C-SPL Reader of the Month: Colin Muenster

About Colin 

I am an Enterprise Architect at Clarke University, which is fancy for guy who does a little bit of everything.  In addition to app development and implementing strategic IT initiatives in relation educational technology, I also manage the Audiovisual Department, being the chief AV nerd on campus.  My hobbies include reading, writing, theatre, home “improvement”  projects, online gaming with my buddies, and spending time with my family.  I have worked a variety of jobs here in Dubuque, from overnight security guard, English & Theatre teacher, bookseller (River Lights), waiter (L.May), and freelance graphic design artist.  I have been hired to play a clown, and been paid money under the table to DJ at weddings.  I have a blog with some bad poetry, essays, and pictures of my daughters doing cute things.

(See the past Reader of the Month posts here) 

Q&A with Colin

Q. What is the best book you have read within the last year (or ever)?

A. Since I really view them as a single book, I would say it would be the Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer.

Q. What is your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. Cramped on a too small couch with a thick, dark beer.

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next, and what about it is most exciting?

I am excited to read Borne by Jeff Vandermeer.  Honestly, I loved the SR Trilogy so much, and am completely enamored with his writing style that I can’t wait to immerse myself in words again.

Q. What book do you think more people should read, and why do you think they should read it?

A. Perhaps not a specific book, per se, but an alternative literary canon – dramatic literature. What a play or a musical can do is distill a narrative to its most essential components and lay bare a character in ways a novel often cannot.  It forces the reader to use their psychoanalytical skills that a novel often makes easier for you.  This is especially true in terms of character development and motivation.  A play also has an artistry in and of itself that is magnificent to behold and legion in variety.  While a play is incomplete until being viewed on the stage, the simple act of reading can offer a sometimes more rewarding experience than a piece of fiction.  That being said, here is my short-list based on my current mood:  Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett, J.B. by Archibald MacLeish, Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas, and God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza. 

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner.  It took me so long to finally put my head in a place to really understand the menagerie of language Faulkner employs in crafting this book.  Having to retrain myself to understand the narrative as constructed by Faulkner was a grueling process and took the better part of year to achieve, but once it clicked, a light emanated from the novel that left me in awe of how one can paint with the artistry of words.

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book? In other words, do you read every book to the last page, or is there a moment when you decide to stop?

A. I like to read challenging books in the same way runners may challenge themselves with longer or more difficult courses.  They payoff in that challenge once it is completed is for me one of the greatest joys of reading, although ironically, I never really wish for a good book to ever end, delaying my sought after catharsis.  That being said, the thing that usually forces me to put a book down is boredom coupled with a busy schedule.

Q. Do you remember when your love for reading began?

A. I don’t remember its title or how old I was, although I know for sure I was a child in elementary school.  I had, for the first time, finished a chapter book, and that sense of achievement and satisfaction hit me in a way nothing ever had up to that point.  I sought every opportunity to recreate that feeling ever since. 

Q. Can you tell us about your reading life in general?

A. What is odd, I feel, about my reading life is that if you were to ask any of my teachers growing up, I think you’d find that very few of them saw me as someone who loved to read.  They would be right, as I did hate to read….what they told me to read, mostly because they told me to read it.  I read on my own, and rarely did I take the time to pick up the assigned reading, which, as you may imagine, led to some less-than-stellar grades.  I was a closeted reader, rarely discussing books with ANYONE, because some part of me felt a certain shame in the act of loving something I so openly detested in an academic setting.  It wasn’t until college, when surrounded by people with passions ranging and intermingling in the fields of art, literature, and music did I truly begin to openly, and with renewed ferocity, express my love for the written word.  I found the world far more complex, beautiful (or by contrast exasperatingly ugly) than I had ever dreamt. It is why, when I was hired to work at River Lights Bookstore after graduating from college, I felt as I had truly struck gold (which is still true for anyone who is bestowed the opportunity to work at River Lights, a place as close to heaven as you can reach while on earth). To this day, I rarely travel anywhere without something to read just in case the opportunity arises.  With three kids in tow nowadays, those opportunities are a little less frequent, but old habits die hard.  In a supreme cosmical feat of karma, my passion for literature led me to go back to school to become a High School English and Theatre teacher where I was able to couple my love of theatre and literature into something I was so fortunate to do on a daily basis for five years of my life.  I could go on, really, but you weren’t expecting a novel, or a novel written by me that is.

