Man oh man I love the library. You know why? Free!!! It’s all free!!! I can learn about all kinds of new stuff without spending hundreds of dollars on books or classes. I almost always have about 60 books checked out of the library. No, I haven’t had a massive overdue crisis – yet. Since I check my library card almost everyday online via the library’s Web site, it’s pretty easy to keep up.

One down side about checking things out of the library is having no record of stuff you’ve had, be it books, movies or music. Well, again thanks to the library’s Web site, I’ve decided that periodically I’ll cut and paste the items I have checked out into a Word document so I’ll have a record. It occurred to me that it could be fun to put the list on the blog occasionally. So here’s the first list, grouped into categories. I couldn’t stop myself from including notes on some of the materials, particularly the ones I’ve already read, watched, or istened to.

:: Short Stories ::
Because sometimes you need a break from novels. And because great short stories are so elegant.

* The collected stories of Chester B. Himes, Chester B. Himes
The French film director Claire Denis recommended this author. Himes’ stories are vivid, insightful, and just plain well put together. This is a book I would buy.

* Complete novels and stories, Kate Chopin
Got this book to read "The Story of An Hour" which had been recommended by someone online as an interesting portrayal of a woman.

:: Cookbooks ::
Ben does all the cooking. So I get these books to try to get him to make slightly healthier meals. I did try two recipes out of the Cooking Light titles – both were disasters, through no fault of the books. Sigh.

* Cooking light superfast suppers: speedy solutions for dinner dilemmas

* Cooking Light 5 ingredient, 15 minute cookbook

* The ultimate Southern living cookbook
The Hummingbird Cake recipe is reeeeeally good. And even I could make it successfully.

* Three bowls: vegetarian recipes from an American Buddhist monastery, Seppo Farrey
A friend who is attending the Oriental College of Medicine made me lemon ginger tea from this book, which - while sounding suspiciously similar to the flavor of that hideous TheraFlu concoction - was extremely tasty.


:: Publishing ::
I’ve been trying to learn about the book publishing process – there’s been an idea for a book rattling around in my head for a long time. I’ve done about a year’s worth of research, and I’m finally ready to send a query letter to an agent. Goal is to send the letter before the end of the year. Given today's date, I guess I’d better hop to it.

* The complete idiot's guide to publishing magazine articles, Sheree Bykofsky

* The shortest distance between you and a published book, Susan Page

* The complete idiot's guide to getting published Sheree Bykofsky

* Get organized, get published!: 225 ways to make time for success, Don Aslett

* Writer's guide to book editors, publishers, and literary agents.

:: Movies ::

* Eva/ Jeanne Moreau
Whoever wrote the blurb on the back of this film is a genius – I’ve checked it out from the library twice already, and twice I’ve shut it off after 20 minutes, as it's seemed unbearably boring/bad. This is my third time renting it; will I try to watch it yet again?

* The films in my life, Francois Truffaut (book)
What a thrill to Truffaut’s quirky thoughts on films.

* La Belle Noiseuse/Emmanuelle Beart
Three hours long, so I haven’t dug in yet.

* Crazy/Beautiful
Since Ben started student teaching high schoolers, I’ve been watching a few movies that are popular with teens. Haven’t watched this one yet, but have found others, particularly Save the Last Dance and 10 Things I Hate About You surprisingly good.

* A Fine Romance Series 2 & 3
Love British sitcoms. Love Judy Dench.

* Maya Lin a strong clear vision, American Film Foundation
Recommended by a co-worker. I watched this director’s film on Annie Lammott (see earlier entry) and thought it was quite well done.

* Underground, Emir Kustarica
Loved Black Cat, White Cat by this director. I’ve had this film for many months and still haven’t watched it. Another long one, so it’s tricky to find the right time to get started. Guess I need to face the reality that I’ll have to break it up into several viewings, even though I hate doing that.

:: Graphic Design ::
Ah, the Amazon "people who’ve bought this book also bought this book" system. It’ brilliant. I usually have a browser window with Amazon up side by side with the library catalog – I mosey through the recommendations, checking to see if the library has the books I'm interested in as I go. That’s how I came to have these graphic design/illustration how-to books. I figured it was high time I got some learning on graphic design and layout techniques. Perhaps finding a new way of thinking about ordering drawings, zines, etc.

