The Great Library Hunt

Kings Highway #45, 7/18/09

2009-07-20T19:17:00.003-05:00

Hey, I'm back! In the same month to boot. I had a neat opportunity here, as I had finished reading Dune (for the third time) and still wanted more sci-fi nerdy goodness courtesy of Frank Herbert, so I checked which BPL branches would have copies of the second book in the series, which I have never read. And then it turned out that there was one in the Kings Highway branch, which up until recently (June 11, 2009 to be precise) had been closed for renovations! For like the past two years! Plus my new home in Kensington is much closer to that area now, and Saturday was a perfect day, so I got on my bike and rode over there.

Branch: Kings Highway
Location: 2115 Ocean Ave. (nr. Kings Highway)
Transport: bicycle
Item: Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert
Date: Saturday, July 18, 2009

The new branch is crazy! It does away with the traditional look of the "Brooklyn Public Library" signs on the front of the building (which are generally dark green, and in Helvetica I believe) and goes from some crazy modern thing! In orange and silver! WHAAAAA???

Anyway, it was a very nice, modern branch, though the building still looked like it came out of the '70s (or 1953, according to the site). There were three floors, one for very young children, one for grade school children, and one for adolescents and adults. There also seemed to be a wide variety of activities for parents and children to participate in. Oh and a good foreign language area as well.

One qualm I had, and something that to me completely defied explanation. I biked to the library, and when I'm locking up my bike my hands often get greasy, dirty, etc. So I was waiting to use the bathroom, but first I asked at the desk if there was a key (there was) and was told that someone already had it (i.e., they were in the bathroom already). Ok, no problem, washing my hands wasn't urgent, so I waited. Then when the door finally opened (it took so long, I assumed it was an old man, but it was some teenager) I went in to find a typical public bathroom, with a sink area, a toilet stall, a urinal, and even a freaking baby-changing table. It wasn't a one person bathroom. Why the hell was I waiting outside it to wash my hands? They just renovated this place, so why did they leave the door with an automatic lock? Ok, so crazy people use public libraries, maybe you cant just leave the bathrooms open to all. SO WHY NOT JUST HAVE THE ONE TOILET??

Ok, rant over. Obviously it's no big deal, just...kinda lame. But overall, nice branch. The book so far is good...well, definitely not bad. But Dune is just SO good that it's hard to reach that level of quality, and so far this book isn't really. Hopefully it'll improve. Oh, also, I still can't find my camera, so that means...phone pictures! Woo! Here they are:

They kinda made it into a cyborg. An inanimate cyborg.

Action pose!

Bow down to the monolith lest you be destroyed by it!

Now open! Woohoo!

And that's the story of King's Highway. Truly a highway of the kings. All the kings. Seeya soon!

Eastern Parkway #37, 1/30/09

2009-07-17T13:55:00.004-05:00

Well, I did it. Three branches in one month. Unfortunately, it took me almost six months to blog about it. But what can you do! This is gonna be a short entry, because I barely remember this visit. Luckily the pictures still exist. Maybe they can jog my memory!

A lot has happened since my last entry. I've been to England and Ireland (among other places). I've moved into a new place in Kensington. I've settled into my new job at NYU, working as an adjunct cataloger at the Tamiment Library. I finished library school -- Master of Library Science! Wooooo!! Oh, and baseball season started up and is now half over. Good stuff! On to business.

Wait, almost forgot. Items from previous visit. Let's see, what were they...oh, right. Well the Philip K. Dick book In Milton Lumky Territory was very good, but also very depressing. And unfortunately, all the innovation in Dick's science fiction writing sorta disappears when he goes for the naturalistic novels. It's a shame, because he always wanted to be taken seriously for them, but they just aren't as good. And that Astro Boy DVD may as well have been a bootleg, but the cartoons were fun. Unfortunately, often times that had only one part of a two-part story. Lame!

In other news, I just finished re-reading Dune, and it's still totally amazing. So good, it makes me wanna watch the movie and read the sequel! Maybe. Now on to business for real.

Branch: Eastern Parkway
Location: 1044 Eastern Pkwy. at Schenectady Ave.
Transport: don't remember, 4 train I think
Item: The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, edited by Dave Eggers, with an introduction by Judy Blume
Date: Friday, January 30, 2009

There isn't much to say here after six months. My current roommate Dave used to live on Eastern Parkway. It's a wide, tree lined street. I just sneezed on my computer. The book was ok but not great. I renewed it until May and still got fines on it (now paid). The Judy Blume introduction was funny. The George Saunders essay about Bill Clinton was interesting, though I never finished it. Hopefully there wasn't some twist ending where he's some kind of lizard person. Better entry next time, I promise. Assuming I ever find my camera that is. Pictures:

Yeah, it's a corner branch.

Eastern Parkway in January.

The imposing edifice!

Door. Identification.

Well that's it for now. At this point I know better than to make any promises regarding further branch visits. But if by some bizarre chance you're still checking this, six months after the last new post, why would you stop now? There are only a few branches left!!

Saratoga #57, 1/15/09

2009-01-22T17:34:00.003-05:00

New president! How about that! I honestly wasn't sure we'd ever be able to say former President Bush (you know, about the younger one) but we made it. We did it TOGETHER. Other things that happened: me going to a library just a week after I went to a different library! I know, right? What are the odds? I'm sure I'll jinx it just by even suggesting it, but there's an outside chance I could make three branches this month, which hasn't happened in over a year (September of Aught-Seven). Yeah, those were the glory days...*sigh*. Anyway, it's time to look ahead to the future, in which I have a sweet handlebar mustache, and have visited the Saratoga Branch.

Branch: Saratoga
Location: 8 Thomas S. Boyland St. at Macon St.
Transport: R train to DeKalb Ave.; B26 to Broadway & Halsey
Items: In Milton Lumky Territory by Philip K. Dick; Astro Boy - Greatest Astro Adventures (DVD)
Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009

So, Saratoga. I could've taken the F to the J but that would've required going through Manhattan, and sometimes I like taking the bus anyway. Also, I hadn't read the graphic novel and I wanted to finish it on the way and I figured the bus would give me more time. Plus it was snowing and pretty. In any case, Northwest Passage was excellent. I really like the semi-cartoonish art style, and the way Chantler uses his panels to tell the story. And the story itself was the best kind of historical fiction: plenty of detail but not bogged down in it, with a strong emotional core that makes us care about the characters and their ultimate fates. Turns out it's only the first collection in a larger series (the number one was covered by the library label) so I will definitely be checking out later volumes when they come out.

The library itself is very nice. It's another Carnegie library, built in 1908, but it's been renovated three times since then. It has an excellent selection and atmosphere. Not too far from the Macon Branch I visited last week, it has a similar presence and clientele (and only slightly more confusing layout). One notable feature that I didn't get to explore was the garden, apparently designed by the Horticultural Society of New York. Luckily someone left a door open to the back, so I did get some quick pictures of it! And continuing a long standing trend, a gentleman standing outside the library as I was on my way in asked if I had been taking his picture. I told him I was just taking a picture of the library, and he said he was relieved. I'm not really sure why people have such a strong aversion to people they don't know taking their pictures. I mean, I wouldn't care for it either. I'm just wondering why specifically it bothers everyone so much.

As for the items, In Milton Lumky Territory is one of Philip K. Dick's many unpublished naturalistic novels that are finally coming into print. I'm excited to read it, as it is supposed to be one of the better ones, up there with Confessions of a Crap Artist, which I read years ago and enjoyed a great deal. As for the Astro Boy collection, I knew it was an iconic Japanese cartoon and figured I was missing out, but apparently this DVD is not a very good edition. According to amazon reviewers, two of the stories on it are part ones of two-parters (without the part twos), and the sound has also been altered. But, for someone new to the series who didn't have to pay for the DVD, I am not too bothered by these issues. I've watched a few episodes so far, my favorite being "Robio and Robiette," a faithful retelling of the classic Romeo and Juliet story with robots and car races. But, you know, it definitely captures the original tone. No happy ending!

That is all for tonight as fighting off this cold has me tired and incoherent. But I'll be back soon! Maybe even before February! Pictures:

New day.

Treed

I took this one to replace the one with the gentleman in it. Probably wasn't necessary.

Me, peeking out a door where I shouldn't be to get a snapshot of the garden!

and the garden from the sidewalk. I'll have to go back and see it when the weather gets warm and it opens up.

I almost forgot: this has nothing to do with libraries, but I recently went to Staten Island and wandered around at night in the snow, and it was a lot of fun. Comic stores, fast food joints, big parks, a mall (apparently)...this place has it all! It was cold on the ferry, but pretty and well worth it. Also free! And there are cool fish tanks in the terminal. Check it out sometime!

Macon #47, 1/08/09

2009-01-12T21:09:00.005-05:00

Ah, it's 2009, finally. Not that 2008 was all that bad...I mean...except for the beginning of the end of Western civilization. What do you want, things change! It's hard to believe this blog started back at the end of 2006. It's been a part of my life for so long, and now, as I'm nearing the end of library school, I'm nearing the end of this project as well. I never expected this blog to get popular - and it hasn't - but thanks a lot to everyone who still checks it despite my extremely erratic update schedule. Ok, enough sentiment for tonight. So, I went to a library last Thursday. It was a delightful branch out in the heard of Bed-Stuy, on Lewis Avenue. I am speaking of none other than the Macon Branch.

Branch: Macon
Location: 361 Lewis Ave. at Macon St.
Transport: F train to Jay St.; A train to Utica Ave.
Items: Northwest Passage: The Annotated Collection by Scott Chantler; The Essential Bessie Smith (CD); The African Queen (DVD)
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2009

The last couple weeks have been very busy for me, though I haven't been working or in school or doing anything "traditionally time-consuming" like that. I went out to Indiana with my brother for the holidays to visit my mom and stepdad, where there was much merrymaking, eating, bowling, and CD purchasing. I watched The Prestige for the first time, and I must say, watch it if you haven't yet; it is probably even better than a Batman vs. Wolverine movie would've been. Also David Bowie=Tesla, can't miss. Then I came back to New York just in time to receive my distinguished British guests Alex and Lenny, the latter of whom accompanied me on this library journey! No, I didn't force her, she wanted to. Wait, that sounded bad.