Check out Colin Muenster's book list! 

Apply to be the next C-SPL Reader of the Month!

#ComicsWednesday: Mooncop by Tom Gauld

Someone probably already said this, but Mooncop by Tom Gauld is The Little Prince of our times.

Like The Little Prince, this new, tiny book is elegant and beautiful. It expresses in a few short pages what it means to be human, not only in an imagined future where we fly through space and colonize the moon, but in the present, at this very moment.

Mooncop is sad and lovely. Don't let it slip by!

~Mike, Adult Services

Staff Review: My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead may be the best book I read in 2016. I read it (twice!), just after the unsavory election season ended, deciding I'd forego the news for a while and lose myself in a really good book. The result was amazing. Not only did I love the book, but I found myself going about my business in a much better mood.

My Life in Middlemarch is an English major's dream, a hybrid work of nonfiction: one part memoir and four parts literary biography. Mead's subjects are the great Victorian writer George Eliot (born Mary Anne Evans) and her masterpiece, Middlemarch, which multiple critics have suggested may be "the greatest novel in the English language." 

Middlemarch is Mead's favorite book for sure, one she re-reads every few years. She finds that the novel speaks to her in new and compelling ways every time, as she navigates her way through life's milestones: moving away from home for the first time, finding a life's work, beginning and ending relationships, acquiring a family.

I've been in love with Middlemarch myself for a long time, so it's hard for me to judge how Mead's book will strike someone who hasn't read it. Eliot's highly unconventional life is certainly fascinating in its own right. As a young woman in the 1840s, Eliot rejected the conservative church-faith of her beloved father and established herself as an independent, free-thinking writer (and to say this was scandalous is an understatement). She next fell in love with a married man who was unable to divorce his estranged wife and she lived with him openly for 24 years. A highly disapproving London society eventually softened its censure somewhat as Eliot became one of the most beloved novelists of her time, right up there with Dickens.

So, if you love English authors, especially the Victorian kind, and you enjoy literary biographies, My Life in Middlemarch may well appeal to you. For maximum enjoyment though, read Middlemarch first. Yes, it's a doorstop, but you'll be glad you picked it up -- and we have it in audio too!

 ~Ann, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

For the Great Reading Challenge, I’ve chosen to read a book over 100 years old. I read James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers in part because I’ve had a worn dusty edition sitting on my coffee table for the past year, but also (and the reason it’s been taking up table space) because it is set during a time in American history I’ve wanted to better understand. Particularly I’ve been curious about who these settlers were, some of the events that happened in the country before they came, their aspirations, and their continuing effect on the modern world. Basically, I wanted a deeper understanding than the bits I remember from grade school.

The Pioneers is the first book in Cooper’s five stories about his character Leatherstocking. It has a common narrative style of the 19^th century: richly detailed with descriptions of the setting and characters, and it strolls along at a leisurely pace. With the book being over 400 pages, it takes some time to get into the rhythm of plot and language. That being said, this style isn’t for everyone. I was a little skeptical when Cooper warned in the introduction that the book is a “descriptive tale” and that he wrote it solely for personal satisfaction. I figured it could go one of two ways: a directionless rambling with explanations of every type of tree he encountered and a long geological survey of the area; or, since it was inspired by personal passion, it might be a unique glimpse into that time period. I was happy to discover that my second speculation was closer. Although the descriptions at the beginnings of chapters (mostly in the first half of the book) can be quite long before any action happens, I feel they add depth to the story and help place the reader into that world.

The Pioneers is loosely based on Cooper’s own life: his father founded Cooperstown, New York, with the parallel in the story being the fictional town of Templeton, founded by Judge Marmaduke Temple (possibly bearing some resemblance to Cooper’s actual father). This character is treated with fairness – he believes in the justness and fairness of the law, but also believes the land is his because of the document given to him from his country. We find a constant conflict with Temple's beliefs in the character of Nathaniel (Natty) Bumppo, also known as Leatherstocking (the Davy Crockett-like hero of Cooper’s novels).

