My colleagues Richard and Christi put together this great video (above) about the importance of reading to children, and even provided some helpful guidelines on how to get started, and how to get the most out of your bedtime (or anytime!) reading. I’ve added the tips below as well, for reference, as well as a list of books included in the video.

Tips:

1. Begin reading to them from at least six months old. Use those thick board books so they can get used to handling books — some people read to ‘em while they’re still in the womb.

2. Do it regularly — reading must become routine. It’s have a bath, brush their teeth, listen to a good book.

3. Turn off the TV. Turn off the computer games. Turn off the Ipod. Turn off the radio. If I’m reading, then they’re listening and there will be no distractions.

4. Put some effort into your reading — you don’t have to do funny voices but a monotonous drone can put a young listener to sleep.

5. Stop and explain new words being heard for the first time — and encourage your child to ask when they hear something they don’t understand.

6. With chapter books, have a quick discussion at the end of a chapter — you can start by saying something like…well, it looks like Harry and Ron are really in trouble this time?

7. Let your child choose the books — this is important in developing their own tastes and a feeling of independence. Young children may ask for the same picture book over and over again — that’s fine, they move on….eventually.

8. Don’t underestimate your child’s ability to process stories that seems threatening and violent. There’s nothing worse than bland bedtime reading.

9. Once my children were learning to read to themselves, our routine changed to include them reading something to me before I read to them.

10. For a bit of variety, introduce ‘guest’ readers — granny or grand-dad can do it when they come to stay, or an older sister can do it for an evening.

Great Books for Children:

Peter Rabbit

We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Featuring a stern, turtlenecked librarian named Betty Glover, this is nearly five minutes of surreal, spoof workout advice for librarians, made in 1987 by an Arizona State University student. While disturbingly sizeist and focused on the horror of fatness, the video is also totally delightful, and liberal in its use of Van Halen, Huey Lewis and the News, Tears for Fears, Billy Idol, Devo and other 80s musical greats. The tape claims to offer librarians a way to fight slack muscles and flab while in their element, with such exercises as the vertical drawer pull, and horizontal drawer pull, and rapid-fire stapling.

Weird. I do enjoy that the dictatorial and not-to-be-messed-with Betty Glover comes with her own riding crop. The staff won’t be getting lazy on her watch.

Enjoy this surreal bit of Wednesday library fun.

And for more librarian-themed goodness, check out our list of Literature from Librarians: Great Reads Written by the Experts.

Publishers Weekly has a list of the 10 most anticipated 2013 movies from books. Here are my thoughts on each.

10. Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin
I confess, I know little about this, as I’ve never read the book. It has a promising cast including Colin Farrell and Jennifer Connelly (something for everyone, then…!), but it’s also Akiva Goldsman’s first attempt at directing a full-length film. With time travel and strong fantasy element, it’s an ambitious project. Jury is out, and this could go either way.

9. A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre
John Le Carre’s writing is taut, dense and thrilling, and lends itself very well to intelligent film. Those expecting an action-packed spy thriller such as the Jason Bourne movie will likely be disappointed, but if you’re one who enjoys being engrossed deeply in a film and paying attention, it’s bound to be excellent. With acting chops like Philip Seymour Hoffman on board, I’m confident this will be good.

8. The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort
The latest from Martin Scorsese (which of course means Leonardo DiCaprio stars – those two seem joined at the contract, lately), this will be slick and tense. It tells the true story of the author’s illegal financial dealings and eventual criminal conviction. Scorsese’s a hell of a filmmaker, but the subject matter makes this a renter for me.

7. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters from the series by Rick Riordan
While young readers love the celebrated Percy Jackson and the Olympians book series from Rick Riordan, critics were divided on opinion about the first film (The Lightning Thief), with many feeling it was more style than substance, and too formulaic, while others argued its trueness to the book was the only way to do it justice. This will likely be more of the same – fans of the books (and of the Harry Potter films, for that matter…) will probably find much to like here.

6. Beautiful Creatures from the series by Kamy Garcia
This is not my wheelhouse, so I will refrain from much comment. But if you are a fan of Twilight or The Vampire Diaries or Jennifer’s Body or any similar such fare, this perhaps might be up your alley.

5. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug from The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Part two of Peter Jackson’s trilogy, from Tolkien’s single (and not even all that big) novel. Avoid the 3D, but see it. Of course see it. What, do you want to relinquish your nerd card? I’ll be there.

4. The Host by Stephenie Meyer
Ok look, don’t judge me. I know the Twilight books were nauseating, poorly written, repetitive and juvenile. But you have to admit (or at least I do) that the story was compelling. Enough so that I still finished all four books, even while bitching and griping about the quality of the writing. But Meyer can tell a good story. Then I read somewhere (this is utterly unsubstantiated and may be an out and out lie of a rumor) that Meyer had “dumbed down” the Twilight books at the behest of her publisher, who thought Meyer’s original drafts were too sophisticated for the teenaged target group. So when I heard Meyer had also written a book for adults, The Host, I gave it a go. And except for the romantic scenes (I think Meyer and I just have very different ideas of love), which made me retch, the book is really, really good. Couple that with Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder, and I expect this to be decent. But it’s from the director of Gattaca, so….let’s call this a yellow light intersection. And the good news is, if you accidentally confuse it with the 2006 Korean horror movie of the same name, you’re still in for a definite good time, as that movie is awesome.

