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.