Even though much of the book is descriptive, Cooper introduces an engaging storyline and scenes of suspense.  The reader is introduced to threatening wild animals, hunting mishaps, wild fires, and blossoming romance. The descriptions and narrative serve the bigger part of pushing forward Cooper’s beliefs. The book is written with much reverence toward the Native Americans' lifestyle, but also pathos toward the settlers (well, some of the settlers). He’s highly critical of the settlers, but makes his characters very human and relatable. The character of Leatherstocking, who fought in the French and Indian War and adapted a loner lifestyle with a Native American friend, represents the wisdom that comes from knowing how to live off the land.  Judge Templeton is an intelligent person and understands the need to be conservative with the environment, but coming from a different background also believes in the fairness of the law invented by civilized men. Although presenting opposing philosophies, Cooper is fair with both these characters and paints them as some of the most reasonable in the book, although Leatherstocking is more clearly the hero. 

Some of the settlers represent what we might recognize as our least admirable qualities. Richard, Templeton’s cousin, amplifies this position in his boastfulness and lavish attitude toward the land and animals. His extravagance is displayed when he wheels in a cannon to shoot at pigeons. Not content with the settlers shooting down as many as they can get, he wants to prove that he can get it done in one “fell swoop of destruction.” Cooper’s environmentalist philosophy is displayed in many of the character interactions in the novel.  These early reflections of our impact on the environment remain especially powerful today.

For those ready to invest themselves in this book, The Pioneers acts as a meditation on our American way of life. Although history already took the course the settlers set in motion, these early insights into the minds of the pioneers help us to connect with a larger picture of what it means to be an American, forcing the reader to think critically about our relationship with the natural world. Besides the strong message, the action and drama set up with Cooper’s characters keep the story fun. All five stories starring Natty Bumppo can be checked out from the library under the title The Leatherstocking Tales, containing perhaps the most famous story The Last of the Mohicans.

~Ben, Adult Services

The Great Reading Challenge: Read a Classic!

"Read a classic novel" is one of the categories in C-SPL's Great Reading Challenge. I decided it was time to read Light in August by William Faulkner, which my son has been urging me to read. So I read it and I'm not sure I'll ever recover.  

Light in August may be the grimmest, darkest, most harrowing novel I have ever read. Written in 1932, it examines issues of race, gender, religion, and social class in the American South -- and not in any way that makes you want to re-locate. It's Southern Gothic on steroids. I'm not sure I can recommend it except to say that Faulkner is brilliant, he writes like some higher order of angel (a dark angel, that is), and if you like Cormac McCarthy, you may very well like Faulkner.

If you'd like to check off the Classic Novel box but don't want anything that makes you lose the will to live, here are a few more-upbeat suggestions:

Middlemarch, arguably the greatest novel in the English language,
is George Eliot's masterpiece. The novel examines the lives, struggles,
failures, and redemptions of a fascinating network of characters inhabiting the Midlands town of Middlemarch as the industrial age approaches. Its centerpiece is Dorothea Brooke, a beautiful and intelligent young woman seeking a life of significance at a tough time for women. (George Eliot, by the way, was a woman.) At 800-plus pages, this one is not for the faint of heart but it's worth every minute of the effort.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins, who was Charles Dicken's good friend, is often called the first detective novel in English. The Moonstone's crime is the theft of the Tippoo diamond after the fall of Seringapatam in India in 1799. The Indian element imbues this very British, very Victorian novel, told by way of letters, with an exotic and sinister atmosphere. There's a great cast of characters and as with all good Victorian reads, romance is definitely in the air (or will be once the villain is identified).

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte, is surely one of the world's most beloved novels. It's one of those classics nobody gripes about having to read. That's because it's got everything: a Gothic atmosphere, an evil orphanage, a clever, bright, unconventional heroine (she's neither gorgeous nor splendidly wealthy), a brooding lord of the manor, a romantic competitor who is lovely and rich, a catastrophic fire, something sinister and creepy in the attic, and more! The intelligent and witty dialogue between Jane, a mere governness, and Mr. Edward Rochester, master of Thornfield Hall, makes for some wonderfully gripping (and, dare I say, romantic?) reading.

~Ann, Adult Services