3. World War Z by Max Brooks
Look, if you read Brooks’ other book The Zombie Survival Guide and had the same reaction has me (“heh, this was cute and funny for the first 50 pages, but I’m done now”0, do not let that dissuade you from reading and seeing World War Z. That book was so good. Loved it. It was so painstakingly crafted, researched and presented that at points (particularly when reading late at night), my hamster brain actually began to blur the lines of common sense reality and allow in the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. The book seemingly factually covers every angle of an attack – regional differences, climate, aftermatch, class differences and the like. It’s a really excellent book. This is the movie I’m most excited about in 2013 for sure – though I am nervous about Marc Forster as director. Stranger Than Fiction was surprisingly wonderful, Monster’s Ball and The Kite Runner were best left unwatched. And by that I mean unmade. World War Z has some excellent acting talent in it, including the much-underrated David Morse.

2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
The second part in the trilogy, Catching Fire was the weakest of the books and I expect it to be the weakest of the films. That said, it will probably still be dazzling and exciting, with strong performances from Jennifer Lawrence (if you want to see just how good an actor she is, rent the mindblowing adaptation if Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone) and co., and will probably kill at the box office. Particularly as more bandwagoners will have jumped aboard by now.

1. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Oh, jeez. From the director who brought us X-Men Origins: Wolverine…. *polite cough* So, I admit, I don’t have much footing here as I’ve never read Ender’s Game (I know, I know, my to-read list resembles The Leaning Tower of Pisa), but I expect a lot of science-fiction fans to be bitterly disappointed when Ender’s Game comes out. I lack faith that even the adorability-duo of Abigail Breslin and Asa Butterfield or the awesome-aging-actor street cred of Ben Kingsley and Harrison Ford can save it… I just smell a stinker. But I was wrong once back in 2002… perhaps I’ll be wrong ago. Let’s hope so, for all those Ender’s fans holding their breath and waiting for opening day.

And as a happy bonus, here’s the World War Z movie trailer:

Taschen, one of our favorite publishers, has issued The James Bond Archives edited by Paul Duncan. The publisher claims the 600-page heavyweight book is “the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made.” Duncan spent two years researching over “one million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation.”

The book is a must for 007 movie buffs and includes 1,100 images of previously unseen stills, on-set photos, memos, documents, storyboards, posters, and designs, plus unused concepts, and alternative designs. There is also going to be a Golden Edition signed by Daniel Craig, limited to 500 copies and bound in full leather.

Two vaguely literary items of note regarding the gorgeous golden god that is Ryan Gosling:

1) The web site “Feminist Ryan Gosling” now has an accompanying book, titled, appropriately, Feminist Ryan Gosling. Safer to take in the bathtub than a laptop, and is mostly new material. Its author, Danielle Henderson, is interviewed here about the new book. If you’re unfamiliar with the format of the internet sensation, it’s pretty cute – it involves photoshopping pictures of Ryan Gosling alongside inspirational feminist quotes.

2) And second, let’s talk about Fifty Shades of Grey some more. Have you heard of 50 Shades of Grey? Well – are you sitting down? Sit down. Good then. – it is still rumor and a big game of telephone right now, but the latest buzz is that the movie version will cast Ryan Gosling as Christian Grey. Even though some of us might have a hard time with 50 Shades in terms of literature, or even as a realistic or acceptable depiction of the BDSM community, if you’re in it just for the junk-food-fun of it, it’s hard to not be excited at the idea of Ryan Gosling playing Christian Grey. Love it or loathe it, the book has received unprecedented outpourings of attention, and is controversial both in terms of its quality and its content, and it’s been pretty fun watching this whole thing unfold.

Let’s see if it gets past the rumor stages and comes to fruition.

And now, I must set about finding some rare, antiquarian pieces of literature to showcase, as this may be the most lowbrow blog post I’ve ever written. Internet memes and mommy porn….oh dear.

And if you’d like, you can read about even more weird cookbooks.

The project is an adaptation of Sedaris’ essay called “C.O.G.”, from the 1997 collection Naked, from writer-director Kyle Patrick Alvarez. Alvarez is so far little-known, but his 2009 directorial debut, Easier Than Practice, impressed critics and earned him an Indie Spirit Award in the “Someone to Watch” category.

I loved C.O.G. when I read it. Sedaris wrote it about the time he spent working as an apple-picker in Oregon orchards in the 1980s, and the wonderful and alarming people he encountered along the way. I remember it the characters being almost cartoonish, but Sedaris’ writing is such that I bought into it wholly and laughed my way through the whole thing.

What is exciting is this, in two parts: 1) David Sedairs, to now, has flat-out refused to allow any of his work to be adapted for screenplay; and 2) It was Alvarez himself, with a visit to Sedaris on his book tour, and an impassioned six-page email follow-up, who convinced the author to let him proceed.

Shooting is slated to start in October 2012. I am crossing fingers and toes that this goes forward and makes it.

If you’ve never read Naked, I recommend it very highly – that, Me Talk Pretty One Day and Holidays On ice are my favourite Sedaris collections.

via indiewire.com

Of all the movies in Anderson’s oeuvre, my favorite would come down to either Rushmore or more probably,The Royal Tenenbaums. Dark and wistful,strange and fantastical, The Royal Tenenbaums paints as strange a portrait of dysfunction in a family as can be imagined. Phantom faked illnesses, forbidden and vaguely incestuous yearnings, stabbings, redemption, and a family of once-shining child prodigies all floundering in the terrible, blinding reality of adulthood. There are several books referred to throughout the script, none of them real books, that the marvelous people at Criterion have designed cover images for the fictitious book and magazine covers mentioned throughout the movie. Favorites below – the rest on the Criterion web site.

via MentalFloss