Anyway, when I think of Bed-Stuy, I usually picture the parts where various friends of mine have lived: somewhat run-down, not much in the way of stores or restaurants except bodegas, and cops in riot gear that will search you if you ride your bike two car lengths on the sidewalk up to your apartment. Well, things are clearly changing, at least in this area, and hopefully not just because of gentrification. There were a number of nice stores on Lewis Avenue, including Brownstone Books and the delightfully named Bread Stuy. There was a nice little park right off the subway, and the library itself was teeming with patrons of all ages. It was apparently renovated from 2006-2008, partially to add the African American Heritage Center, a large wonderful room filled with material on African American history and culture. It was definitely one of the nicest branches I've been to yet, and there aren't many left to visit.

I knew very little about Bessie Smith before I got the CD. Two disc set, actually. I still don't but I have listened to it, and it is some really soulful, amazing blues. I get the sense that two discs isn't really enough to encapsulate her career, but I am really enjoying it. The African Queen is excellent. I'm not the hugest Humphrey Bogart fan, and I don't go out of my way to watch old movies just because they're "classics," but this is a really excellent movie. Lauren Bacall fits the role perfectly, and I really identified with Bogie's character, even if he is in a situation unlike any I'll ever be in. The main reason I got the movie, oddly enough, is that it was on this list the Onion A.V. Club made about great movies that have never had a Region 1 DVD release. I read the article, and then a week later I went to the library only to see an African Queen DVD, with all the writing in both English and Chinese, looking back at me. I checked it out (using the somewhat buggy self checkout system that most of the libraries have now for some reason) and lo and behold, it's a Region 0 (all region) DVD. So, the A.V. Club was technically right, but in spirit, wrong. Also they new redesign is terrible. Anyway, awesome movie! I haven't read Northwest Passage yet, but it looks to be an excellent historical graphic novel intended for young adults. In other words, perfect for me.

I'm pretty exhausted from all this not working since I left my lass job (I miss you Housing Works!) but tomorrow I start my new job cataloging at NYU! Woo-hoo! Soon I'll be tired all over again. But the brainless, working and studying too much kind, as opposed to the weird, anxious, "aren't i supposed to be doing something!?" kind. Yeah. Ok, it's probably picture time now.

The approach.

Lenny gives this branch two thumbs up!!

There it is.

A cool church nearby.

So that's it 'til next time. Except for one thing. This has nothing to do with libraries (in my case) but I just finished reading an amazing book of critical essays by George Orwell, All Art Is Propaganda. Each one made me see things in a way I never had before, they were depressing (mostly) but also uplifting (at times), and the cover doesn't look at all like amazon has it. Ok, I'm off! My first paying library job ever starts tomorrow. I've come a long way from the unemployed 40 drinking days. On paper, I mean.

Canarsie #34, 12/3/08

2008-12-10T11:28:00.003-05:00

Books. Can't live with 'em, can't live...no, wait a minute. So, it's December. Which explains why it's 64 degrees and rainy outside. There's been some cold days, though, lemme tell ya. Also my crappy ikea bedframe finally fell apart so I took the advice of the internet and made a bed out of boxes. It actually works surprisingly well...one day and counting. I also got a sweet new laptop, so, win some lose some. So, I read that Ralph Bakshi book from last time. Well, maybe read is a strong word for it. I looked at all the awesome pictures, and I read my fair share of it. At least half. I also went out and downloaded on of the movies the book talked about after I finished it (Coonskin) because it doesn't seem to be readily available on DVD. Haven't watched it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Anyway, there is of course a new library to talk about: the Canarsie Branch!

Branch: Canarsie
Location: 1580 Rockaway Pkwy. at Ave. J
Transport: F train to Bay Parkway, B6 bus to Flatlands Ave. & Rockaway
Items: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand; The Underground Railroad by Charles L. Blockson; Lush Life by Richard Price
Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Let's be clear here, I am not planning to read all of these books. I am not a Randian zombie, I'm still the same enraged weirdo you've all come to know. I had a preservation project for my class, and the first two books I took out this time were damaged and I thought I might write about them. Ok, moving on. How did I get to Canarsie? Well, you may remember in my last entry long, long ago that I wanted to get the book Lush Life by Richard Price (which has since been picked as one of The Economist's best books of the year! Woo!) but I couldn't, because the copy at Stone Avenue was missing. Well, I looked up other branches that had it, and Canarsie was one of 'em. The branch is right near the last stop on the L train, but I didn't really feel like taking the L, so I went further into South Brooklyn before getting a bus up that way. I got to see a few neighborhoods I hadn't been through, which was pretty neat. Anyway.

The library itself was very nice. I got there around when school lets out, and the atmosphere was of a bustling (but quiet) community center. There were kids reading, sleeping, hanging out, even a couple playing a Magic: the Gathering type card game. I didn't even know any of them still existed. The selection was good and the librarians were helpful: I attempted to use the auto-checkout kiosk and couldn't quite get my barcode swiping speed right, so a very nice woman came over and helped. I realize this makes me sound like an idiot, but it was hard, trust me. The other interesting interaction I had was with a woman in the vestibule when I first came in. I don't know whether or not she was a librarian, but she had seen me taking pictures of the library and she asked me why I was doing it. I told her no reason (or just because, or some other dumb answer like that) and she somewhat forcefully told me I couldn't take pictures inside the library, which I acknowledged. I wonder if my big crazy beard makes people more uneasy? Well, it's not the first time people have been weird about my picture-taking, but the other times it was just that they didn't want to be in the pictures. The neighborhood was also nice. I figured it would be somewhat similar to the part of Brownsville I was in last time: fairly bleak, empty, whatever. But as usual I was wrong. Canarsie was nice, with some pretty houses and a normal assortment of bodegas, delis, etc. I took some pictures of the neighborhood as well.

Lush Life was really excellent. The fact that I read a 450-page book in a week after haign just finished the monstrous 2666 (which was excellent, just somewhat soul-crushing) is a testament to how gripping it was. A former writer for The Wire and longtime crime novelist, Richard Price has a wonderful way of combining action, procedural cop stuff, and characters' interactions and thoughts into a fascinating book. His dialogue is some of the best I've ever read. This is just an excellent book, and to top it all off, it takes place on the Lower East Side (in 2003) so if you live in New York you can picture all of the corners where it takes place. Which I found really fun. So, hopefully I can top this book next time, but I kinda doubt it. The jury's still out on whether I will visit another branch before the end of the year, but I hope so. In any case, it is now (approximately) the two year anniversary of me starting this blog! How cool is that! I may have slowed down some since those unemployed days, but my goal of visiting every branch is definitely in sight. Only nine to go. Pics:

The Verrazano Bridge behind a large cemetery at Bay Parkway.

There it is!

Easy access!

Leaving.

This was a cool house a few doors down from the library.

And, here we have a house of worship of some kind.

So that's it. Nice day for a library stroll, it was. Since I've finished my book maybe I'll be back in the next couple weeks. That would be nice, right?

Stone Avenue #26, 10/22/08

2008-10-28T19:38:00.003-05:00

Just before the month ends, here I am with a new post. It was a somewhat chill but still pleasant day last Wednesday, and I had already renewed my items from my last trip once, and the computer wouldn't do it again, because my new library card wasn't updated in the system. I didn't want any more fines, had the day off etc. etc., so I figured it was about time for another trip. I looked up a book that the Village Voice recently mentioned favorably as a portrait of gritty New York, the way it used to be (Lush Life by Richard Price), picked a library that had it and that I hadn't been to, and before I knew it, I was off to the comic store. It was Wednesday, after all. But after that I went to the Stone Avenue Branch!

Branch: Stone Avenue
Location: 581 Mother Gaston Boulevard
Transport (from comic store): L to Sutter St.
Item: Unfiltered: The Complete Ralph Bakshi (The Force Behind Fritz the Cat, Mighty Mouse, Cool World, and The Lord of the Rings) by John M. Gibson and Chris McDonnell
Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

This will be a pretty short entry, because I already talked about the books I got last time in that entry, and because I have to pack for my trip to L.A. tomorrow. (woo!!) Stone Avenue started out life in 1914 as the Brownsville Children's Library, the first public library devoted to children in the whole world. It was all decorated with excellent wooden carvings, like rabbit's heads on the benches, and had a decidedly pleasant, childlike atmosphere. There's even a big fake fireplace in it, though perhaps it functioned at one time. There are countless children's programs every week, and it was on the whole one of the nicest branches I've been to. The librarian was very helpful when I couldn't find the book, though she was unable to find it either. I kept circling around looking for something more portable, but my eye kept coming back to the huge Ralph Bakshi book (he made many famous cartoons, a counter-culture icon, look him up!) which I eventually selected.

I always get a bit neurotic going into the supposedly "bad" parts of Brooklyn like Brownsville, but as usual my fears were unjustified. Although I did have to walk through many blocks of projects to get to the library, and the neighborhood seemed a bit depressing as a result, the library building really stands out as a pleasant one in an otherwise very static neighborhood. I got to see a bit more of the area on my way out, since I had to get the 3 train to head back to my part of Brooklyn, and the area underneath the elevated tracks was a bit nicer (but you can't trust me, I'm kind of a sucker for elevated train tracks).

I had to get my library card all fixed up, and then pay my fines, which involved a few minor gaffes...by gaffes I mean problems, I didn't inadvertently insult the librarian or anything. Maybe they weren't gaffes then. I blame the 24-hour news networks. In any event, it's all taken care of, I don't owe the library any money, I even got a Snapple and everything so you know I'm legit.

If anything else happened, I sure don't remember it. Pics:

1

2

3!

Yeah, that's all. Told you it would be short. Now don't forget to get out there and vote! Sometime between now and Tuesday! Make it happen! Hooray democracy! See ya'll next month when we have a new president(-elect). Whew.

