Midweek Reading Meme Thing
Jul. 9th, 2015 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I've Just Finished Reading
Zac Bissonette's The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute, which I read on a whim and enjoyed very much. It's a svelte, lively read, which digresses often - I particularly enjoyed the forays into the history of the stuffed toy industry (did you know that the founder of the Steiff teddy bear company was a polio victim who started out hiring mainly disabled people?) - without ever losing sight of its two main plot lines: the beanie baby craze itself and the life of Ty Warner, the man behind the plush company that makes beanie babies.
He sounds like a terrible person. This is apparently not uncommon in the plush industry - Bissonette notes that an industry joke is that people go into plush because they're "too mean for the garment district." Zing! - perhaps in part because plush tends to attract people who had terrible childhoods.
Warner himself had a terrible childhood. In Bissonette's telling, he comes across as an unhappy, controlling, lonely man who warps the lives of the people who love him: particularly his two successive girlfriends, who were both integrally involved in the company but had no formal role and thus no financial stability of their own. The end result is a portrait that is - I'm trying to think of the best way to word this - sympathetic without being forgiving, perhaps. Warner's life is clearly very sad, and I really did feel for him at times, but there's never any sense that this excuses his rotten treatment of others.
What I'm Reading Now
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II, by Molly Guptill Manning, which is about U.S. programs in World War II to get books to the G.I.s, particularly the Armed Services Editions - A.S.E.s - lightweight paperback books specifically printed so soldiers could carry them around to have something to distract them from their misery in foxholes or read while they convalesced or what have you.
It's a book about the ability of books to provide escape and relaxation and even healing: some of the most touching passages in the book are letters from soldiers who were suffering from an emotional shutdown until they read, say, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or a selection of Hemingway's short stories or what have you, and it helped them feel again and now they're writing to the author to say thank you. I mean, how inspiring.
I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life - because if I don't come up with some sort of plan, I'm just going to while away my life as a Starbucks barista, which doesn't sound appealing. And what I keep coming back to, the thing I have always felt passionate about, is books and literacy and the joy of reading: I felt that I was doing something that mattered the year that I tutored for the Minnesota Reading Corps.
...Going back to school to become a teacher also doesn't sound that appealing, but I guess you've got to start somewhere.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have no particular plans for once.
Zac Bissonette's The Great Beanie Baby Bubble: Mass Delusion and the Dark Side of Cute, which I read on a whim and enjoyed very much. It's a svelte, lively read, which digresses often - I particularly enjoyed the forays into the history of the stuffed toy industry (did you know that the founder of the Steiff teddy bear company was a polio victim who started out hiring mainly disabled people?) - without ever losing sight of its two main plot lines: the beanie baby craze itself and the life of Ty Warner, the man behind the plush company that makes beanie babies.
He sounds like a terrible person. This is apparently not uncommon in the plush industry - Bissonette notes that an industry joke is that people go into plush because they're "too mean for the garment district." Zing! - perhaps in part because plush tends to attract people who had terrible childhoods.
Warner himself had a terrible childhood. In Bissonette's telling, he comes across as an unhappy, controlling, lonely man who warps the lives of the people who love him: particularly his two successive girlfriends, who were both integrally involved in the company but had no formal role and thus no financial stability of their own. The end result is a portrait that is - I'm trying to think of the best way to word this - sympathetic without being forgiving, perhaps. Warner's life is clearly very sad, and I really did feel for him at times, but there's never any sense that this excuses his rotten treatment of others.
What I'm Reading Now
When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Us Win World War II, by Molly Guptill Manning, which is about U.S. programs in World War II to get books to the G.I.s, particularly the Armed Services Editions - A.S.E.s - lightweight paperback books specifically printed so soldiers could carry them around to have something to distract them from their misery in foxholes or read while they convalesced or what have you.
It's a book about the ability of books to provide escape and relaxation and even healing: some of the most touching passages in the book are letters from soldiers who were suffering from an emotional shutdown until they read, say, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn or a selection of Hemingway's short stories or what have you, and it helped them feel again and now they're writing to the author to say thank you. I mean, how inspiring.
I've been thinking about what I want to do with my life - because if I don't come up with some sort of plan, I'm just going to while away my life as a Starbucks barista, which doesn't sound appealing. And what I keep coming back to, the thing I have always felt passionate about, is books and literacy and the joy of reading: I felt that I was doing something that mattered the year that I tutored for the Minnesota Reading Corps.
...Going back to school to become a teacher also doesn't sound that appealing, but I guess you've got to start somewhere.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have no particular plans for once.
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no subject
Date: 2015-07-10 12:30 pm (UTC)One thing you can do--something I've thought of doing--which is short of going back to school (or, more likely, something you can do to have a qualification while you pursue going back to school) is a certification to teach adults. It probably varies from state to state, and I'm at my dad's house, so I don't have access to my home files--I can write more when I get home--but at least in Massachusetts, there's an online test you can register for that gives you this sort of very basic certificate. It can be helpful to have if you want a paid job (rather than volunteering) teaching English to immigrants, or helping people get their high school equivalency. I started looking into it when a job opened up at the jail and one of the people who worked there asked me if I wanted to apply. (As it happens, I didn't apply for a number of reasons, but it's something I'd seriously consider in slightly different circumstances.)
More later, and probably by post.
(The Beanie Baby book sounds excellent)
no subject
Date: 2015-07-11 05:04 pm (UTC)And the Beanie Baby book is excellent! I came to it cold, without having read any reviews or anything - which is unusual these days; most of the books I read come from recommendations from friends - and I was surprised how much I liked it.