"w00t" - It's the Word of the Year, 2007!

Merriam-Webster OnLine has announced the results of its contest for Word of the Year, and the prize goes to a word so new that it is not yet in the print version Merriam-Webster dictionary. The word, w00t, also spelled w00t!, is a gamer's exclamation of victory or happiness, but it is being used increasingly in instant messages, emails, and even conversationally. Are you familiar with several other new words in their top ten list, including blamestorm and sardoodledom? Rest assured that old favorites, especially for the SAT crowd, like conundrum and quixotic are among the top ten winners, too. To read more about this, click on the title of this posting above.

Born on This Day - John Kennedy Toole

Author of the hilarious and award-winning book, A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole was born on this day in 1937. A native of New Orleans, (Ken) Toole crafted a delightful, maddeningly funny storyline which sets the plot of this book careening around his hometown. Filled with richly described oddball characters , the story orbits around one of the oddest main characters of them all - Ignatius J. Reilly. You must read the book to believe him, and if you do, you will be rewarded with one of the funniest stories ever written. What makes this achievement poignant, however, is that A Confederacy of Dunces was published and then awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction posthumously. Ken Toole commited suicide in 1969 believing his manuscript would never be picked up by a publisher. Look for a copy of this book in our fiction wing. It's a marvel.

Winter's Icy Brushstrokes

Like Utagawa Hiroshige's woodblock,

"Clear weather after snow at Kameyama," beauty reigns after a snowfall; however, the storms have been coming rather regularly of late, haven't they?

Although we may occasionally need to close the library for inclement weather, you can always reach us the next day for your renewal or reserve needs. An even better option for you is the "Your Account" feature of our library Web site which allows you to manage the items you have out or to initiate a reserve request.

Simply click on the link below which will take you to our home page. Under the green welcome banner is the Your Account button. Clicking on this will allow you to enter your barcode number and your password, which (unless you have changed it) is the last four digits of your home telephone number. From here you may see what you have out, when it is due, how many renewals you have taken, among other options. It's just like online shopping...something we've been doing a lot lately!

http://www.bernardsvillelibrary.org/

The New York Times Selects the 100 Notable Books of 2007

Please click on the title of this post to see the 100 titles selected by the New York Times as the most notable books of 2007. This information will appear in the Sunday Book Review section of the New York Times on December 2nd.

The Giving Tree is Here

Our holiday tree offers a festive welcome to patrons entering the library, but it also affords you the opportunity to spread good cheer to children in need of reading material. Called the Giving Tree, it is the collection point for donations of new books for children of all ages who may not have access to such books otherwise. Please consider donating one or more new, unwrapped books for infants through teens. Simply place your donation inside the boxes in front of our tree by December 9th. Thank you.

Bookmark Something New To Read

Fifteen original bookmarks have been created by the staff at Bernardsville Public Library to help you chose your next reading selection. Each bookmark features a separate genre or topic, and they are all double-sided to give you even more information. One side offers a list of authors for that genre and the other side may offer interesting facts or helpful Web sites for a deeper exploration of the topic.

Bookmark topics include Horror, Chick Lit, Biographies/Memoirs, Fantasy, Romance, Adventure, Mystery, American Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, Disaster, War Fiction, Culinary Mysteries, Travel, Historical Fiction, and Prizewinners. Printed on colorful cardstock, they stand out beautifully compared to ordinary bookmarks. You'll find them at the circulation desk, so please help yourself to these new resources made just for you!