But you don't have to take my word for it

For many of us, just the first few beats of the Reading Rainbow out is enough to bring back fond memories of the long-running PBS children's' show that fostered a love of learning and reading.

For Reading Rainbow's entire run from 1983 to 2009, it boasted the same host, the imminently likable LeVar Burton. The world may know Burton as the actor who played the slave Kunta Kinte in the blockbuster TV miniseries Roots and Trekkers (or Trekkies) may know him as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge in the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series, but Reading Rainbow fans know him as the guy who always always said, "But you don't have to take my word for it," before segueing to book reviews from kids like ourselves.

(Want to revisit some of those Reading Rainbow book picks? We've got a fair number in our collection.)

The show may have gone off the air three years ago, but Burton's stayed busy with other TV-related projects. He also made an especially memorable cameo on the quirky NBC show "Community" last year, playing himself — much to the distress of a hilariously shell-shocked Troy Barnes, a character who has long adored Burton from afar.

Chatter around Burton has picked up in recent weeks due to news he's bringing Reading Rainbow back to the masses, only this time reconfigured for the digital age. As part of the effort, last month Burton successfully nabbed the @readingrainbow Twitter handle. On Burton's website RR Kidz, he reports that the show will be reincarnated as a book-related mobile app, ensuring that Reading Rainbow continues its mission of teaching kids that, just as the song says, they can go anywhere and be anything.

Best Books of 2011

With 2011 coming to a close, everyone's making their "best of" lists of which books are included. Along with the usual outlets like Publisher's Weekly and the New York Times, the Houston Chronicle has made a list of its favorites as well as NPR which has several selection sets including best novels. The Guardian's books page is another great site to check out for their extensive evaluation.

What 5 million books can teach us

By now, you may have heard of the Google Book Digitization Project, a name that's been shortened to just Google Books. Google is trying to digitize millions of books from libraries.

While there's a great deal of concern on what Google will ultimately do with that data, two Harvard researchers show us one way that information can be used: to show us how language and culture evolves. This very funny presentation took place at a TED conference (TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design) and it's science and nerd humor at its best.

Critic's Choice

Recently the National Book Critics Circle announced their 31 nominees for the 2010 year in review. The Circle awards the best English-language literature published within six major categories: autobiography, biography, criticism, fiction, nonfiction and poetry. This is the only awards presentation for which the selection committee is entirely composed of established literary critics. Since 1975 it's been associated with some of the top writing in America. Among this year's nominees are Jonathan Franzen's novel Freedom (FIC FRANZEN), The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography by Selina Hastings (B MAUGHAM) and musician Patti Smith's personalized memoir Just Kids about her early period in New York City (782.42166092 SMITH). The winners for each category will be announced at a ceremony in New York City on March 10.

How To Talk About Books You Haven't Read / by Pierre Bayard

"If you don't read one book this year, make this be the one."
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Is reading books really so important? If the people who are supposed to read books--scholars, intellectuals and teachers of literature--can't even get around to reading all of the more important works from history, and can't keep up with the thousands more published each year, and can't retain all of what they read anyway, why should average individuals be encouraged to do the same? It probably doesn't matter, unless you're confronted with having to talk about the books in question which you haven't read but are expected to have read. There are a variety of methods to employ when considering this dilemna of which author Pierre Bayard humorously points out in this little book on books. It's chiefly more important to know a book's role than it's key plot points, sentence stylings or verbage. After all, why would you want to read a great book just for its content and not for its context.
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Using examples from such writers as Balzac, Dumas, Wilde, Montaigne, Umberto Eco, and even the late Graham Greene, Bayard describes the many varieties of "non-reading" and contextualizing the 'role' of a book that we haven't yet read but either vaguely pricks our memory or conjures up associations with certain themes and ideologies. It may not be the most ethical way of going about your reading list, but it's certainly one of the most pragmatic and admirably honest instruction manuals on how to casually sound like you know what you're talking about. Funny, provocative and most of all very practical, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we select, read and absorb the books which do or don't cross our paths. This book is one in which, like the books it exposes, doesn't need to be read to really be appreciated--but you may like reading it all the way through just the same if only for the humor. (809 BAYARD)