Friday, June 29, 2007

Cortelyou #87, 6/29/07

Well, this is quite a momentous post. There are 60 branch libraries in the Brooklyn Public Library system, and this is my 30th! Halfway done...at this rate I'll visited all the libraries early in 2008. But probably not because two are closed for renovations. Not really sure how long that'll be for, but I can only imagine it would be hard to find out, given my past experiences with asking for information from them.

Anyway, Tigana. A great book, if anyone is looking for a fantasy story that's one novel instead of a trilogy or a dozen book cycle or some such thing, I'd recommend checking it out. Kay (the author) definitely takes himself a little too seriously, but I think in this particular genre that's necessary. (Tolkien springs to mind.) The characters are much more fleshed out than in the typical fantasy novel, which keeps the story that much more engrossing, and the idea behind it (a land conquered by sorcerers to the point where no one who isn't from there can remember or even hear its name when it is spoken) is excellent, though maybe not as fleshed out as it could be. Bottom line, the book was long but while reading the last hundred pages I couldn't have stopped if I wanted to.

I was looking for more stuff to read and I came across a book about what it's actually like to experience battle, why some people behave "heroically" and others "cowardly." It seems interesting, although in the first few pages the author admits that he's never been anywhere near a battle. Still, I'm sure there'll be some interesting insights. But just as importantly, the book was only in two branches...Central, and the Cortelyou Branch.

Branch: Cortelyou
Location: 1305 Cortelyou Rd. at Argyle Rd.
Transport: bicycle
Book: The Face of Battle by John Keegan
Date: Friday, June 29, 2007

This library is in the Flatbush neighborhood, a bit southeast of Prospect Park, and it is apparently the last built branch in the Brooklyn system (completed in 1983, but the cornerstone says 1982.) It's nice, spacious, but it does have a bit of the '80s building soullessness (from the outside anyway.) The inside mostly actually reminded me of the Bay Ridge Branch (I know, hard to remember now.)

I had an interesting experience there: using the internet in a Brooklyn library for the first time. In some you have to write your name down on a waiting list (which I object to on confidentiality grounds), but here, probably since I arrived just after opening, I was able to use a computer. The woman next to me needed help using her portable USB drive, which I gave her, but she wanted to run .exe files from the drive and the computer wouldn't let her. She wasn't a native English speaker, so I wasn't able to explain to her that public computers rarely let people run programs. Oh well.

Anything else cool happen? Let's see...oh, I got my bike fixed up on the way home. Thanks, Coney Island Avenue. Pics!



frontal area



This is the back, there was a school (in the background) and for some reason the top of the library is lined with barbed wire.



entrance



This structure was just to the left of the entrance, I'm not really sure what it designates or who made it but, well, there it is.

See you all soon, though maybe not next week - I'm going to upstate NY for a few days, and there's Independence Day, and the Twins are in town, and who knows what else. Have a good weekend.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe they jumped the gun on the cornerstone...all it takes is one eager engraver. If you take in the Yankee/Twins game, give old BartLETT a shout out for me. Oh, and have a great holiday!

Ellen said...

Sculpture mystery solved!

http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!319174!0#focus

Natalie said...

Could they have a list where you use a fake name -- say, Joe Schmoe? Which would preserve line order but not cause confidentiality problems. Whaddaya think? BTW, come over and get some blueberry pie when you get back. I made it.