this happens all the time

I check out a really cool book from the library, like this one: Le Notre's Gardens

then I leave it on the shelf until it's almost due without looking at it. It is the only copy in the system. Some other discerning individual has put it on hold, I cannot renew! 

I open it up and see beautiful pictures like this and kick myself for not looking sooner. It happens all the time. I'm trying to train myself to LOOK SOONER, but I'm not 100% on that just yet. 

found it!

The library book that was lost now is found. Hooray! It was right in plain sight, of course. (in my own defense, "in plain sight" is a visually confusing place right now due to moving everything out of one room and into another in order to paint.

I'm up to my elbows in wet paint (I wish this was an exaggeration) and have to get back to it, but here's a video that made me laugh. ("Mailbox!! Mailbox!")

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

check it out:

Woo Hoo! Yesterday I got to pick up not one, not two, but THREE holds waiting for me at the library. They were all quality, too. First, The Invention of Hugo Cabret -- this is one I'd had out once before, but I put off reading it for too long and ran out of time. It's as big as a brick, but I saw that it was mostly pictures and underestimated how much time I'd need with it. The library has 65 copies and I still had to wait over 6 weeks to get it back again. (never underestimate the power of a caldecott medal.) This time, I'm not fooling around! I'm reading it first.

Second, The Rabbi's Cat 2 -- I quite enjoyed the first one, and am looking forward to this quite a bit. (click the link to see an excerpt.) I also just finished one of Sfar's other graphic novels, The Professor's Daughter. If you think you might enjoy an adventure/romance featuring not only The Professor's Daughter, but an egyptian mummy in a tailcoat and top hat, check it out! (double crossing! disguises! tragedy! triumph! tenderness! the aforementioned tailcoat and top hat! POISON! etc!)

Third, The McSweeney's Joke Book of Book Jokes. I believe this is culled mostly from McSweeney's Internet Tendency, much like Mountain Man Dance Moves, only one presumes with fewer unicorns. I know collections like this can be pretty uneven, but while flipping through it I laughed an embarrassingly loud laugh several times. SEVERAL TIMES. John Hodgman wrote the introduction. He imparts much wisdom, including the true secret of why books are funny.


obviously this isn't a book from the library, but instead a tree from the park.

Emily Dickinson loves you for your brain

I am back from my interview! More on that later, probably tonight. (including exciting details like my analysis of whether it was smart to wear a top that could have been from the cover of the Clown Pajamas Unlimited catalog.) I think it went okay.

I am getting a stack of stuff to take back to the library since some PERSON out there in Multnomah County wants to check out the Emily Dickinson book that I've had out since March, I thought I'd leaf through and reread the aprox. 30 things I had bookmarked. Here are two of them that jumped out at me because they are a) short and b) almost zombie-like in their appreciation for meaty, juicy brains. mmmmm, braaaiiins

632
The Brain—is wider than the Sky—
For—put them side by side—
The one the other will contain
With ease—and You—beside—

The Brain is deeper than the sea—
For—hold them—Blue to Blue—
The one the other will absorb—
As Sponges—buckets—do—

The Brain is just the weight of God—
For—Heft them—Pound for Pound—
And they will differ—if they do—
As Syllable from Sound—


1355
The Mind lives on the Heart
Like any Parasite—
If that is full of Meat
The Mind is fat.

But if the Heart omit
Emaciate the Wit—
The Aliment of it
So absolute.

—Emily Dickinson