Sheepshead Bay #56, 9/3/08

2008-09-15T20:23:00.002-05:00

Library time is at hand! It's like the saying goes...another month, another library! It doesn't, you say? No, no, I'm pretty sure it does. I went to this one...let's see...almost two weeks ago? Hopefully I can remember a few key details. Firstly, the book I took out from the last branch, Sentimental, Heartbroken Rednecks. It wasn't exactly what I expected; it was divided into three parts, the first being short stories, the second being essays, and the third seemingly autobiographical anecdotes. It was all very good, right up my alley, and I suppose anyone's who likes short stories and/or the South. The stories had a very immediate feel, and when reading them I really felt as though I had experienced the events that were taking place. The one story in which the narrator described his mushroom use was particularly well-written; it didn't sink into stereotypes, but instead tried to replicate an experience in language that transcends language more than most others. There was even an essay about my favorite short story writer from the South, Breece D'J Pancake. All in all a strong collection that I would recommend to pretty much everybody.

So, that finished, I hopped on my bike, down Ocean Parkway's wonderful bike path, and ultimately turned just before reaching Coney Island, to find the Sheepshead Bay Branch.

Branch: Sheepshead Bay
Location: 2636 E.14th St. at Ave. Z, between Sheepshead Bay Rd. and Shore Pkwy.
Transport: bike!
Items: Project X by Jim Shepard; Stuck in the Middle: 17 Comics from an Unpleasant Age edited by Ariel Schrag
Date: Wednesday, September 3, 2008

It was nice being in the vicinity of Coney Island so close to Astroland's last weekend in operation (and I went back that Friday night to experience it one last time). I always enjoy that part of Brooklyn, as it's a nice bike ride to get out there, the sea breeze is in the air, and it's got a nice isolated, small town (well, maybe mid-size city) feel. The library itself was wonderful; a nice group of patrons, friendly librarians, good selection, well laid out, I'm pretty sure it even smelled nice. Well, I honestly don't remember that...maybe it's time to start taking notes.

The two best things that happened were as follows. First, it's absurd now how long ago this was because at this point I've basically lost all hope, but there were three or four older ladies talking about the most vile, despicable gathering ever to befoul my beloved Twin Cities: you may know it as the RNC. They weren't very loud, so I listened for a while, as I couldn't tell which side they supported. I figured it out when one of them said, "Did you hear Lieberman's speech? I thought I would throw up!" Put a smile on my face, which subsequent poll numbers have almost completely removed.

The other thing: getting a new library card. It's all green and whatnot! Comes in a little case with a foldout map of all the branches! Whaaaaaa!!! Of course, I basically had my old bar code number memorized, but it's a small price to pay. I asked the librarian why they had new cards, and she answered something to the effect of they have nothing better to do. I said they could pay you guys (the librarians) more, and she just rolled her eyes. Yeah, it was pretty damn funny.

The books? Well of course I've read them both now, but I'll just give a brief run-through now because...let's face it, I'm tired. Project X was an excellent, if disturbing and nearly hopeless look at two middle-schoolers who are picked on beyond any reasonable degree. The book does seem realistic, and the characterizations are excellent, but on the whole I enjoyed Jim Shepard's short stories more. Stuck In the Middle is a comic book anthology of stories in which the protagonists are in - yep - middle school. Most are funny, some are depressing, others happy. Overall, just as realistic as Project X, and definitely more hopeful, but not as gripping. Project X actually made me miss my subway stop on the way to work one morning, though, so there you go. Why am I reading all these books about kids anyway? Damn kids. No respect these days!

Pictures, as always:

Most

Less

Vanished

Oh yeah, and this awesome sign for a lawyer! Mostly in Cyrillic! All right!

Ok, that's it, I'm gonna go watch some more Pete and Pete Season 3. Bye!

Bedford #22, 8/21/08

2008-08-28T15:42:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm back, and the response has been overwhelming! Wait, did I say overwhelming? Yeah, I meant non-existent. As in, Yankees playoffs hopes non-existent. Sigh. But, anyway, wouldn't want to leave everyone hanging regarding my "express read" (No Country For Old Men) from last week: I did indeed finish it and return it on time. And it was excellent! In some ways I wish I had read the book before seeing the movie, because they are both so similar, and also found myself picturing the actors as the characters. Still, I'm glad I read it, since I love McCarthy's writing style, and there was added depth to the story, particularly Sheriff Bell's character but also Llewelyn Moss', that I really enjoyed. It was also interesting seeing how many off the offbeat jokes that I assumed were Coen Brothers' touches that were actually right from the book.

The other book I read, Skim, was a graphic novel about a girl's experience in high school and dealing with death and relationships and annoying peers etc. It was really good, the art was very evocative, giving an excellent sense of time and place, and probably the part of the work that I enjoyed most. The story was quite good too, and really resonated with me when it reminded me of similar experiences and relationships I'd had in high school. Definitely worth the time. Plus, it made me think of fall, which I'm quite excited for.

So, last week, still high off going to my first (Brooklyn) library in months, I went to another one...the Bedford Branch.

Branch: Bedford
Location: 496 Franklin Avenue
Transport: bike!
Item: Sentimental, Heartbroken Rednecks: Stories from the New South by Greg Bottoms
Date: Thursday, August 21, 2008

So it's gotten to the point where I need to just pick a library I haven't been to on the map and go there, selection be damned. This one, despite its name bringing up images of hipsterburg, is up in Prospect Heights, where I've been a lot lately for some reason. It's a nice neighborhood, pleasant and green but not too crowded or loud. Despite the fact that I'm no longer going with specific items in mind, I'm happy to say that I basically always end up with something I'm pleased with, this time being no exception. I'm a sucker for any and all art from the American South; I picked this up thinking it was a short story anthology, but it's all by this one guy. So far it's really good.

The library was nice, a typical Carnegie building design, but unlike in many others the upstairs/balcony portion is open to the public. There was a nice magazine reading/relaxing area up there. I think there was a sleeping guy up there, but its been a week, so I can't be too sure. No water fountain. There was some outdoor seating around back and a nice grassy area. And a big tree out front. So, good atmosphere all around. And as a bonus, I took a route home that went through the park, so i got to sit there for a while and read my new comic purchase (Abandoned Cars by Tim Lane, it's really excellent).

Oh I almost forgot, I also went to this great free concert at Lincoln Center last Wednesday (Aug. 20th) that WFMU put on. It was mostly African music that I was completely unfamiliar with, an it was all amazing. The Ex (great Dutch punk band) played with Gétatchèw Mèkurya, an awesome Ethiopian saxophonist. The Either/Orchestra, a big band orchestra from Boston, played with Mahmoud Ahmed and Alèmayèhu Eshèté, who are both superstars in the African community who have been around for decades - the crowd went nuts for them, and with good reason, they were great. Extra Golden is a D.C. based band that mixes traditional/indie rock type stuff with African music. So yeah, a totally amazing show, and I'd recommend all of the performers to anyone (though i think Mahmoud Ahmed was my favorite.) Now, for pictures...of the library, not the concert. Though I have those too.

Kid stuff kids.

Wonder at the awesome majesty!

Neighborhood resident chatting with one of New York's finest. Seriously, though, he didn't harass me for taking the picture, so that's good.

That's all for now, but this book is coming along nicely and I should be done soon. Oh yeah, don't forget to watch Obama's speech tonight. Woo! Elections! Democracy! Yeah!

Dyker #82, 8/16/08

2008-08-17T12:51:00.002-05:00

Been a long time. You didn't think I'd give up so close to my goal, though, did you? The last book I read (from a Brooklyn Library) was The End of America. I don't remember it too well now. As far as politics is concerned, The only thing really on my mind is the upcoming presidential election. How is Obama not crushing in the polls? What's the matter with people??? BAAAAAAAA Ok rant over. I just pray I'm not going to be one sad little boy on November 4th. I'd also feel better if I lived in a swing state...not that one vote makes a big difference. But, on to the library stuff. That's what we're all here for!

Branch: Dyker
Location: 8202 13th Ave. (@ 82nd St.)
Transport: bike!
Items: Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki; No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Date: Saturday, August 16, 2008

Wow, it's hard to even think of all things things that have happened since my last update. I went to a music festival in England, turned 25, got a new camera, finished some library school classes...uh...um...there was a Solstice...yeah, you know, lots of things happened. And now, it's nearly the end of summer. How'd that happen? I've actually been reading a ton (I recently got compeltely obsessed with the Love and Rockets comic book series, I recommend it to all humans) but it's all been stuff I get at work and read (of which there's still a large backlog) or comics. Finally, even though I'm in the middle of an excellent book, I took advantage of yesterday's perfect weather to bike to Kensington, collect my friend Amanda, and make her bike to a library with me. The Dyker Branch, to be exact!

It's a nice branch to come back to, as it reminds me what I love about the Brooklyn Public Library system. Sure, it has a somewhat cold exterior with barbed wire on the roof, and the inside is just a big open rectangle. But the neighborhood is gorgeous, the books are laid out very well, and the staff is friendly. The librarian who checked my books out even recommended a great pizza place in the area when I asked for a lunch place! Way to nail the reference question. Also, she reminded me of my $1.50 in fines from my last book, which I promptly paid. Hopefully posting that information here won't destroy my reputation.

One last bit of good news: the library has a new (to me) feature! Express reads are books that can only be taken out for a week at a time. No Country For Old Men is one such book. This of course means I have to finish my current read as well as No Country by next Saturday, which should be doable with no class to contend with. I like the policy because it gives people a chance to get more popular books that would otherwise all be checked out, such as an excellent western that have since been made into a best picture-winning film, but I also like it because it ups the odds that I'll be back here with another library under my belt in barely over a week! If I have any readers left, they should certainly be excited by the news. Oh yeah, also, Skim is some comic that looked somewhat interesting. High school angst and whatnot. Full report later. Now, on to the pics.

Full view.

Left side...

Right side.

Nice church across the street.

And lastly, Amanda "enjoying" a piece of pizza from Rosa's. No, actually, the pizza was really good. "Get the squares," as the librarian told us.

Well, that's a wrap for today. Hope you're excited that I'm back, I know I sure am. See you all soon!

Clarendon #33, 4/03/08

2008-04-09T15:20:00.002-05:00

Yet another post done way after the actual visit. Worse still, this visit was the day after I went to a Yankee game (they lost) and broke my camera. So I have pictures taken from my cell phone, but they happen to be very tiny. I'm sure I'll get a new camera soon, cause this cell phone thing is pretty ridiculous. But on to the "good" stuff.

