Library as Space

"Library as space" is important in a different way than "library as collection" and is a key interest of mine. Libraries are community hubs. In many places, the public library is the only non-commercial indoor public space the community has. Community centres often consist solely of athletic facilities - which are important, but not all the community needs in terms of communal space. Because libraries are public community spaces that exist in most city neighborhoods and rural communities, they are sometimes used to deliver social service programs and cultural initiatives. In Toronto, for example, the central reference library houses a Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration Newcomer Information Desk and all the branches circulate a museum and arts pass funded by a private company and distributed through the infrastructure of the public library. Yesterday, NPR's All Things Considered did a story about the latest iteration of this phenomena in Baltimore - public libraries in "food desert" neighbourhoods are the delivery method of the Virtual Supermarket Project.

"Under a new city program, patrons can order groceries online and pay with cash, credit or food stamps. The orders are filled by Santoni's supermarket, a longtime Baltimore grocer. They deliver the items to the library the next day."

It's an interesting initiative and one that begs the question - without the infrastructure of public libraries, how would you deliver a program like this? Through the post office?

Storytime for grownups

I recently discovered The Moth podcast. The Moth is a New York non-profit storytelling organization that puts on storytelling performances several times a year. The podcast features one story a week told live onstage, without scripts or notes. The stories range from hilarious to heartbreaking - Deborah Scaling Kiley's Lost at Sea has to be heard to be believed. The Moth showcases not just stories, but the art of storytelling - something we just don't appreciate enough. Want to be a master storyteller someday? Pull up a chair and this to this.

Also ridiculously cool is Librivox, which offers free audiobooks of public domain books read and recorded by volunteers. With almost 3000 titles in their catalogue there's something for everyone. Is Tacitus easier to listen to than read?

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

Asterios Polyp is the best graphic novel I have read since American Born Chinese. Asterios is a middle aged "paper architect" with a failed marriage. Then his apartment burns down and he buys a ticket for the first bus out of town. The story of Asterios' marriage is interwoven with his sojourn as a mechanic in the small town at the end of the bus ride. What makes this book so amazing is how Mazzucchelli uses the art to flesh out the story. Like the very best graphic novels, the art is not just illustrating the words, but adding dimensions to the story through its own language. Asterios Polyp is absolutely glorious. Read it!

The Photographer by Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefevre and Frederic Lemercier

The Photographer documents a trip into Afghanistan made 20 years ago by a Medicin Sans Frontiers team to treat the sick and wounded during the Soviet invasion. Didier Lefevre went on the trip to photograph it, stayed with the mission in Afghanistan for a month and then left them and attempted to return to Pakistan with a caravan, which turned out to be a disaster that nearly killed him.

I love documentary graphic novels. but it seems like this is an area where a lot of the artists, authors and publishers don't really understand comics. What I mean by that is that in comics the words and the pictures should each add something to every panel - they should not contain exactly the same information. While The Photographer suffers from this to some extent (1/3 of all panels in the book are of Didier standing next to a horse on a mountain), the book is saved by two things. The comic panels remind us visually every minute of the terrain of Afghanistan and the journey, which is vital to the story. And the whole story is brought to life by Didier's photographs, which are amazing. It isn't a great comic, but it is a great story.

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

I read Jane Eyre when I was fourteen and didn't like it nearly as much as Wuthering Heights, which I had read right before. Jane was too timid and I didn't get what she saw in Rochester. The mad woman in the attic was the most interesting part of the book. Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of that mad woman in the attic - Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole from Jamaica. The story is told in three parts - first we see Antoinette's childhood in a Jamaica restructuring itself after the emancipation of the slaves, next we switch between Rochester and Antionette's povs during their honeymoon and finally, briefly, we see the mad woman in the attic.

It's a heartbreaking and beautifully atmospheric story - you can almost smell the flowers and feel the heat. Antoinette and Christophine are such vivid characters that Rochester, despite being one of the narrators, seems almost an afterthought. Which makes sense, as he seemed the same way in Jane Eyre. A fascinating read.

Beautiful buildings for books

Why doesn't Toronto have bookstores like this?

photo by Bob Krist

Librería El Ateneo Grand Splendid in Buenos Aires

image source: designtopnews.com

Bookstore Selexyz Dominicanen in Maastricht

image source: davereed

Livraria Lello in Porto

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is my favourite writer ever. I'm rationing out the last few books of his that I haven't read yet, and this week I decided to treat myself to Galapagos. This is a story about evolution. More particularly, it is the story about how the progenitors of the modern human race came to be stranded on the island of Santa Rosilia one million years ago, in 1986 C.E. It is pure Vonnegut - cynical and funny and joyous. It doesn't quite reach the heights of Mother Night, The Sirens of Titan or Cat's Cradle, but it's still wonderful.