* The education of an illustrator

* The rapid vis toolkit: an intriguing collection of powerful drawing tools for the rapid visualization of ideas, Kurt Hanks

* How to understand and use design and layout, David Dabner

* Graphic design cookbook: mix & match recipes for faster, better layouts, Leonard Koren
This is precisely the book I've been looking for for years: line drawings of various layout schemes. Leave it to fabulous Chronicle Books to publish this one.

:: Art/Craft ::

* Winogrand: figments from the real world, Garry Winogrand
* Public relations, Garry Winogrand/Museum of Modern Art
Recommended by a photographer friend, mentioned in a Frank Rich New York Times editorial. Thought I’d better check him out. Good stuff.

* Vogue knitting baby gifts
The easiest and cutest baby cardigan.

* How to draw a cup of coffee and other fun ideas for home & garden, Joy Sikorski
While this is not an entirely satisfying book, there are some very fun ideas in here. Good impetus for productive doodling.

* Watercolor journeys: create your own travel sketchbook, Richard Schilling
* How to keep a sketchbook, Michael Woods
After seeing a jaw-droppingly stunning artist's sketchbook on view in the artist’s workspace - and wanting to start drawing more this year, I did a keyword search for every book the library had with the word sketchbook in the title. These are two that have come in so far.

* Joseph Cornell: stargazing in the cinema, Jodi Hauptman
Someday I’ll buy this. Until then, I just want to have it near me.

* The transfiguration of the commonplace: a philosophy of art, Arthur Coleman Danto
Harvard University Press.
Fascinating book so chock-full of ideas that’s hard to read for more than a few pages at a time. I want to buy this book – I’ve had it on and off from the library for about five years – but it’s proven a bit difficult to come by. It’s one of those I look for in every used book store I visit.

* The stamp-pad printing book, Florence Harvey Pettit

* Felines: great poets on notorious cats
It’s no secret that I don’t love cats. But I do love the linoleum prints in this book. I bought the companion book Doggeral for the same reason.

:: Dogs ::

* How to draw dogs, Laura Murawski

* Draw 50 dogs, Lee J. Ames

* The encyclopedia of the dog, Bruce Fogle
Need to buy this. But until I’ve renewed it for the 99th time (the legal limit) I’ll just save the bucks.

* Multiple dog households, Miriam Fields-Babineau
Marginally useful book that I checked out after we got dog number 2.

* The complete idiot's guide to positive dog training, Pamela Dennison
I reeeally need to be reading this book. Wendell is out of control.

* Good owners, great dogs, Brian Kilcommons
Brian Kilcommons is like your mom: bossy in a way you know you need to be bossed.

:: For Lack of a Better Term - Self Help ::

* I could do anything if I only knew what it was: how to discover what you really want and how to get it, Barbara Sher
Sher’s book Wishcraft was a much more straight-to-the-point resource for me – I bought a copy. I need to get back into the momentum of that book, which, despite it’s corny title, is an amazingly hands-on, practical blueprint for achieving goals that seem too much to hope for.

* 20-minute yoga workouts, American Yoga Association.
Does keeping this book around burn any calories, or dissipate any stress? Sadly, no. I'd have to actually do the yoga.

:: Books from the Christian Intellectual Tradition::
Most of the stuff that you find on the shelves at a so-called "Christian bookstore" is quite simply embarrassing. Just because you’re writing about your faith doesn’t mean that you get to turn off your brain, stop your critical thinking process or take shortcuts. These folks didn’t, thank God.

* Lifesigns: intimacy, fecundity, and ecstasy in Christian perspective, Henri J. M. Nouwen

* True spirituality, Francis A. Schaeffer

* The best Christian writing. HarperSanFrancisco.
You know the "Best Essays" and "Best Short-Stories" collections in the bright colors with the big-name guest editors, right? This is the same deal, only with pieces that focus on all aspects of Christian life. I was stunned to find this on the library shelves: it opened all kinds of doors to more and better sources for finding similar kinds of writing.