Persepolis 2 was just as great as the first, although it interested me a little bit less just because the first one had more political stuff (about Iran's repressive government, the Iran-Iraq war, etc.) and this one focused more on her being a fish out of water in Germany, going through her teenage years, and so on. It was a bit more about growing up, a failed marriage, and other interpersonal relationships, but I think I enjoyed the deeper familial bonds established in the first book. Still, they're both great, they work best as a unit anyway, and anyone who likes one will like the other.

I've gotten to the point where I've been to the majority of Brooklyn's public libraries (actually last post was my 45th, indicating I'm 3/4 done), and so I've more or less given up on looking for specific items at specific branches. At this point, it just seems to make the most sense to pick a branch I haven't been to and go over there. And since I just got a new bike but am not back in great shape yet, I thought I'd go to relatively close library...the Clarendon Branch.

Branch: Clarendon
Location: 2035 Nostrand Ave.
Transport: bike!
Item: The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf
Date: Thursday, April 3, 2008

This library is really nice. Just southeast of Prospect Park, near Flatbush Avenue, it's easy to get to (especially via bicycle) and the building is fairly new, built in 1990 according to the website (and it won some award). There was also a really nice outdoor courtyard area, and it was nice enough to sit out there, but I didn't because I had only had my bike a couple days at that point and was extra paranoid about it getting stolen. More likely the seat getting stolen, since that has happened to my other bike twice now. But I've calmed down about all that a little bit now. Really.

As for the selection, I'm sure my bike-related fears didn't give me the most peaceful browsing experience, but I couldn't really find anything. Part of it is I have a bunch of books backed up at home that I need to read thanks to my new job, and school has been extra busy this semester, so it's hard to pick out any serious selection that I'd really be able to devote some time to. I ended up picking what I did because it's fairly short, and hey, I could always use another book depressing me about the current state of the country. Woooooooo!! Anyway, that's it for today except for the "photos."

Street view.

Right side.

Courtyard.

I probably won't go to another library until I have a camera; as you can see, these pictures are fairly worthless. Hopefully that won't take too long but whenever I say that it does. So, I'll update when I update! Throwing caution to the wind here!

Flatlands #39, 3/19/08

2008-03-26T11:35:00.004-05:00

Well, another month, another post. Though, oddly enough, I actually went to this library a full week ago. What have I been doing since then? Trespassing around Yale, getting into Hellboy (awesome), watching some movies like Lost Highway (awesome), and doing classwork (slightly less awesome). Not to mention the good old job, which is actually going really well. I even have insurance and all, though I recently got a couple of lists of approved and non-approved drugs. Hadn't heard of any on the approved list, but they must be better...right?

We're here, though, for the libraries! Yeah! The last books I took out were Persepolis and All The Pretty Horses. They were both fantastic. I knew a little more what to expect from Persepolis, having seen the movie, but I enjoyed the comic a bit more, it being somewhat fuller (though it was only part 1 of the whole story that was in the movie) and, well, I just really love comics. Animation's great too though.

All The Pretty Horses was just amazing. I knew, after seeing No Country For Old Men and reading The Road, that Cormac McCarthy was capable of amazing writing, both through his language and his plotting, but All The Pretty Horses still blew me away. It was an adventure story, a love story, a prison story, a story about family, and how they suffocate you: a million stories all in one. And the language was stunningly beautiful. And Eric Stolz's character in Kicking and Screaming found it erotic! Perfect! Also, lots of horses. I'll have to read more of McCarthy's work as soon as possible.

So, this library. I knew I wanted to finish the Persepolis story, so I found the branch that I hadn't been to that had said book on the shelves. And it's name was! The Flatlands Branch.

Branch: Flatlands
Location: 2065 Flatbush Ave. at Ave. P
Transport: R train to Pacific St., B41 bus to Ave. P
Item: Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return by Marjane Satrapi
Date: Wednesday, March 19, 2008

This library was nice. I shouldn't wait I week to write, because I forget a lot. It was rainy, and the bus ride took absolutely forever. I assume it's called "Flatlands" because it's on Flatbush Avenue, but so far out that it's like distant lands. Maybe that's what the neighborhood is called, who knows. It was a relatively modern branch, the building having been built in the 1950s. And don't let the fact that I only got one book out fool you, it had a great selection. Also a Snapple machine. I got an iced tea.

An interesting side benefit of this trip was the ability to fulfill my destiny. Loyal readers may remember (though it is extremely unlikely) in this post, almost a year ago, when a nice librarian named Ellen told me she was enjoying my blog, and should ask for her when i fulfilled my destiny by coming to Flatlands and obtaining the Triforce. Something like that. Anyway, for some reason, asking for this Ellen took all of my nerve. I sat reading my new Persepolis volume for a while, picking out who I thought might be Ellen, waiting, waiting, and finally I asked her if an Ellen worked there. Apparently her hours had changed and she wasn't in as much anymore and she had actually been in earlier that day (!) but I missed her. I was too flustered to leave a message. Ellen, if you're out there, hello, sorry I missed, your branch was delightful.

And we've got the pictures to prove it!

We have across the street...

and in the crosswalk. I feared for my safety! Are libraries truly the most dangerous game???

It was one of those building-locked branches, so I only took a couple of pictures. Well, three pictures really, but one of them was way blurry. It's no excuse, I know. But...it was raining! I was getting wet! Come on!!!

I finished Persepolis 2 (review next time) so expect another post soonish.

Cypress Hills #65, 2/21/08

2008-02-21T19:11:00.004-05:00

I'm back, and I've got something extra special for everyone today. This post will be about not one but TWO libraries. One of them isn't even in Brooklyn! Hard to believe I know. I won't talk about that one for long because this blog is really about Brooklyn Public Libraries, but I just thought I'd mention it and show off the pics. I needed a book for one of my classes, and since it's not really something I'd have any use for after the class is over, and New York Public has seven copies of it, I thought I'd branch out onto the island and see how they do things over that way.

I went to the Tompkins Square Branch, out on East 10th St. by Avenue B. It's a nice library, decent sized with two floors (though I didn't go up to the second) and plenty of space. And books! I also needed to use the yellow pages, which they had, as I was calling every stationery store in the greater New York area to see if they had pads (preferably lined) of carbon paper (they don't. None of 'em). Why do I need these pads, you may wonder? Because I'm so obsessive about lending out my books and other prized possessions that I figured this way I can keep records of who has what, and give them a receipt as well. I know, I could use computers, but I'm old fashioned. Incidentally, I also believe we should worship the sun and moon as gods, and fear them. Anyone catch the lunar eclipse last night? It was total!

Pictures of this foreign library:

Looming!

Inviting...

Riding.

Nearby, this classic car. Just cruisin'.

So, that was that. But the main event, as usual, is a true Brooklyn branch. After reading somewhere about an exhaustively researched ongoing graphic novel series about the Trojan War, and finding out that the first volume (Age of Bronze Volume 1: A Thousand Ships) was indeed at a branch I hadn't been to (Cypress Hills Branch), I set off in that general direction.

Oh yeah, and I also finished that book I got out last time, The Road. It is very good, and worth reading. Probably about as depressing as I thought it would be. A good read though, and a quick one. It almost felt like a novella in some ways. The tone of the book reminded me quite a bit of the seemingly interminable part of The Return of the King where Frodo and Sam are struggling to get the Ring to Mount Doom and trying not to starve to death in one of the worst places in the world. Only with less hope. And yet somehow, I really enjoyed it (The Road I mean). Go figure.

Branch: Cypress Hills
Location: 1197 Sutter Ave. at Crystal St.
Transport: F train to Jay St., A train to Euclid Ave.
Item: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy; Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Date: Thursday, February 21, 2008

Well, I didn't get that Trojan War thing. Infuriatingly, they had they second volume but not the first, even though they supposedly had both. Blarg. But, since I enjoyed The Road, and have been watching No Country For Old Men over and over lately, I decided some more western-oriented Cormac McCarthy would suit me fine. Plus it's the first volume of a trilogy, and you know how I love trilogies. As for Persepolis, it's an extremely popular and highly acclaimed comic that's been made into a great movie (which I saw), and I haven't read it yet. How is this even possible!? Well, it'll be remedied soon enough.

I liked the library. As much as I appreciate the Carnegie branches, I find that I usually enjoy the modern ones more. This building opened in 1995, and the design on the outside is very inviting, and the inside had a perfect library atmosphere. Lots of space, tables, people sitting around reading (I think even more than were using computers!) and a helpful reference librarian who did his best to find that damn Age of Bronze book for me. I was a little worried about the neighborhood (East New York is apparently where about 25% of the crime in New York City is committed, and I went around sunset), and while there was a large housing project across the street from the library, my impression was that the area definitely felt safer than Bed-Stuy. Of course, I didn't have to wander far from the subway, so I don't know if that would've made a difference. Oh, and I'm just noticing that half the picture are blurry. Sorry about that. Visuals:

Sunset over Pitkin Ave.

Pine trees and projects.

On approach.

Left side

Right side

Closer view of sculpture by Rolando Briseno.

Ok, I'm outta here. Keep hope alive!

Washington Irving #61, 2/6/08

2008-02-07T22:25:00.000-05:00

Well, I missed a month. A whole month. The chain is broken! But, life goes on. Happy New Year and all that. Let me fill you all in on what I've been doing since my last post.

-School has started again. Looks like it will be a lot of work this semester.
-I've been sick multiple times, and even developed a dental condition named during WWI. It's all taken care of now though, and I am easily back up to 80% effectiveness.
-The Giants won the Super Bowl!
-Nobody won Super Tuesday!
-The Wire and Lost have started back up again. Two hours a week of guaranteed meaning in my life.
-I quit the old job, and have a new one. With benefits. Yeah.
-I didn't read the last book I took out, or watch that movie I had. I just gave up and returned them both.

You could say what is the point of this blog if I am not going to read (or otherwise consume) the items I take out of libraries, but it's not really a media review blog is it?!? No. It's about libraries. You might also say there's no point to this blog if I never go to libraries, or update it, and there you'd be right on. So here I am. I picked a shorter book this time? Maybe we can even hope I'll be to another library within this month. It's possible.

As for where I went this time...I more or less threw a dart at the library map, and since it was on my computer screen, I had to get a new display before I could proceed, but as close as I could tell, the cracks seemed to emanate from the Washington Irving Branch.

Branch: Washington Irving
Location: 360 Irving Ave. (at Woodbine St.)
Transport: L train to Myrtle/Wyckoff Aves.
Item: The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Date: Wednesday, February 6, 2008

So, that last book I took out, the one about Chinese immigrants being driven from their homes. I did start reading it, and it was really interesting. It just wasn't really what I was looking for at the time, and once school started up again and I knew I would never finish it with all the enforced reading I have, and I just got sick of renewing the damn thing. But, I mean, if you're interested in that particular topic I recommend it highly.

This branch I honestly expected to be kinda shoddy. I can't say why for sure, I knew nothing about the neighborhood (other than that it is right on the Queens border) but I made some assumptions, and they were totally wrong. The outside of the building is like no other Brooklyn library I've seen, "two-story Tudor revival" according to the website. It is a Carnegie branch, though, so the inside looks like most of the other Carnegie branches, complete with that little balcony part that would let you look down on the whole main floor if anyone but employees were allowed on it.

The selection was solid (though I couldn't find the new non-fiction books), and I was able to pick out a good book that I think I can actually finish. Everyone from Oprah to a bunch of other people have been raving about this book, so it's probably pretty good. I mean, it's post-apocalyptic, about a father and son traveling alone through a harsh, desolate wilderness -- might be just the pick-me-up I need. Plus the author wrote No Country For Old Men. And that movie was totally awesome. I guess this book won the Pulitzer Prize too? So, yeah, stuff. I'll let you know how it is...or will I?!?! Only time will tell.

The other thing about the branch, and this is not the first time I've noticed this, is that they have like 3 computers for both teens and adults, with 45 minute wait times, and at least 4 computers just for kids that weren't being used at all. I'm all for children and whatever, but couldn't they say if there are kids around they get priority, but if there aren't then the computers don't have to go to waste? They probably have all kinds of websites blocked on those computers though...I guess I could ask someone instead of just complaining. How about it, anyone from the BPL system still read this and wanna let me know what's up? Then I don't have to do anything!

All that not blogging for months has left me with very little to say, seemingly. Well, it's quality, not quantity, right? Anyway, I got lots of pictures. LOTS. Dunno if they're any good though.

Here it is, in all its wondrous glory.

There's a couple of schools right next to it. Well, left really. They're to the left.

Seems it used to be called just the "Irving Branch."

That's right, somebody actually took the wheel and put a cinder block in its place. Fascinating!

And, a couple of views from the M-train platform. Here's the Manhattan skyline...

and the view south (I think) down Gates Avenue. It was so weirdly warm yesterday, I think it got over 60. Normally I'd be all doom and gloom and global warming we're all gonna die about it, but it was kinda nice. I'm excited for Spring. On that note, see you soon. Hopefully before Spring.

Homecrest #76, 12/19/07

2007-12-19T20:27:00.000-05:00

Well, to no one's surprise, it apparently is hard to concentrate on things other than school at the end of a semester. It really has been a while, hasn't it? I didn't even get around to watching that movie yet, though I did read the book, The City In Crimson Cloak. It was good. The writer is definitely talented, though I feel like she has probably written something else better. It definitely gave an interesting perspective on going to a foreign country for the wrong reasons, and what it feels like to be an outsider. And how terrifying Rio de Janeiro could be. I guess the whole "the main character is writing a novel and half of this novel is the excerpts from that other, fictional novel" tactic sort of bothered me. Especially since the fake novel didn't have a significantly different tone from the real one. But either way, I did finish it, it was interesting, learned some stuff, etc.

Then recently I was looking around for things to tell people to buy me for the holidays (no one ever just randomly gets me something, probably for the best) and I stumbled on a book I wanted to read, and not only that, but a library I hadn't been to had it. So today, finally, I bundled up and subwayed it out to the Homecrest Branch.

Branch: Homecrest
Location: 2525 Coney Island Ave. at Ave. V
Transport: F train to Ave. U
Item: Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans by Jean Pfaelzer
Date: Wednesday, December 19, 2007

So, I picked another book about a particular race getting kicked around by our country. Not my fault, though, really: I love history, and it just so happens to be full of quite a bit of that sort of thing. As for the library, it was nice. Fairly quiet, a diverse crowd, the usual rectangular shape (for non-Carnegie branches anyway). It's in an odd part of Brooklyn (the neighborhood is called Gravesend), sort of south/southeast, that reminds me much more of a commercial strip in a small city than something you'd expect to find in New York. Car dealerships, fast food chains, little shops...reminds me of Route 1 near where I grew up. Not in a nostalgic way or anything, the whole country looks like that more or less, so we can't really miss it yet. Not that anyone ever would.

But back to the library, it also had a good selection of books including a large wall of Chinese language books. It's interesting, there was a definitely a large Chinese population in the area, even though from what I knew of Chinatown in Brooklyn it's near Sunset Park, more north and west. On my way out there was an older couple with European accents fighting with the woman at the checkout area; from what I could gather, they had done something (paid a fine?) online yesterday, but since the system had apparently been down all yesterday and part of today it hadn't been logged yet. Just to briefly editorialize, I hate it when people get self-righteous about "well, the computer system is down, nothing we can do." In the short-term that's true, but also, get a better computer system. At the very least register a complaint with someone higher up; we shouldn't just have to live with this constant lack of function from something that's supposed to make our lives easier. Wow, I sound like I'm seventy. Moving on to...the pictures!

From this angle it reminds me of my junior high school.

Ford dealership! One of the banners said something to the effect of "It's the popular choice!" Amazing.

And, a little bit...

closer up.

That's all for now and probably for this year but it definitely won't be more than a month this time so...if you're still checking this now...no reason to stop, really.

New Utrecht #51, 11/14/07

2007-11-19T20:09:00.000-05:00

Ir's been almost a month, eh? I'd like to say a lot's happened, and maybe a lot has, but it's all starting to blur together. I don't know whether it's seasonal change or the fact that lately every other person seems to hate me or if it's that there's finally a bunch of work to do in my classes. Anyway I am looking forward to some much needed family time, as is the custom at this time of year. Until then, I have been mostly busy with Super Mario Galaxy (it's amazing buy it buy a Wii if you don't have one and then buy it or just come over if you want) and the totally great new Scott Pilgrim book (1 to 3 months? Whaa? Don't get it on amazon, just go to a comic store).

But hey, those things aren't about libraries. So back to the books at hand! That short story book happened, right? Yeah, that was pretty good. A few in particular. I'll try to work books by their authors into later posts. Soledad Brother was completely riveting. I expected it to be interesting, but it was so compelling I could just sit and read it for hours. Afterwards I would feel like I had been spending time in prison. Not because the book was tedious, but because it was very evocative. It furthered my belief that locking up a human being for years (or any time period, really) is one of the worst things that we can do to one another, and I wish it I believed that it would ever end. But that's the nature of our civilization I suppose. Ok, rant over.

I was hanging out with my friend Sandy of Wednesday and I decided to take her for a little trip (and break out of my Mario-induced haze) so I picked a close library and we went over there. It turned out to be the New Utrecht Branch.

Branch: New Utrecht
Location: 1743 86th St. at Bay 17th St.
Transport: M train to 18th Ave.
Items: The City in Crimson Cloak by Asli Erdogan; Sherrybaby (DVD)
Date: Wednesday, November 14, 2007

So, New Utrecht. It's a really nice neighborhood near Bensonhurst. It's misspelled on the library map. It was a very nice branch, quiet, well stocked, well laid out. I think Sandy liked it okay. I didn't have anything in mind to get, so I chose a couple of fairly random choices. The book grabbed my eye first, and then I kept it because the author is foreign (Turkish) and it seems pretty interesting. It actually takes place in Rio, I didn't realize that when I got it. As for the movie, Maggie Gyllenhaal is in it, and I think it's one of those movies where the performance is totally amazing but the movie itself is just all right. That's fine though, I usually like those sorts of movies.

Since I don't have much to say about the library building itself (other than that I liked it) or the neighborhood (other than that I liked it and there were a lot of Asian buffets) I'll post this snippet from the branch's page on BPL's site, because it is awesome and slightly creepy. "A literary club called the "Winter Society" founded the Free Library of the Town of New Utrecht in 1894. Its members applied to join the Brooklyn Public Library system in 1901, when New Utrecht Branch also moved to Linwood House on Bath Avenue and Bay 17th Street." Well, just the fact that it was called the Winter Society is creepy. Makes me think of weird rituals. Those people totally lived in Brooklyn and liked books before it was cool. Everyone since them is just posers, I'm tellin' ya.

Right. When the nonsense kicks in it's time for the pictures.

Blurry (far)

Blurry (closer)

Blurry (weird angle)

nighttime.

I'd like to promise I'll update pretty soon, but I respect you guys too much to lie to you. Seeya!

Brower Park #79, 10/20/07

2007-10-24T21:25:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday was a really bad day for me. I had something really hard to do, and it was something that will be with me forever. Also, it was something that required a lot of waiting, so I decided to take my mind off things a bit by going to a library first and getting some reading material. Winesburg, Ohio was excellent. according to Dean Koontz's afterword (yeah, I don't know either) the author was never able to replicate the success of it again, and there were a variety of reasons. I can think of one: it's almost perfect. I'm a sucker for early 20th century literature, but this was really above and beyond most novels (or related short story collections) that I had ever read before, in any setting. It was reminiscent of Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was a major inspiration for that title. I recommend Winesburg, Ohio highly.

I chose to go to the Brower Park Branch because it wasn't too far away, and had a book I was interested in from seeing it in my friend Annette's Barnes & Noble. That's right. She has one personally.

Branch: Brower Park
Location: 725 St. Marks Ave. at Nostrand Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Books: The O. Henry Prize Stories 2007 edited by Laura Furman; Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson
Date: Saturday, October 20, 2007

This library was in Crown Heights. My current roommate Dave used to live there, on Eastern Parkway. That was a nicer part than this. Even on a Saturday around noon, the area seemed sketchy, mostly because of the teenagers yelling at each other when I first got there. When I saw the name Brower Park I pictured a park right at the library. There is an actual Brower Park near there, but I didn't go to it. Maybe it would've helped my impression of the whole place, I dunno.

The library itself was small, but its main problem was selection. Beyond the empty shelf space I've seen at some libraries, this branch had multiple copies of many books, stacked on top of each other like they would be in a bookstore display. I understand wanting to have the books on display so the customers can see them, but I don't understand a library with obviously limited funding buying multiple copies of the same book instead of having the widest variety possible. If these were even the most popular books, then you'd think some copies would be checked out, but in most cases there were 3 of each such books, and there must have been ten to fifteen examples.

OK, rant over, what do I know about it blah blah blah. I had noticed Soledad Brother in my friend's store and remembered that I meant to read it years ago. Written by an African-American man imprisoned for a robbery he didn't commit, whose brother was shot and killed while trying to free him, the letters span the years 1964-1970. Haven't started it yet but I'm aure they'll be interesting. As for the other book, it's the O.Henry prizewinning story collection that I mentioned last time.

Something about this project makes me feeling like I'm working toward something. I'm not discovering another planet or writing a novel, but just the same it seems to give my life forward motion it might otherwise lack (school, work and interpersonal relationships notwithstanding). I appreciate everyone who takes the time to read it and comment on it, and I hope to keep you entertained, at least until the libraries run out. 40 down, 20 to go. Picture time.

There's really only one view of it.

I guess I could back up a little?

Maybe...the buildings across the street? I don't know.

That's it for this time. Keep caring about libraries and I probably will too.

Coney Island #32, 10/9/07

2007-10-15T09:17:00.000-05:00

Wow, I went to this library on Tuesday, that's like six days ago. So I guess I figured it was probably time to post about it. In the meantime, the weather's gotten nice and cool, I rode 30 miles to cure MS (but you can still donate, I know you wanna), and it was the 50th anniversary of Sputnik being launched! Wait, that happened on October 4. Either way. I decided to go to the Coney Island Branch because, well, it had some books that I wanted, and a friend of mine agreed to go, and Coney Island is sweet. Oh, and I wanted Nathan's. Those fries are delicious.

Branch: Coney Island
Location: 1901 Mermaid Ave. (Near W. 19th St.)
Transport: F train
Books: Laika by Nick Abadzis; Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Coney Island is great in the off season. Empty...cold and windy...gray...salty smelling...I love it. The library was ok, not too big but a very helpful librarian. In fact, one of the books I wanted was in the back room and he want and got it for me. Now that's service. I was totally ready to give up but Jenny (my fellow library student who came with) told me the guy was good. Like REALLY god. And he was. The library also had a very pleasant atmosphere to sit and read or relax in. It seemed to have a group of regulars who were happy to be there and contributed to the nice environment. Nothing really wacky happened though. Ah well.

Laika is a comic about the Russian dog that got shot up into space. It's partly fiction, but it was heavily researched and for the most part seems to be historically accurate. It's really well written and illustrated, and really makes you feel for the animals that get sacrificed, whether it be for science, or politics, or sometimes just publicity.

Winesburg, Ohio is a book of inter-related short stories from the early 20th century about life in a small town. I found out about it while flipping through the beginning of the new O. Henry prizewinner short stories collection. The few I've read so far are excellent. I'll report more later. Pics:

From the other side of the intersection.

One street closer.

Right in there. There's Jenny! On the left! Can you see her?

Here's Keyspan Park where the Brooklyn Cyclones play. And that parachute thing or whatever you call it. Be back soon.

Rugby #54, 9/26/07

2007-09-29T11:24:00.000-05:00

Forget that thing I said about the Yankees last time. Also, I've been remiss in my duties as a library blogger. I went to a library on Wednesday, and you're just now hearing about it! Totally unacceptable, right? I can make up for it honest. Here I go!

The Eddie Campbell comic (Black Diamond Detective Agency) was quite good. I love his art, and the story was appropriately twisty-turny as far as what you'd expect from the title. It got a little confusing at times but definitely worth reading. I mean, if you like comics, and your library also has comics.

Now a friend of mine just moved here from Minnesota, and she works at a Barnes and Noble, so I went there to see her in action. There's a book of essays I was interested in by an author named Steve Almond (who writes some excellent short stories) and I bugged her co-workers to help me find it there, but they couldn't, so I skulked around until I found it myself. Then I put it back and decided to get it from the library, and they had it, at the Rugby Branch.

Branch: Rugby
Location: 1000 Utica Ave. (Near Tilden Ave.)
Transport: bicycle
Book: (Not that You Asked): Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions by Steve Almond
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007

The Rugby Branch is in Rugby, which is just north of East Flatbush. Or south? It's confusing. That general area, anyway. The neighborhood was kinda weird; even though it isn't that close to the water, it kinda seemed like if I kept going down Utica Avenue, I would fall off the earth. Also the library looks very uninviting from the outside, because all the windows are covered in cages. My first impression turned into pleasant surprise, though, when I went inside. There was nothing special about the design, but everyone there seemed happy, it was quiet and pleasant, and the books were laid out well. And it was nice and cool, which was especially nice since it was so hot and humid on Wednesday, and I was extremely sweaty by the time I got to the library.

The book? Yeah, I read it. It's great. I may want to read it again sometime so I might actually have to buy it. Almond discusses his hilarious sexual exploits, his life being under attack by crazy right-wingers, and maybe best of all, how much he hates the Red Sox (he's an Athletics fan). Oh and having a baby, that one was good too. And Kurt Vonnegut. So lotsa stuff really. It's great, read it!

Now babble and poorly constructed sentences must give way to...pictures!

The windows.

Windows AND door.

Just the door? You got it.

Here is where I parked my bike.

Doesn't it just look like if you kept going you'd fall off the world? No? I guess it's just me then.

Seeya soon!

Sunset Park #55, 9/19/07

2007-09-20T21:40:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone. So the Yankees are totally back in the AL East race! That's pretty exciting for everyone who is a good American. And also me. Bah, now Dave is watching Beauty and the Geek. It's so distracting. Oh right, libraries. Yesterday I noticed that I book I'd wanted to read for a while was available at a branch I hadn't been to yet. Better yet, it was close by. So I biked over to the Sunset Park Branch.

Branch: Sunset Park
Location: 5108 4th Ave. at 51st St.
Transport: bicycle
Books: Amulet by Roberto Bolaño; The Black Diamond Detective Agency by Eddie Campbell
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007

So, Amulet. You may remember Roberto Bolaño from a prior entry, where I discussed his book By Night In Chile. I really loved it, and this one was excellent as well. It seemed semi-autobiographical, but told from the point of view of a less prominent character in his life. This made a lot more sense when discovered that Amulet is actually the full story of a minor character from another Bolaño novel, The Savage Detectives, which I will definitely read as soon as it's back in the one library in Brooklyn that has it and that I haven't already been to.

As for the other book, it's a comic, and it's written and illustrated by the artist of From Hell, the amazing graphic novel about Jack the Ripper (read the comic, don't watch the movie). I haven't read it yet, but the art looks typically excellent.

The library is in Sunset Park, which is the neighborhood so named for its proximity to the actual park, Sunset Park. Long story short it's south of here. Apparently it used to be a Carnegie branch until it was knocked down and "modernized." It's definitely no-frills, but they layout is very streamlined and easy to use, and I found something I wasn't looking for, so that always says something about the selection (that is, it's well geared to me). Hopefully I'll be out at another library soon, sorry for the semi-truncated post, but this "Beauty and the Geek" nonsense is fairly hypnotic. Picture time!

Here I am in the street!

Still! But looking at more trees this time!

I don't know WHAT I was thinking here.

Oh, yeah, haha, there's a funny story about this one. I was about to go into the library, but then, I took out my camera, well no, it was actually out already from taking the other pictures, and then I looked at the door, and pointed my camera, and I took a picture of it.

That's it for now, see you soon.

Marcy #59, 9/12/07

2007-09-12T20:40:00.000-05:00

Wow, it's really hard to believe how prolific I've been lately, isn't it? That is, it would be hard, if anyone still read this. But enough about that! I went to another library today, and if you're here, you just might have a desire to read about it. This is what happens when my classes start and I don't have any serious homework yet, but am still only working a couple days a week. Massive amounts of reading! I finished reading Assorted Fire Events, and while I did like it, the author (who is in fact a professor of creative writing) comes off more as the perfect technical short story writer who will never really be interesting enough to drag you back. I'm sure he's a great teacher, you can tell that from reading his work, but I wouldn't recommend this particular book too highly.

What I can recommend, though, is George Saunders' excellent new book of essays, The Braindead Megaphone. I bought it and read it all in one day (Monday, I believe) and one of the essays, "The United States of Huck," which started life as an introduction to one of the eight million editions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was so good (all of the essays were really good) that it made me want to reread Huck Finn as soon as possible. I figured I could pick a library at random and they'd have it, and I picked the Marcy Branch, and I was right.

Branch: Marcy
Location: 617 DeKalb Ave. at Nostrand Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Date: Wednesday, September 12, 2007

It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to bike up to scenic Bed-Stuy, through Fort Greene so I could go to Fort Greene Park on the way back. Which may actually be my favorite park in Brooklyn. But don't check it out, cause I like how quiet it is. Right, the library. Well, once you get into Bed-Stuy, the neighborhood stops being as nice, and the branch itself didn't have much to offer either. There was space enough, bat as seems to be typical of underfunded branches, most of the shelf space was empty. I know they base funding on circulation, but it can really be a self-perpetuating cycle when fewer people want to come to a library because it doesn't have all that many books, and the people there (in some cases) just seem like they don't want to be there, and you can't blame them really. It wasn't some kind of hole, don't get me wrong, it was just sad to see how much more could've been done with it if it had some more money for more books, more staff, etc.

I've already reread Huck Finn. I started, and I just couldn't stop. It's all so wonderful, except maybe the ending, but when I got in there I might've read even faster just so it could all be over. That said, if you don't remember every little detail of it, or haven't ever read it at all, go to the library and get it, you'll be glad you did.

The book being done, I guess you can expect to see another post soon! And I use "you" in the most abstract sense, since I'm fairly sure I'm the only one reading this anymore. Have a good weekend if I don't see all of "you"! Take care of "your" families and work and stuff! Happy Rosh Hashanah! Apples and honey yeah! Pics...

Good tree shade action.

These things were pretty cool.

If it came to life, these would be the front legs.

Uh...it's a wall! Yeah!

And...the entrance again. Ok, sorry for the pictures, I probably didn't need to post them all. But I did it anyway! Ha! Also, if you felt like it, you could maybe donate a couple bucks to support me in the NYC MS Bike Ride? Or not, it's entirely up to you.

Fort Hamilton #40, 9/8/07

2007-09-10T21:15:00.000-05:00

So, I'm back already. I need to get my biking prowess back up to speed for the MS Bike Ride I'm doing next month (shameless plug), and I finally got the books which I had taken out of the library and the lent to someone else back (I recommend against doing this, ever, for any reason) so I decided to take advantage of one of Brooklyn's prettier bike paths and cycle down to the Fort Hamilton Branch.

Branch: Fort Hamilton
Location: 9424 Fourth Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Books: Assorted Fire Events by David Means; Let Us Be Perfectly Clear by Paul Hornschemeier
Date: Saturday, September 8, 2007

The results were not spectacular. Despite the fact that I couldn't have been riding more than 7 miles, I was completely exhausted by the end of it. Still, there were multiple factors at play here, most of which will (hopefully) not be repeated anytime soon. Namely, it was a lot hotter and humid than I thought it would be (85 degrees), I was dumb enough not to bring water, and with five books and a bike lock, I was probably carrying in the neighborhood of 30-40 pounds. Still, it's clear that working so much has cut into my biking, and I'll have to work on that. Which will mean more libraries! Yea! Anyway, I took the subway home.

Back to the matter at hand: books and things. I was gonna see the new remake of 3.10 to Yuma this weekend (and did), and since it was literally the first Western I'd ever seen, I thought I might prepare with some fine Western literature. Of course, the libraries that had some were either further than I was prepared to go or I'd already been to them, so I picked Fort Hamilton basically at random.

The books are both random titles that caught my eye. The first, Assorted Fire Events, was an interesting looking short story collection that has since (in the first few stories, anyhow) become an interesting short story collection. Means isn't in danger of becoming my new favorite author or anything, but he understands how short stories work and really creates some beautiful ones. Let Us Be Perfectly Clear is a comic anthology that contained one story I had already read. It's very good artistically, but the content is a bit repetitive, and wants too much to be like Chris Ware without actually being that good. Definite potential but in my opinion nothing staggering or must-read.

The library itself is down in Bay Ridge right by the Verrazano Bridge. It's small, but the space is used well and the layout was very conducive to browsing. I didn't have any questions for the staff, but I'd imagine if I had, they would've been nice about it. I have little to say here, partially because I was exhausted at this point and partially because I waited too long to write. So the lesson is, don't do that (the bike thing or the other thing). I can assure you all the next entry will be meatier. Perhaps more delicious. Pictures:

Wider.

Corner.

Doorer?

Ok, that's it.

But yeah, I'm done with one of the books and half through the other so I'll be back soon. Classes just started (yay!) but the serious work won't kick in for a bit. So keep watching this space!

Highlawn #42, 9/4/07

2007-09-08T09:54:00.000-05:00

So, I went to another one. On Tuesday. But I haven't updated until now. Why? Well, school's starting again...no wait, that's on Monday. Well, work...no wait, I just switched to part-time. Let's just say I was getting over the crazy weekend I had? So, basically, there is no good reason. But I would like to add that Dave and I tried to go to the Sunset Park Branch on Saturday, only to find that all the libraries were closed Saturday-Monday for the holiday. Meh. Anyway...Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was devastating, I recommend it but it really was emotionally difficult to read. The Finder comic was excellent as well, so much so that I decided to get the next volume, and in fact ended up with the next 3. They had the next one at the Highlawn Branch, which is sort of in New Utrecht near Bensonhurst. Since Tuesday is now a class day, it was a day off, so I got on the ol' bike and headed over there soon after waking up. Well, probably not all that soon.

Branch: Highlawn
Location: 1664 W. 13th St. at Kings Highway
Transport: bicycle
Books: Finder: Sin-Eater, vol. 2, Finder, King of the Cats (Vol.3), and Talisman (Finder) by Carla Speed McNeil
Date: Tuesday, September 4, 2007

This was a really nice bike ride. I took McDonald Ave. to Bay Parkway on the way there, ending up under the elevated F tracks for a bit of the way, and then Bay Ridge Parkway to New Utrecht Ave. on the way back, which is under the elevated D line. Yeah! Dodging steel beams and double parked trucks rules. Anyway, the library itself was really nice. It had a completely different setup from any I'd seen, with the building design basically being a circle overlapping with a rectangle (see pictures). The inside had a very new feel, and was well laid out and pleasant. There were many people siting around reading and relaxing, but it was a bit odd that all the children were gone. This was the first library visit I'd done since school started, and it was nice to have it be quiet, but I think I prefer the craziness and life that kids bring to the atmosphere.

I knew I wanted the next volume of the Finder series, but they had the next three so I grabbed 'em all. I wandered around for a good while looking for a novel or non-fiction title that I might be interested in, but eventually just stuck with the comics. I have since read all three volumes and ave to recommend them to anyone with a passing (or greater) interest in comics. The stories definitely have a fantasy bent, but if you can deal with that, you'll see one of the more interesting alternate worlds I've ever read about.

This was the first branch I've been to that had self check-out, which is almost exactly the same as self check-out at the supermarket. Insert your library card, scan the books, tell it you're done, receipt, bam. There's also one employee monitoring four terminals. It's kinda funny, but they had this at the St. Paul Public Library over a year ago (longer, for all I know) and I've been wondering when I would start seeing it here. I'm sure other branches have it as well and I just haven't seen it, but now I've got a confirmed sighting.

I've finally gotten all my errant library books back (long story) so I'll have to be at another library to return them either today or Monday. Won't be long till there's another update, I hope you're here! Now for pictures.

The circle is the big part. The rectangle is the small part.

A closer view. Am I somewhere in this picture? Am I a vampire? You decide.

This guy wanted to know where some cafe was. I was all like, I don't know.

Round...

and angled. That's it for me, I'll be back, maybe even later today. That's right, this is what I do with my Saturdays. Seeya!

Kensington #43, 8/21/07

2007-08-21T20:18:00.000-05:00

Well, here it is, another post, and summer isn't even over yet. Though today it kinda feels like it's over, which is awesome as far as I'm concerned. I can never wait for fall to start though, and once it's here and I'm not working full time, I'll be able to go to libraries more. Which is great for everyone!

Ok, I'll level with you all: it's been a month, and I didn't even finish the book I got out last time. I got about 100 pages in, and I really enjoyed it, but it just wasn't the kind of thing I could read piecemeal, and I've been so busy between trips and getting trapped in flooded subways and actively ruining my life that I could never really just sit down and read. Oddly enough I was able to get really sucked into a book I bought at a used bookstore a few months ago. It's the story of a Native American's life, and it's called Black Elk Speaks. I recommend it to just about anyone -- despite being extremely depressing, it has somewhat renewed my faith in humanity, which had been a bit lacking lately. I've also discovered a renewed interest in Native American history, which influenced my next book choice. I also had to choose a library which would stay open until 8 (tonight), and then, of course, pick up a random comic book. I did all this and more (well...not really more) at the Kensington Branch.

Branch: Kensington
Location: 410 Ditmas Ave. between East 4th & East 5th St.
Transport: F train to Ditmas Ave.
Book: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown; Finder: Sin-Eater, vol. 1 by Carla Speed McNeil
Date: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

So, after work I went and got a new CD, then hopped on the F train in Manhattan and took it out to Kensington. I was looking for this Native American history book I've mentioned; you've probably all heard of it, there was even an HBO movie of it recently. To my horror, it wasn't there, but I did see a trade of a comic I had noticed in my old comic store in Minneapolis. I picked that up, wandered around frantically for a while, then finally refused to give up and found Bury My Heart just a few shelves away from where it should've been.

The library was very nice. Definitely a smaller branch, very square (as you'll see in the photos) but all of the space was packed with media and the selection seemed varied and interesting. I always wonder how they decide which random comics to order, whether a publisher's guide or library journal that tells them to, or if someone actually reads the comics beforehand. But back to the branch, it had a very homey feel, there were a bunch of teenagers hanging out, the staff was nice, nice mix of patrons, etc.

The neighborhood is also great, there are a bunch of little restaurants and stores on Ditmas Ave., and the autumn in the air just made it all great. More of (very diverse) small town atmosphere than a fancy Park Slope type feel. But that's enough of that, I'm hopefully not moving out of here anytime soon. I just got a new neighbor and everything (yeah! one that doesn't hate Dave and me yet!) so I'm pretty settled. Basically what I'm saying is, as far as I'm concerned, fall can't get here soon enough, and I need to get myself to libraries more often. Hopefully I can get through these books pretty fast. Cross your fingers and hold your breath everyone! Pictures...

There's only really one angle I could get of this place. It's kinda sandwiched.

I could get closer...

and look up...but that's about it. See you next time. I can 63% guarantee it'll be in less than a month.

Bushwick #29, 7/18/07

2007-07-20T09:05:00.000-05:00

First off, I want to say this'll be my last post for a little while. I don't know how long, but it's just that my days won't be as free to read and go to libraries anymore: I got a job. I know, unthinkable, but somehow or other, it happened. It's at a rare bookshop of all places, and it's actually more of a paid internship than a job, but either way. On to the library type stuff!

Haircut and other Stories was excellent; so good in fact that I bought You Know Me Al, also by Ring Lardner, at a used bookstore in Chicago. While there, I also noticed another book I'd been meaning to check out, and soon after getting back to this fine city I headed over to the Bushwick Branch to pick it up.

Branch: Bushwick
Location: 340 Bushwick Ave. at Seigel St.
Transport: bicycle
Book: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men by James Agee
Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2007

This was a nice bike ride up towards that whole Williamsburg area, though due to an error reading google maps and a reluctance to change course I went the wrong way on a one way street longer than I maybe should have. There was plenty of room though...anyway what's done is done. The library was very nice, not in the best neighborhood I've seen but definitely not a bad one. It was a Carnegie branch, with the little balcony area over the main floor, though (like in many of these branches) the mezzanine was not open to patrons. It's one of the oldest branches, originally opening in a church basement in 1903 before moving to the current spot in 1908.

