Here in Arkansas, the public libraries have found some pretty creative ways of funding.

The Little Rock library system has the Cox Creative Center, which features a second hand book shop, gift shop, coffee shop, and art galleries. The book shop sells a number of books donated to the library system and the funds are re-invested in the library system.

We just found out that the Faulkner County Library in Conway has a room devoted to a similar task. Despite going to the library quite a few times, yesterday was the first time we saw the room. The books covered a vast array of titles from elementary text books, “engineering music”, crazy cook books, plenty of fiction and audio books, and FREE MAGAZINES.

We picked up a few gems that were priced just right:
Ty wanted Ecotopia because he heard it was a badly written utopian novel that had very good utopian ideas.

These books will be featured in our bathroom reading — _The_G.I._Joe_Value_Guide_1964-1978_ and _The_Metrosexual_Style_Guide_. The G.I. Joe book has photos of a number of Joes and accessories, but the items that do not have photos have hand drawings.

Tyrone even found an awesome edition of _Satellites_and_Space_Ships_. My copy was turned into a journal by Ex Libris Anonymous. I love their journals, but something inside of me really wanted the book too.

The artwork in the book is super cool, as indicated by the picture of yow.

On the book front, I just finished the juggernaut that is Denis Johnson’s _Tree_of_Smoke_. It sounded good and it felt good although at times I was pretty confused and just waiting for the main characters in the story to cross. SPOILER ALERT: the characters never cross, they’re just illustrating different fronts of the Vietnam War. Denis Johnson is one of Tyrone’s favorite writers, and the lyric rhythm of Johnson really drops you into the confusion and wonder of the jungle and the CIA.

However, I like plot. I don’t think I really understood how much I liked plot until I married a literary fiction writer. I’m growing a greater understanding of the atmospherics and immersion of language, but I want to come out of it relatively quickly…less than 300 pages, unlike Johnson’s 614 page epic.

I’m almost done with John G. Neidhart’s _Black_Elk_Speaks_. My sister is teaching science on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. She’s been having some problems connecting with the students, but says she has reached out to some of the girls by letting them borrow her _Twlight_ books. Let’s just say they have a large Native American component built into these books. I figured before I read the _Twlight_ series, I should read some actual Native American stories.

The historical perspective of the book is wonderful for dates and times and battles and a lost culture, but I read the visions and they sound like fodder for beautiful animations. I also like reading about beliefs and how cultures seem to always be looking for a savior. When a savior was needed it appears that Black Elk stepped in to fill the position for his people.

One of Tyrone’s colleagues at Hendrix College is going to be on NPR on Wednesday. Alex Vernon will be on the Diane Rehm show at 10AM central time.

Sorry Nebraskans, this one won’t be on the radio, but you can click on the internet radio feed in the top left hand column. Arkansas (and apparently many other places) actually play NPR talk shows all day, unlike Nebraska’s switch to classical music from 9AM-4PM.

Anyway, I got to talk to Gulf War veteran Dr. Vernon this weekend about this upcoming interview. He’s got a book on the cultural significance of Tarzan coming out October 15, 2008. We started talking about Tarzan this weekend. Whenever anyone starts talking about Tarzan, I try to change the subject to Edgar Rice Burrough’s “Men of Mars” series because I find it much more interesting. I’m pretty embarrassed about that right now, being unaware of the upcoming _On_Tarzan_ book.

On Wednesday, Dr. Vernon will be using his Hemingway expertise in the _A_Farewell_to_Arms_ book discussion on the Diane Rehm show. His book, _Soldiers_Once_and_Still_ examines war veteran writers including Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O’Brien.

Just to make up for that whole “Men of Mars” gaffe on my part, here’s a link to Dr. Vernon’s first book. His memoir, _Most_Succinctly_Bred_ has a blurb by Tim O’Brien, so I’ll just let that speak for the book:
“Beautiful and smart and original, Alex Vernon’s memoir is a wise, honest, and tautly written account of a man’s journey from youth to West Point to the Persian Gulf War to the world of academia. Beyond that, it is an intensely passionate exploration of the struggle in a young man’s soul between the biddings of Eros and Thanatos, duty and conscience, commitment to ideal and commitment to self.”

Note to RSS Feed readers: I’m working on getting the books to show in the feeds, but you probably want ad-free feeds. If you’d like to click on the book links, open blog entry in a new window.

One final note, now that I’m apart of the Hendrix family, I’d like to brag that the college has been ranked one of the nation’s top 100 colleges by Forbes.com.