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct

Ah, well, it's been a long time since I've had a blog. I've had several, never really knowing what to say or why anyone would want to read what I've said. But, reading 23 Things for Professional Development has reinvigorated my desire to have a blog. So, here goes.

I'm a Dune fanatic. The name of this blog is a Mentat Fixe (adacto) from Chapterhouse Dune. This post's title is from the Manual of Muad'Dib from the original Dune. I'll try for as long as I can to have post titles that are Dune-related.

If you like science fiction and fantasy, I highly recommend going to NPR and putting in your top five favorites to help them compile the reader's choice top 100 SciFi/Fantasy books of all time.

Okay, now to the gritty stuff: why am I participating in cpd23? Well, I feel kind of out of it. I've been at a library that's been in a bit of a rut the last few years - beating back the budget monster year after year and in major managerial transition - and I feel stagnant. So, I want to get back on the technology bandwagon and start putting professional development first in my priorities again.