George Orwell’s 1984 was already climbing its way to the top of the charts when Kellyanne Conway’s “alternative facts” comment placed it securely in first place on Amazon’s best sellers list overnight. Explaining away Sean Spicer’s bald-faced lie – that President Trump’s swearing in drew the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration” – as “alternative facts,” Conway sent us all reeling off into an alternative reality!
So, a week later, in New York alone, the public library system does not have one copy of 1984 to lend out – but there are long waiting lists across the five boroughs. In Queens, all 400 copies of Orwell’s dystopian novel are out on loan. Brooklyn’s 71 English-language copies are out, and Manhattan’s 326 English-language, and 40 Spanish translations have holds placed on them.
If you’re on the wait list the NYPL’s Readers Services team recommends: The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta, or The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan.
If you feel like you are already living the nightmare, or want a break from apocalyptic fiction, we have some great courses to offer you at CALA this spring. Click on the links below for information and to register.
LITERTURE:
LITR1-CE9950 Eyes on the Prize: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Plays
LITR1-CE9801 Novels for a Changing America
LITR1-CE9723 Pots and Pens: Writing Women in Latin America
LITR1-CE9941 Reading the World: Selections from The New Yorker…
LITR1-CE9082 The Irish Short Story: Oscar Wilde to Edna O’Brien
LITR1-CE9293 Women Fiction Writers
STUDIO ART:
ARTA1-CE9088 Drawing and Painting with Mixed Media
ARTA1-CE9213 Exploring Fashion: Accessory Design
ARTA1-CE9705 Printmaking by Hand…
ART HISTORY:
ARTS1-CE9106 Cutting Edge Camera Art…
ARTS1-CE9334 The Fashion Designer as an Artist
ARTS1-CE9624 Art of the Afro Atlantic…
CINEMA:
ARTS & HUMANITIES:
LANGUAGES: