Hero finally meets Villain in March Madness

The Championship Round has been decided!  Our hero is Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter series, and our villain is Moriarty from "The Adventure of the Final Problem" (Sherlock Holmes).  Now it is your turn to decide if good or evil will reign overall.  Vote below by Wednesday, April 2.

Wondering how Professor McGonagall became our final hero, or curious as to the road Moriarty had to take to get to the final?  Look at the complete bracket below.  The last round had very similar margins, with Moriarty and Professor McGonagall winning each of their battles by about 67%.  

Click on the picture below to see the names a little better, but you might want to get your glasses out one last time.

Voting on our Championship Round of Heroes and Villains will continue through Wednesday, April 2nd, and the ultimate winner will be announced on Thursday, April 3rd; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  As before, voting is open to everyone, but we again have only a few short days before a final winner will be announced.  

Final Four in our Literary March Madness

Final four time is here!  Make your vote count and enter it by Monday, March 31st to decide which hero and villain will be duking it out in the finale.

Curious to see how we ended up with Professor McGonagall vs. James Bond and Moriarty vs. Count Olaf?  Look at the complete bracket below.  The last round was very close, with Moriarty making a late surge to beat Bellatrix Lestrange 52% to 48%.  The Shark also was our great underdog (with 42%), but he didn't have enough votes to pull it out against Count Olaf (58%).  

Click on the picture below to see the names a little better, but you might want to get your glasses out once again.

Voting on our Final Four Heroes and Villains will continue through Sunday, March 30th, and our final Hero and Villain battle will be announced on Monday, March 31st; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  Voting is open to everyone, but we only have a few short days before one Villain and one Hero will go against each other based on your choices!

Literary March Madness narrowed to 8

Four heroes and four villains are all that remain in our March Madness.  Voting is open for only a couple of days until Thursday, March 27th at http://bit.ly/1gmYEJc for your favorite characters in the current round.  Once again, you as the voter have not failed to surprise us, and this round looks to be no different.  Choices may be tougher, but now you only have four match-ups in this round.

Surprisingly enough, all of the eight finalists have seen their characters up on the silver screen as well.  Whether you know these heroes and villains best through their books or films, make certain your vote counts and either give us your ballot online or via paper at the library.    The entire bracket is below, to see the paths of each of our heroes and villains up to this point.  

Voting on our Elite Eight Heroes and Villains will continue through Thursday, March 27th, and our next winners will be announced on Friday, March 28th; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  Enjoy and vote to make sure your favorites make it to the Final Four!

Sweet Sixteen in our Literary March Madness

We have now arrived at round three in our March Madness Literary Knockdown, better known in the tournament world as the Sweet Sixteen.  Voting is now open until the Monday after Spring Break for the Sweet Sixteen at http://bit.ly/1i87PMJ for your favorite literary heroes and villains.  We are now down to only 8 heroes vs. 8 villains, and oh, how the mighty have fallen.  Narrowing down from 64 to 16 has not been easy, but you have helped your favorites move on to the next match.

Curious as to which hero Charlotte of Charlotte's Web had to beat to get this far? Wondering how Hannibal Lector of Silence of the Lambs got knocked out of contention?   If you want to see the entire bracket, how we got to this point, and which Heroes and Villains are left, find those glasses again for the updated brackets below.

Voting on our Sweet Sixteen Heroes and Villains will continue through Monday, March 24th, and our next winners will be announced on Tuesday, March 25th; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  Enjoy and vote to make sure your favorites make it to the next round!

Round Two of Literary Madness

How did your first round choices do in our literary March Madness?  Voting is now open until Wednesday for round two at http://bitly.com/1lGbaGz for your favorite literary heroes and villains.  We are now down to 16 heroes vs. 16 villains, and the match-ups continue to be intriguing, if not down right strange.  Who will get your vote between Tom Sawyer or James Bond?  Do you think Hannibal Lector would get the better of Bellatrix Lestrange?  It is up to you to decide.

If you want to see the bigger picture as to which Heroes and Villains reigned supreme in the early rounds, get your glasses out again for the updated brackets below.

Second round voting will continue through Wednesday, March 12th, and our next winners will be announced on Thursday, March 13th; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  Have fun with it, be sure to put in your two cents, and we will have our Sweet Sixteen announcement before Spring Break!

Proof of Heaven

Hello everyone.  Welcome back to the dark recesses of the library where Carl, your friendly cataloger, keeps vigil.  Many books come across my desk that are interesting and, if I had the time, I'd like to read many of them.  Recently, I was cataloging a book titled Proof of Heaven by Dr. Eben Alexander.  It looked like a good and easy read, so I took it home and read the whole book in one night.  

In this text, Dr. Alexander, a experienced neurosurgeon, describes how he faced a rare and life threatening illness.  While in the ICU, he wasn't expected to live because parts of his brain had shut down and he was in a coma. 

While in a coma, Dr. Alexander encountered a Near Death Experience (NDE), which he later described in great detail.  Dr. Alexander goes on to explain that before his experience, he believed that an NDE was something the brain made up when it was threatened.  But in Dr. Alexander's case, the part of the brain that controls consciousness and would generate such an experience was shut down at the time.  After sharing his story, Dr. Alexander goes on to confront the apparent gulf between hard science and spirituality regarding NDEs with clear and concise efficiency. 

Proof of Heaven is an excellent read, and if you have an interest in topics such as the afterlife, I'd suggest checking this one out.  The call # is:  RD592.9.A54 A3 2012

Carl Ziebell
Lane Library

Literary March Madness at the library

Ready for a little bookish March Madness?  Announcing our very own Heroes vs. Villains tournament this March, where you decide who gets to move on to the next round.  Voting is already open in the first round at http://bit.ly/1gHOekd, or stop by the circulation desk at the library and fill out a form there.  With 32 hero match-ups and 32 villain match-ups, the battles will continue to go on until the end of the month, when you decide with your votes who will remain standing.  Heroes vs. heroes, and villains vs. villains until the very last round.

If you are interested in viewing the brackets, get your glasses on because below is the image with our first round characters.

If you want a copy to print out for filling out your brackets for a friendly wager between friends, here is the link:  http://bit.ly/1luMEId

First round voting will continue through Thursday, March 6th, and our first winners will be announced on Friday, March 6th; stay tuned to our Facebook and Twitter pages for updates.  Best of luck to the good and bad, and may the best character remain win at the end of the month!