Leap Day

Friday is the bonus day in 2008, the extra day, leap day. If you check on Wikipedia you will find a very succinct description covering several cultures telling you that the calendar is a complicated thing. If you want the backstory, perhaps a more detailed and readable explanation of how leap day came to be, check on our shelves for the history of the calendar. It involves math, history, religion, astronomy, personalities and several continents. Put those extra 24 hours to use and learn something new!

The Academy Awards

The 80th annual Academy Awards will be presented this Sunday, hosted by Jon Stewart. You can both read about past awards and check out award winning movies at the library. Van Wylen is not Blockbuster, and doesn't intend to be, but we have worked to improve our selection by buying prize winners and best reviewed films while also accepting gifts from personal collections. We even have Jon Stewart's "America (the book)". Let the library enhance your red carpet weekend!

Valentine's Day and the Library

What's on the library shelves this Wednesday? Good things for your valentine at no cost to you! Check out "Love Songs from the Movies" for background music, "English Love Poems" for some traditional verse, "Love Poems of Ovid" for a really classical approach, or "Nothing But You: Love Stories from the New Yorker" for a modern slant on love. And there's more, a lot more. The point is: with a little effort and the help of the library, you can present your sweetheart with a memorable Saint Valentine's day treat. Play her some music, read him a story, put a poem in a card. You don't have to tell that you got the idea here!

Parliament of Fowls Reading

The Cup & Chaucer, located in the lobby of the Van Wylen Library, will be hosting a read-aloud of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Parliament of Fowls” on Valentine’s Day at 11a.m. This poem is the first reference to the idea that St. Valentine’s Day is a special day for lovers. All are welcome to come and be part of the reading, or come and listen to Curtis Gruenler perform sections of the poem in Middle English. For a brief synopsis of the "Parliament of Fowls" click here.

Lent and the library

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the season of Lent. Forty days are set aside before Easter as a time of preparation. For some this might include extra devotions, prayers, fasting, or giving up favorite treats. Between the College and the Seminary we have many books about this season, but I would like to call attention to a category of items which might be of interest to anyone seeking a new way to prepare themselves for Easter. A call number search BV245 leads you to a list of prayer books in Van Wylen library. I find new inspiration in prayers written, not for a liturgy, but by other individuals, and there are many of them on the shelves this special Wednesday.