Wanted: Suggestions for 2009 Livermore Reads Together

So, what do you want to read next year?  Please offer your suggestions, humble opinions, two cents, and more about reading suggestions for next year’s Livermore Reads Together program.  This is a community reading event, and we value your input!  You can email us at lib@livermore.lib.ca.us or drop by the Information Desk at any library branch to suggest a book. 

Where did those sandworms come from?

Kevin Grazier gave a great presenation today on The Science of Dune.  He raised the point that the sandworms must have been introduced to Arakkis because the desert planet cannot support life.  Grazier, an astronomy instructor and Galactica consultant, brought hyperspace, relativity, and other dizzying concepts down to earth with his humor and enthusiasm. 

After his presentation, he joined many Dune fans in the library’s Community Rooms, where Kevin J. Anderson drew crowds with an appearance.

Thanks for joining us at these Livermore Reads Together programs!

Where’s my stillsuit?

Have you been reading the Dune series and wondering about how Herbert’s predictions and inventions would play out in the nonfiction realm? If so, you’re not alone. The Science of Dune is a collection of essays, penned by physicists, biologists, anthropologists, and other experts, about the science behind Herbert’s science fiction. Kevin Grazier, Ph.D., the book’s editor, will be at the Livermore Public Library’s Civic Center branch on Sunday, February 17 at 2:00 p.m. to discuss The Science of Dune.

You don’t have to have read the Dune series to come to the events. And if you come to a Livermore Reads Together event, you can enter to win one of our fabulous Livermore Reads Together prizes!

See you on Sunday!

Popcorn and sandworms

Don’t forget that the library has Dune movies for you to check out during the Livermore Reads Together program. You can watch the David Lynch version of Dune, starring Kyle MacLachlan, Sting, and a young Virginia Madsen. Or you maybe you’d prefer the film John Harrison made for the Sci-Fi Channel, featuring William Hurt. For the ultimate Dune cinematic experience, watch both films and compare the two interpretations. Which director’s vision is more faithful to the Herbert novel? Why do the directors omit or amplify certain aspects of the novel?

And if these questions make the whole viewing experience seem too much like a graduate film seminar, just sit back and watch the movies as entertainment. Suspend your disbelief for a couple of hours and get into the spirit of Livermore Views Together!

Show us your whiskers

Please join us on Saturday, February 2, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. for a FREE sci-fi B-movie extravaganza! Will the Thrill, famed B-movie maven of Oakland’s Parkway Speakeasy Theater and El Cerrito’s Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, will kick off the 2008 Livermore Reads Together program with Cat-Women of the Moon, a 1953 movie about astronauts who travel to the moon and discover that it is inhabited by slinky cat-women!

See Cat-Women of the Moon! View classic sci-fi shorts and trailers! Win way-out prizes! Schmooze with the hepcats and hipsters in the Civic Center Library Community Rooms!

Be there or be square!

A life-changing book

I read the original Frank Herbert book as a kid, and it changed my life because it was the first book I could get into and read all the way through. I just finished Sandworms of Dune, and although the style of writing is completely different, I still love the setting and the characters. I just hope it isn’t the last…