5 posts tagged “books”
I'm super excited about State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America, a book that is "resurrects an effort from the 1930s, when the WPA created the Federal Writers' Project, commissioning America's writers to describe their states." Many of my favorite authors have written chapters for it. Alas, it's not out until September.
But... Joe Sacco writes about Oregon! Carrie Brownstein about Washington! Mohammed Naseehu Ali about Michigan! (Okay, I'm not familiar with that last author. Must research...)
And just a pile of other folks I love like Dave Eggers, John Hodgman, Sarah Vowell, Anthony Bourdain, Susan Orlean, Jack Hitt, David Rakoff, and Alison Bechdel -- I am besides myself with joy! And impatience!
So, of course, I've been trawling worldcat looking for the original State by State project. I've found a title or two about Oregon:
Willamette landings, ghost towns of the river. (aka Willamette landings)
by Howard McKinley Corning; Federal Writers' Project (Or.)
worldcat link - Multnomah County Library
979.5 C81
Oregon, end of the trail
by Writers' Program (OR)
worldcat link - Multnomah County Library
917.95 F29
oh, and fun fact for you Portlanders - US 30 is the Oregon Trail! It runs... from the Missouri River... to the Pacific Ocean!
The Oregon trail : US 30 : the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean
by Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration.
worldcat link (three libraries own this; none on the Oregon Trail, natch. 2 of them are in the Netherlands!)
Michigan, a guide to the Wolverine State.
by Writers' Program (Mich.); Federal Writers' Project.
worldcat link
I just read an interesting piece over at Design Observer, On Arranging Books by Color. I came upon this via a discussion on SIGIA-L.
The question is good and valid: how do you arrange books? And do you arrange other things that you collect?
For the majority of my bookshelves, they are arranged by general topic: cookbooks next to garden books, knitting books next to art books. Some books are taller, and go on taller shelves, and others go on smaller shelves, natch.
But my collection of O'Reillys: those are color-coded. I'd never dream of not having them color-coded. I have more upstairs, and those are color-coded too.
My yarn collection is similar to the book collection in that it's chaotic and I have too much of it. My recent purchases are divided into yarn type: I have a box for high-end sock yarn (koigu, lorna's laces), and a box for fixation (cotton-elastic blend sock yarn). My Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride are all on a shelf, without regard as to if it's worsted or bulky. I have a box of partially done projects, and a box of goofy, fuzzy, furry, shiny yarns.
But once you get into the older boxes, everything is jumbled together: fine cottons and wool blends, sock yarns and super bulky things.
What books are on your nightstand?
I meant book list, really I did, but surely the misspelling says something about me?
I tripped this afternoon coming back from lunch and skinned my knee.
Do you remember how much a skinned knee hurt? It's really rather
incredible to me how much it can hurt and how ridiculous it looks, and
I feel like such a wuss that really all I wanted to do was dig a hole
to hide in.
It continues to be hot in Portland. I am over it. Could we just stop
with the heat, please? Yeah yeah yeah, I know all about global warming.
At Webvisions last week, someone suggested to me that it was Gore's
fault. Way to shoot the messenger!
...
My honey knows I have a magazine problem and he encourages me. This
last week he brought home a copy of Nylon Magazine, because it had Be
Your Own Pet on the cover. Be Your Own Pet is the band who perform the
song called (bicycle, bicycle,) you are my bicycle.
Anyways, this magazine seems to be entirely about myspace accounts.
Every article has at least one link to a myspace account and for some
musical artists who--gasp!--don't have a myspace account, they ask them
to recount their favorite myspace url and why. OMG.
Obviously I am not their target audience. So I was highly amused to
go to WebVisions and see that myspace was the butt of all jokes. (I
also met a woman who had never been on myspace, and seemed completely
unaware of web design popular culture)
...
So: book list:
La Perdida by Jessica Abel.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Cancer Vixen: a True Story by Marisa Machetto
Eating as I go: scenes from America and Abroad by Doris Friedensohn
It's a Saturday morning in Albina in the summer. Someone is weed-whacking. The cats are in the windows complaining, or singing to the birds.
My to-do list for the weekend looks like this:
- completely decimate, no, no, obliterate the computer lab
- plant tobacco in all the window boxes
- obliterate the front flower box
- begin emptying out the basement.
Oh, and write five entries for altportland.com, add some new categories, add some new plug-ins. Research plug-ins. I feel so tired!
I'm obsessed with getting a new bicycle. I've been using my Sweetie's bike a lot, and it's time to get my own. I know that the cheapest way for me to get better bike performance is to lose weight, but that isn't so easy. It's time for me to have an all-purpose commuter of my own.
I'm in process with a couple books:
