Post-its, pencils, a white wall, and one question. These are the ingredients for King Library's new interactive program experiment, "Thought Spot". Originally an idea from Oak Park Public Library, Thought Spot allows library customers to be part of the creation and success of a program. The space being used is located right across the Cafe on Fourth at the the 4th Street and E. San Fernando Street entrance.

The question currently being asked is "What is your favorite book?" College students, children, staff, and many other community members have contributed to close to 200 responses so far. Want to participate? Visit King Library and visit often because the theme will change!

AMC recently showed the Season Three finale of The Walking Dead to an audience of approximately 12.42 million viewers.  The popular zombie apocalypse television series is based on the graphic novel series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard.  I am normally not a fan of horror and gore, but the excellent writing and acting drew me in and now I can’t wait to see what happens next each week.  If you haven’t seen Season One and Season Two, then I recommend that you come to the nearest San José Public Library to check them out.  Season One is currently available and Season Two should be on the shelves very soon.

You may also want to check out the source material, although the storyline of the television series and the graphic novel series do differ.  SJPL has the first seventeen volumes as seen below.

This year, San Jose has concluded its 23rd Cinequest Film Festival. For the past 23 years, the festival has highlighted a distinguished artist from the film world through its Mavericks Spirit Award. This award has been presented to  the likes of Directors, Actors, Writers and Screenwriters such as; Werner Herzog, John Waters, Kevin Spacey, Wes Craven, Ian McKellen, Edward James Olmos, J.J. Abrams, and Deepak Chopra. This year’s honored recipients were Harrison Ford and Chuck Palahniuk. Naturally - I decided this would be a good year for me to attend the film festival since I had not yet attended one, and wouldn’t miss an opportunity to hear one of my favorite authors, (Chuck Palahniuk), speak about a short film which was being premiered based on his short story, "Romance". Palahniuk would also be speaking about his influences behind his contemporary classics Fight Club, Lullaby, Choke, and various other great books he wrote - some of which have been adapted into hollywood films or are currently in production to become films.

Some avid readers scorn at the concept of movie adaptations of novels. I personally enjoy the perspective some films bring to a novel. However, not all hollywood interpretations amount to the same expectations or quality - Palahniuk made a good point in his response to the question the moderator presented on the amount of influence he himself has in the movies that are made from his novels. Palahniuk mentioned that the most direction he would have given in any film created from his novels, was only to have a few words with the screenwriter for edits he would have liked to added to his novels. He expressed a fascination in the change his fiction took within the hands of another artist. He used the analogy of his novels being his children in which he didn't want to hold hands with throughout all its endeavours, but rather let it take its own form with anyone else influenced by it. It was a humble opinion Mr. Palahniuk presented to the many fans in the theater that day. He also presented NEWS that 3 more of his novels had been signed for production deals. One of them, I am personally excited to hear coming to theaters soon - Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey.

For those who haven't seen or read Palahniuks breakthrough title, Fight Club - reading the synopsis for Rant, may make you think twice of considering delving into such a morbid book full of Palahniuk’s humor. However, if you enjoyed Fight Club, you will be equally satisfied to know more of Palahniuk’s chaotic imagination has made its way to hollywood. The other two novels he announced would be adapted into movies are; Lullaby and Haunted. These two other novels are sure to be a treat for the fans of suspense. Palahniuk also added that he is currently working on the sequel to his most recent novel Damned. The book is to be titled Doomed and will be released October, 2013. For those adjudicated readers - you should not be intimidated by merely one of Palahniuk’s novels, but instead keep an open mind to his unconventional plots. Yes, most of Palahniuk’s wit feeds from violent and/or grotesque forms. Nevertheless, his underline of human nature insights the reader into contemplating the bigger picture of such raw emotion. Accompanied by his stirring content, is Palahniuk’s unconventional writing style. Something he often changes up in each novel for the sake of aggregating the protagonist characteristics for the reader to apprehend. In his novel Pygmy, the plot of young spies sent to America as exchange students to execute a terrorist plan - Palahniuk adds a harsh accent to the protagonist throughout the entire narrative to emphasize the cultural contrast of the invaders. In Rant, Palahniuk switches to a biographical narrative from the testimonials of the friends and family of Buster Casey - a self-destructive individual who spawns a pandemic sickness that nearly wipes out half of the American population.

You can find all of Chuck Palahniuk’s titles in our catalog including his latest Damned, which is available in eBook format.

Two days ago, Michelle Obama announced that Argo was getting the Oscar for Best Picture of 2012. It also won Best Adapted Screenplay for the year, which means it was one of the many award-winning films that owes its inception to a work that came before it. Of the nine Best Picture nominees this year, three were based on novels (Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook), one was based on a stage play (Beasts of the Southern Wild) and two were based on non-fiction books (Lincoln and Argo).  Unsurprisingly, many of these titles currently have waitlists at the San Jose Public Library, but you can always place your own hold!

Argo also has the unique distinction of being an Oscar winner that also used a magazine article for its source material: The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans From Tehran, which appeared in Wired magazine in April 2007. The article is freely available online.