Awesome feature I just spotted on themorningnews-- You submit the last 5 books you read and the Biblioracle recommends one for you. I have now added "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to the library queue.
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These pictures of bookshelves around the world are dreamy. Drawing serious inspiration from these.
Please forgive the lack of updates as I lazily make my way through Bolano's 2666. It's a monster, as you know.
In the interim, wanted to placehold this list of books to check out later:
Very pretty, drool-inspiring libraries.
Beautiful advice on reading, reproduced verbatim in case aworkinglibrary ever goes defunct:
- Always read with a pen in hand. The pen should be used both to mark the text you want to remember and to write from where the text leaves you. Think of the text as the starting point for your own words.
- Reading and writing are not discrete activities; they occur on a continuum, with reading at one end, writing at the other. The best readers spend their time somewhere in between.
- Reading must occur everyday, but it is not just any daily reading that will do. The day's reading must include at minimum a few lines whose principle intent is to be beautiful--words composed as much for the sake of their composition as for the meaning they convey.
- A good reader reads attentively, not only listening to what the writer says, but also to how she says it. This is how a reader learns to write.
- If a book bores you, or tells you things you already know, or is not beautiful, do not hesitate to discard it. There are better books awaiting you, just around the bend.
- Every book alights a path to other books. Follow these paths as far as you can. This is how you build a library.
- A single book struggles to balance on its spine; it pines for neighbors. Keep as many books as you have room for.
- Read voraciously, many books at a time. Only then will you hear the conversation taking place among them.
- The best library contains both books you have read, and books you have not. The latter should grow in proportion as the library expands. A working library is as much a place for the possible as it is a record of the past.
Remember back in grade school when you covered your text books with paper bags and colored/drew/wrote all over them? This company took that concept and turned out beautiful book jackets to allow you to secretly read your shameful books you wouldn't be caught dead with in public. I might have to get the Whale Whisperer (shown below) to cover my copy of Moby Dick, because I don't want to be pigeonholed as a pseudo-intellectual hipster as I read that on the bus.
I'm not sure how to process this article- is it better for teachers to let kids read whatever they'd like, or should teachers influence learning by enforcing the standard classics? Does creating a lifelong reading habit matter more than instilling a sense of quality?
George W. Bush's assistant education secretary asks what child would voluntarily read Moby Dick... which I agree is beyond the comprehension of the teenage mind. But there are shelves full of wonderful stories that lay the groundwork for a deeper appreciation of language that children should be made aware of. If left simply to pillage their parents' shelves, they might come up empty or with brain rot like James Patterson.
Record hot temperatures followed the nine of us as we biked around San Francisco, listening to Chris Carlsson's well researched tour of the ecological history of the city.
Starting at CounterPULSE (Mission @ 9th), we looped through alleyways and the wrong-way down streets, stopping in front of the community gardens on Howard (I pass these every day on my commute and never noticed them!) to hear about the Food Conspiracies of the 1970s when people began to care about eating natural unprocessed food direct from farmers. Rainbow Grocery is one of the last remaining results of the Food Conspiracies (ironically, Rainbow was hated by the community in the 70s for its focus on capitalism and making a profit, which is what has kept it around through the last 30+ years), where neighbors would get together and bulk purchase produce from farmers in the Central Valley.
Then to Folsom & Main where the sparkly new highrise luxury apartments were build on shipwrecks and toxic sludge from the mines and gold rush dregs. Then to the original shoreline at Battery and Market, where we stopped to discuss the evils of PG&E and the Raker Act.
Deeper in the FiDi, we learned about the walruses on the old Alaska Commercial Company building (California @ Sansome). Heading out towards North Beach, we stood where the freeway used to allow people to zoom straight from Broadway and Sansome onto the Bay Bridge, learning about the freeway revolt and San Francisco's rejection of the Federal Highway Plan which would have dropped highways smack dab on top of the city in the 1950s (Terry Francois was the deciding vote against this).
After cooling off in the shade of Telegraph Hill, we heard about illicit dynamiting of the hill and the transformation of the area by Grace Marchant's garden development. The wild parrots yammered overhead, and then we were off to Pier 39 to ogle the sea lions who co-opted some of the most desired land in the city. Finally, up past Fort Mason then through Chrissy Field to admire the restoration work of the marshes and sand dunes.
Also along for the ride were Eduardo, the Brasilian traveling the world with his bike, and Bryan, editor of SF Streetsblog.
I love Chris's "Serfs Up" hat:
Eduardo had a sweet bicycle evolution tattoo:
Combining two of my favorite things, this library lets you check out bikes for up to six months. Run by volunteers and donated bikes, it's a great way for people to get comfortable with the idea of biking before plunking down a couple of hundred bucks for their own ride. $20 deposit and you're out the door.
Happy Bike to Work Day/Week/Month/Year!
