Brighton Beach #24, 4/2/07

Hey, it's April now! Neat. And since it's so nice out (well, not really, but nice enough) I biked all the way down to Coney Island yesterday with my friend Diego. But we'll talk about that more later, first I have some books to talk about.

The Maakies book was great as expected, odd shaped and pretty gross but also hilarious. A Handbook of American Prayer, the Lucius Shepard book, really surprised me. I was wrong about his nationality, turns out he's from Vancouver, Washington not actually Canada, but the book itself was very good. It was about an ex-con who changes his life and ultimately becomes famous with his own contemporary style of prayer that seems to work so long as he doesn't ask for anything too outlandish. He soon gets into a feud with a member of the christian right, and it seems that a character from some of his prayers have come to life. It sounds completely ridiculous, but while I was reading it, I was totally engrossed. Something about the voice of the character was both unique and realistic, and it kept me caring about what happened to him even as it became less and less realistic.

So that's all for that. Yesterday morning it was foggy and fairly cold, but by the afternoon it had burned off and I was ready to ride. The ride is excellent, most of it on the Greenway of Ocean Parkway, aka not on the road or the sidewalk but on a separate bike only path. After reaching the boardwalk and then heading back north and east a block or two, we reached the Brighton Beach Branch.

Branch: Brighton Beach
Location: 16 Brighton First Rd. at Brighton Beach Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Books: The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov; Brownsville by Neil Kleid and Jake Allen
Date: Monday, April 2, 2007

I just got some random books here, because I intended to get The Yellow Arrow by Victor Pelevin, which is apparently on the shelves, but actually it isn't. Second time in a row! So, I noticed this strange sci-fi/satire story by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov, who also wrote The Master and Margarita, which I haven't read but have been told by members of my peer group that it is hilarious. So I figured what the hell, it (the egg one) is only 100 pages, it might be good or it might not. Brownsville is a comic about Jewish gangsters in Brooklyn back in the 20s and 30s, nothing too special (based on reading the first half) but it's decent enough I guess. It's certainly no The Wire.

The library was great, nice and big if a little odd shaped. It was apparently built in 1992, but I was just glad it wasn't another identical Carnegie library. I enjoy the uniquely shaped ones, and this might have been my favorite since Gerritsen Beach as far as that goes. I also enjoyed the badass teenaged Russian girls that were hanging out looking tough but they were still in a library. But I guess you can be tough anywhere. After checking out the library, Diego and I checked out the boardwalk for a while, and I was all excited to get some Nathan's, but it wasn't open yet. What was open was the Cyclone (roller coaster) which we totally went on, and it ruled. Those old roller coasters really shake your bones around. The adrenalin I got from the ride gave me the energy to bike back home, where I found out that the Yankees had won (woo!) and that the Red Sox were being crushed (woo!). Then I headed over to my sister's place for an awesome, low-key Passover Seder. Wait, I'm not talking about the library anymore am I. Pictures:



Well, that's as much as I could get in one shot...you can't really see the right side, until...



The next picture.



And then, here's a closer view of the front, with Diego hidden somewhere in the picture. Can you find him!?!?

Well apparently after today it's gonna be in the 40s all week. Ugh. I might have to take the train to the next library. Time to get back to reading so I can make it happen! See you next time.