Category: Publications News

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Expect More on issuu.com

So I am experimenting with more self-publishing platforms. Today is issuu.com. This is the free version of the tool, so there will be adds, but you can use this to embed the book in any webpage you’d like:

Special Note: Don’t use the “Order Print” option, as print copies are cheaper through Amazon (and, you know, I get a royalty there).

This is a nice platform to keep formatting and visuals. However, you have to spend monthly money to add features such as annotations. Medium.com seems a better system for getting out pieces for reading and comment.

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Recap of MidWinter Radical Conversation

I’ve put together a page trying to sum up the discussions around the forthcoming Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship held this past Monday at the ALA MidWinter Conference. It includes opening & closing remarks, major points discussed by the group, and a transcript of the online companion session.

A special thanks to ALA and Mary Ghikas for setting aside the time. Thanks to all who participated, and please continue the conversation.

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The Boring Patient Reviews are In

Gold starMy new book The Boring Patient has been out for about 2 months and the reviews are starting to come in. Available as a paperback, ebook, and audio book here are some highlights.

Amazon (5.0 out of 5 stars)

5.0 out of 5 stars an inspiring but realistic journey of a great man dealing with cancer

5.0 out of 5 stars Should be required reading for all

5.0 out of 5 stars The Boring Patient will allow you to do this, all while being entertaining and emotionally accessible.

5.0 out of 5 stars This book adds real and unique value to the pantheon of books, including personal stories, about dealing with life threatening illness.

5.0 out of 5 The combination of humor, criticism of the medical system, and description of an emotional cancer experience make this text multidimensional, and a quick read.

GoodReads (4.8 out of 5 stars)

5.0 out of 5 Best cancer patient narrative I’ve ever read.

LibraryThing (5.0 out of 5 stars)

5.0 out of 5 Most impressively and importantly for those of us involved in training-teaching-learning, Lankes never loses sight of the important role he plays for his readers—the role of someone who makes information meaningful to those of us receiving it through the book.

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Announcing The Boring Patient Audio Book

PromoJust in time for the holidays, you can now listen to my recent book, The Boring Patient, read by the author as an unabridged audio book (3 hours 17 minutes).

How better to celebrate things like giving thanks, family, people coming back from the dead, and…candles, than with a book about cancer. No reindeers or elves, but there is chemo and stem cells!

So celebrate the season with Bringer of Doom, discussions of naked mole rats, and the threat of certain death! Not to give away the ending, but the main character lives.

Get it via

Amazon
Audible, or
Apple

(Make sure you check around, as I have no control of the pricing and they do vary by outlet)

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Announcing the Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship

I have just signed a contract with MIT Press for the publication of The Radical’s Guide to New Librarianship, a follow up to The Atlas of new Librarianship. Over the next few weeks and months I will be reaching out to you for help in ensuring the Radical’s Guide helps you to better serve our communities, become better librarians, and transform librarianship into a profession of radical positive change.

I am not doing this alone. To help make the Radical’s Guide a reality Kimberly Silk, Wendy Newman, and Lauren Britton have joined me in a self-titled group calling itself the “New Librarianship Collaborative.” Together we’ll be reaching out to look for stories, ideas, and contributions (and yes, we are always looking for more members).

What will the new book offer (besides being paper back, lighter, and also have an ebook version)? I have three major goals:

  • Expand the ideas of the Atlas into libraries as institutions and a deeper look at communities
  • Provide a curricular view of New Librarianship for easy incorporation into classes and continuing education
  • Provide hands on tools for implementing New Librarianship in your community.

This is not another edition of the Atlas. Rather it focuses on making things happen by building upon the Atlas’ focus on deep theory and concepts.

Because of the new effort you will see a few changes in the very near future:

  • I have set up a page on New Librarianship and a sub-page specifically for the Radical’s Guide that includes ongoing information on the new effort, and New Librarianship in general. The new page will include calls for feedback and polls on topics in the new book.
  • The existing Atlas website is being folded into my personal site (over time). This will make the incorporation of new materials from the Radical’s Guide will be easier to maintain and update. Eventually the domain newlibrarianship.org will point to this site. So if you want to keep up with developments, you are int eh right place.

I am thrilled to say MIT Press is again the publisher of this new effort. Our goal is to make a book that is immediately useful, as well as easily accessible in content and form. In that light we are hoping for a final book that is portable and very affordable (seriously, like plus or minus 20 bucks).

I hope you will join Kim, Wendy, Lauren and myself in creating a tool for radical positive change agents seeking to unleash the potential and knowledge of their communities.

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Cancer Posts and the Boring Patient

Writing was part of my coping mechanism when going through treatment for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and my stem cell (bone marrow) transplant. That writing was mainly in the form of blog posts. While The Boring Patient is much more than just a compilation of blog posts, these writings give you a good feel for the style of the book:

The Loss of Hope

You see, that’s the thing about hope – it is not a guarantee or a promise. It is a prayer, and desire, and it lies at the core of making this world a better place. We fight inequity, poverty, corruption because we hope for a better day. We teach because we hope we can impart some idea that will blossom into a better world for all. We raise children in hopes of a better future. We marry because we hope we can live up to the promise of our spouses. We work either out of the hope that our efforts will improve the world, or at least the wages of our labor can provide a better world for us.

Mundane Miracles

See the spectacular every day in the love of friends and family. When you wish your son would just be quiet, remember the wonder and thrill of his first word. Make the next peck on your wife’s cheek rekindle the passion of your first kiss. And laugh – every day – laugh. The world we live in is a wondrous mundane miracle. Rejoice in it.

Beyond the Bullet Points: PET Scans and Water

Now I would like to describe to you the immense awkward feeling you have when in a small examine room with your wife when you are told that your “salvage treatment” (actual medical terminology) is not working. You can’t lose it, or your wife will, and you have to be brave and not wanting to wail like a little girl amongst nurses you have come to know and like. I would like to describe that for you, but before I could figure it out there was a knock on the door.

Personal: Victory through Surrender

Then there is a final thought, a crucial insight that must accompany the surrender. If you accept the treatment, and the limitations, and the proxy battle, you can then focus on the other things in your life. You can focus on your son’s graduation. You can focus on your wife’s affection, and the love of friends. You can focus on your work, and your mission, and all the things that will be waiting for you after the poisons and the drugs, and the pain, and the limitations.

Percoset and Puppies

Cancer does not make me noble. It makes me afraid and sick. It makes me every day make promises of redemption to my family, friends, and co-workers. “Next year, we’ll do our anniversary in Hawaii,” “next birthday we’ll have a big party,” “next time I teach I’ll pay more attention.” My life has increasingly become a promissory note; one conditioned upon survival.

Click here for more of my cancer posts and Read a sample chapter and learn more about the boring patient here.

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Cancer Videos

As part of the roll out of my new book, The Boring Patient, here are two videos I produced through the stem cell cancer treatment:

The actual stem cell transplant. The whole procedure took over an hour, so here is a much more watchable version. If you look carefully you can see a priest do a drive-by blessing at 1:37.

[vimeo 87505187 w=500 h=281]

“Face Journal” from biopsy to day 100 of the stem cell transplant.
[vimeo 97336093 w=500 h=667]