:: Random ::

* The last days of disco: with cocktails at Petrossian afterwards: a novel, Whit Stillman
This book cracks me up. I had seen and loved the movie. I wanted to see it again, and was going to check it out from the library. When I went to look for it, I saw a listing for this novel. Whit Stillman, who wrote and directed the movie, had written a novel? Was this book some kind of novelization of the movie?? That would be weird! It turns out, the conceit of the novel is this: the characters in the movie the Last Days of Disco were real people, and one of them wanted to set the record straight on the events portrayed in the film. Clever, no?

* Ask me, Antje Damm
A very cool kids’ book that links interesting images – both drawings and photographs – that appear on the left page with questions that appear on the right page. The questions are meant to spark conversations between children and adults. "How did your parents choose your name?" "If you could become an animal, which animal would you choose?"

* The consolations of philosophy, Alain De Botton
I love that De Botton’s books freely intersperse images and text. It’s like those stories you’d read in Highlights magazine, where words were replaced with images, i.e. the letter "I" as replaced with a picture of an eye, or a picture of a house was substituted for the word. This book is mildly interesting, but I haven’t gotten very far with it yet.

* Girls who looked under rocks: the lives of six pioneering naturalists, Jeannine Atkins
My sister-in-law is currently in the Peace Corps in Suriname. This book features the story of a naturalist who went to Suriname - I'll be sending along a copy to my sister-in-law soon.

* Wonder Tales
A serendipitous library search: while looking for a book with the word "wonder" in the title, which I didn’t find, I ran across this book of French fairytales. You knew there was more out there than just the Brothers Grimm, right?

* Secret thoughts of an adoptive mother, Jana Wolff
Having read Broken Cord, I got interested in learning more about adoption.

* Entre nous: a woman's guide to finding her inner French girl, Debra Ollivier
Propped up on the shelf of new books at the library, I grabbed this on a whim. The title makes it sound fluffy. Actually, it’s an interesting look at French folks - particularly women - through the eyes of an American who lived in Paris for several years. With some beauty tips thrown in.

* Speak, Laurie Halse Anderson
A high school English teacher friend of mind is hoping that his class will soon read this book. I’m halfway through. So far I've been struck by how much another book ripped off the idea of this book. "Please Don’t Kill the Freshman," a book written by an actual high schooler who has thus far remained anonymous, takes a lot of its sensibilities from Speak. Speak is the far more interesting book of the two.

* Rolling dreams: portraits of the Northwest's railroad heritage, D. C. Jesse Burkhardt
The author of this book is the best friend of a co-worker. If you’re fascinated by trains, go for it. If not, and the author is not the best friend of a co-worker of yours, you might not be so excited about it.

* Geisha, Andi Watson
Plucked on a whim from the library's small shelf of graphic novels.

* Trouble is my business, Raymond Chandler
Since one of my most favorite authors Ann Patchett hasn’t published a new book yet, I’m reading some of her favorites.

* The Hanged Man, Francesca Lia Block
From Zine Scene, a book about making zines that Block co-authored, I went to Weetzie Bat, a rather disturbing but compelling novella (for young adults??). Thought I would try one more of hers.

:: Music ::
I’ve been on a David Byrne bender. The other CD on the list I spontaneously remembered one day at the library; I had heard an interview with Corey Harris on NPR about a year ago.

* O samba
A David Byrne collection of samba music

* Cuisine non-stop: introduction to the French nouvelle generation
A David Byrne collection of French music – some kooky cool stuff.

* Look into the eyeball, David Byrne
I love this entire album. After checking it out, I found a quote of David Byrne’s I wrote down in high school – something to the effect of "If you dance, you’ll understand the words better."

* Downhome sophisticate, Corey Harris

:: England ::
I long to go to England. However, being a fairly reluctant traveler, and living with the awareness that a European trip is not likely to make it into our budget for a few more years, I thought I’d do some armchair traveling.

* In search of London, Henry Vollam Morton

* England handbook, Charles Godfrey-Faussett