Serendipity Both essays focus on book shopping in ways that go beyond the easy route of automatic criticism or blind loyalty. Both essays use the “self” to explore how they shop for books, and why their choices are not always the easy ones. What goes into making us the book shoppers that we are? Why do we choose the experiences we do? “What am I searching for today?” asks Browne. It’s a damn good question. And a serendipitous one for you, our readers.
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BiblioBuffet welcomes new contributor, David Mitchell. In his column “Things Said and Done,” David will focus heavily though not exclusively on history from ancient times up through World War II, which is a personal passion. We are happy to welcome David aboard and hope you enjoy getting to know him. Unfortunately, there are none coming up this week. The Pub House: Perceval Press is somewhat unusual in that they publish both books and CDs, and you have to wade through both by title rather than being able to do a search by subject matter. That makes them a bit annoying, but it shouldn’t put readers off too far because they do have some great books. For example, Twelve the King by Michael Blake is a memoir of the long-term relationship between the author and a wild lead stallion that had been captured by the Bureau of Land Management near Reno, Nevada in 1990. Furlough 55 is a fine art B&W photography book whose images were originally shot by U.S. Army Specialist, Second Class Stanley Milstein in post-World War II Europe. The images roam both landscape and faces, “bearing witness to a largely-vanished era or European-American fellowship and hope.” You’ll also find poetry, Spanish-language books, essays, politics and more, all of them worthy of your attention. Of Interest: Some books just beg for multiple cover designs. Among them are Animal Farm, 1984, War of the Worlds, and Lolita. These links provide fascinating journeys of important books through cover design eras, artists and even the social cultures in which they were created. Do you ever think you would like to try your hand at designing a cover for a classic? Now you can—and for a cash prize of $350. Venus febriculosa is holding a design contest that anyone can enter. Design a new cover for Lolita, the controversial novel by Vladimir Nabokov. Details can be found here. Note that it is an ideas competition only; there are no plans for the winner’s work to be featured in an upcoming edition. This Week . . . I want to introduce you to a blog that will make you laugh. Awful Library Books is a kind of confirmation for those times when you have come across a book in your local library and thought, “Good god, how old is this thing!” It’s kind of like meeting an otherwise potentially attractive date dressed in a 1970s leisure suit. You shudder and move on. Mary and Holly are public librarians in Michigan. In the routine of their jobs they sometimes come across titles that amuse, and these (as well as contributions by readers) are gist for this blog. These are books that may or may not be awful, but they are included here because they are actual library holdings that are “odd, outdated or maybe should be reconsidered under a current interpretation of collection policies.” You’ll never know which library, though. They protect the weird even while laughing. You’ll laugh too. Until next week, read well, read often and read on! Lauren
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