Since there were torrential rains Wednesday morning that I actually had to bike through, my sneakers were still wet at this point, which meant my dry socks also got wet. When I got to the library, after I dodged the angry kids on the steps (one on crutches) that the cop who was yelling at them seemed to have thrown out of the library, I sat down to hang out and read for a bit and took my wet shoes off. This flew for a while, half hour or so, when the same cop came up and told me I had to wear shoes. Why am I telling you all this story? I DON'T KNOW. But my shoes were pretty dry by that point, and then got totally re-soaked on the ride home when a truck forced me to ride through a giant puddle. Woo!

The library was nice though, lotsa kids hanging out, a couple playing chess, good time had by all. Now for a few pictures.

Long view, with the tower behind it.

Just the building.

Detail!

Don't get all sad everyone. I have a lot of books to read and soon little time to do it, and even less time to go to libraries, but I promise I'll be back before too long. Who knows, maybe having a job will mean I learn to...*shudder*...budget my time better. But, if for some reason it's way longer than I think it'll be, enjoy the rest of your summer! By reading!!!!

Kings Bay #44, 7/11/07

2007-07-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

Apparently yesterday (7/11) was free slurpee day at...7-11. Well, I missed it. But I did do something cool - I visited a library! Yeah, that's right! Basically, Liz (my girlfriend, if you were curious) is doing a sweet top-secret project involving the believed-extinct thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, and there was a book on said animal that seemed highly informative. But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Face of Battle was excellent, it took me a little while to read, but it was well worth it. While I thought it would be a little more about the experience of the individual in battle, it turned out to be more of a detailed breakdown of what battle was really like for various groups; i.e., archers v. cavalry at Agincourt, or infantry v. machine gunners at the Somme. Keegan discusses three battles in detail (Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme) and his findings are fascinating. He also discusses the future of battle a bit, and since the book came out before Vietnam was even over, his predictions are a bit outdated. He seems to believe that battle will, someday soon, make itself obsolete - while this might be true to an extent, we now have wars that are fought from bomb to bomb rather than battle to battle. But oh well.

So as I said, there was this useful looking thylacine book that I thought I'd pick up, and other than the Central Branch, only one had it: the Kings Bay Branch.

Branch: Kings Bay
Location: 3650 Nostrand Ave. (near Ave. W)
Transport: bicycle
Books: Tasmanian Tiger: The Tragic Tale of How the World Lost Its Most Mysterious Predator by David Owen; Haircut and Other Stories by Ring Lardner
Date: Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The bike ride there was really nice. Kings Bay is out in the southeast corner of Brooklyn, by the water, so I rode down Ocean Parkway almost all the way to Coney Island and then took Avenue W over to Nostrand. Avenue W had a bunch of those really nice row houses that make me think of the beach (and that many of the neighborhoods near beaches in Brooklyn are made up of.) It was really humid yesterday, but not unbearably hot, and by the time I got to the library, I could smell the salt in the air.

The branch itself was wonderful. It has a setup like I'd never seen; a split level, where the fiction, new books, large print, foreign language books, CDs and DVDs are on the main level, and then to the right one can either go up, to the children's department (where a sign declared that no teens 13 or older were allowed), or down, to the where the young adult and non-fiction books are kept (and here a sign proclaimed that there is to be no PSP use on the premises. No word on the Nintendo DS). It was packed with people and had a really nice feel to it. I found the thylacine book in no time, but then there was a problem; what to get for myself? After a long search, I noticed a short story book by Ring Lardner, an author who I was familiar with only through the comic strip adaptation of his famous work, You Know Me Al (which my father showed me years and years ago), about a naive baseball player in the early 20th century who gets picked up by the big leagues. In fact, I had no idea until yesterday that it was ever anything other than a comic strip, but there apparently a new edition of it came out recently.

Anyway, I picked up Haircut, saw the enthusiastic H.L. Mencken quote on the front, read the first few sentences, loved it, and grabbed it. After recently reading the entire Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics, most of which is taken from early 20th century comics, and then being completely fascinated by Keegan's depiction of the Somme in The Face of Battle (Americans are always so eager to talk about World War II that we forget about World War I entirely), I think it's safe to say I am officially fascinated with the early half of the 20th century. Just so you all know.

Pics:

Panoramania

Yep...there it is...right in there.

I don't remember it being so red...I must have been half-dead from dehydration.

Projects across the street.

That's all for now, going to Chicago tomorrow for that pitchfork thing, but my current book is pretty short so I should be back early next week. Have a good weekend everyone! Don't burn alive!

Cortelyou #87, 6/29/07

2007-06-29T17:20:00.000-05:00

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.

Williamsburgh #60, 6/19/07

2007-06-20T10:06:00.000-05:00

I just finished my last assignment for my first library school course! Woohoo! Congrats, me. But in a time long before, when I hadn't finished yet, a day as far back as yesterday...

Oh right, well I finished the fairy tale comic, it was really good but incomplete. The second volume is coming out in serial form right now, but I'll probably wait for the next collection. The feminist leanings did get more pronounced as the story went on, but they didn't get in the way of the excellent story (or art).

So I knew I needed a book for my two-day jaunt to Minnesota, but I picked one I bought a month or two ago: the already excellent The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks by Donald Harington. It's so great, in fact, that I decided to hit the amazon lists for books like it. Finding little, I turned to another author I enjoyed a great deal recently, Lucius Shepard. He led me to the sci fi/fantasy realm, so I figured why not, it's been a while. And I found a book that was only at one library, and that was the Williamsburgh Branch.

Branch: Williamsburgh
Location: 240 Division Ave. at Marcy Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Book: Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2007

This branch was the first Carnegie branch, so I figured it would be exactly like all the others (Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, etc.) I was totally wrong. The design is similar, but it's so much bigger! The wings in particular extend out further than in the others that I've been to. It really is a beautiful branch with an excellent selection. I recommend it highly!

When I first got there it was a bit before 1 (the opening time) and there were people waiting. And then more came. And more. By the time it opened (5 minutes late by my watch) there were at least 20 people waiting. By the time I got inside, there wasn't a single free computer. Luckily, I was there for a book. The patrons were a mix of kids, older people, and women with strollers.

I don't really have much more to say so I'll let the pictures say the rest. If you live around here and like awesome comics (who doesn't!), you should go to the MOCCA festival this weekend. Fun actually guaranteed. I'll be there on Sunday, but it's both days. Of the weekend. It's Saturday and Sunday. Both days.

left side

right side.

The ever popular angled shot.

Awe inspiring, no?

Here's all the people, anxiously awaiting their books and internet.

The library is actually built right over the highway (though I'd imagine the library was there first.)

It isn't in the hipster part of Williamsburg, but right near the Williamsburg Bridge, and the JMZ train lines.

Cop hassling some guy.

And that's all. I'll be away for a couple days, so I wont be back till next week. But I'm totally back to a regular schedule now! See! Keep reading please!

McKinley Park #67, 6/15/07

2007-06-15T11:11:00.000-05:00

Well, Dave's away this weekend so I'm all alone...I guess I'll just putter around and await the inevitable - wait, what was I talking about? Libraries? All right, I guess so...I went to another one today, that's the scoop. Yeah that's the hot ticket. The snazz. The big one. Ok.

So, I've been into comics lately, like way into them, more than usual. I got this sweet Jack Kirby Omnibus and I've been looking for books on the history of comics, as well as anything good I might not have heard from. I've even resorted to amazon lists, one of which turned up this trip's selection. In a surprising twist of events, nearly every library had a copy, so I found one that was a decent bike trip, but not too much of one, and came up with the McKinley Park Branch.

Branch: McKinley Park
Location: 6802 Fort Hamilton Pkwy. (at 68th St.)
Transport: bicycle
Book: Castle Waiting by Linda Medley
Date: Friday, June 15, 2007

Now this book is basically a different take on some classic fairy tales, or at least that's how it starts, but then it branches off on a story all its own. A lot of reviews for it discuss its feminist perspective, and it is noticeable, but the story is so well-written and enjoyable that it ends up feeling more like Bone (albeit much shorter) than anything else. Of course I've only read the first third so far but...it's definitely very good.

The library itself, I can honestly say (write) is one of the best branches I've been to. The neighborhood is sorta near Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, and Dyker Heights, but I guess it's technically part of Borough Park. Anyway, though I didn't go to the titular park, the library was nice enough on its own. It was renovated in the 90s, and is apparently one of the bigger branches in the system. Obviously those circulation numbers gave it more funding, because it is very well stocked, and the staff was extremely polite and helpful (guy found my book, I didn't even ask him to.)

The area - what I saw of it anyway - was very nice too. I came through Brooklyn's Chinatown to get to the library, there was a nice little strip of a park a block away from it (Leif Ericson Park and Square), and best of all a 24-hour stone diner to eat breakfast and read at. Fear not, loyal readers! The diner is in the pictures below.

Braving the street crossing

I don't know, the corner I guess?

I couldn't take a picture straight on today...

The excellent diner (at 65th St. and 7th Ave. by the way)

I love signs where there's two parts rotating at different speeds.

That's it, come back next week.

Windsor Terrace #77, 6/7/07

2007-06-11T19:06:00.000-05:00

Ok, it's been a month. Geez. Sorry about that. I can't imagine that anyone still checks this, but what the hey. No need for long explanations, suffice it to say I've started my first course at library school and it's a lotta work. But enough about me. I returned the other books some time ago; you may not remember what they were, I hardly do, but I will say that Alias the Cat may be my favorite of all of Kim Deitch's books that I've read. It's certainly the best at blurring fantasy (living demon cartoon cat) and reality (Deitch is a main character, has a nervous breakdown, ok I guess this stuff didn't actually happen, but it was cool.)

Last Thursday I was supposed to be doing work for my class, but I felt a strange emptiness inside. Whether it was just too nice out to be doing work, or it had just been far too long since I'd been to a new library, I decided it was the time. Instead of my usual ways, I didn't look up any books, I just hopped on my bike and headed to the closest branch I hadn't been to: the Windsor Terrace Branch.

Branch: Windsor Terrace
Location: 160 E. 5th St. at Ft. Hamilton Pkwy.
Transport: bicycle
Book: Adverbs by Daniel Handler
Date: Thursday, June 7, 2007

It really was a gorgeous day, temperatures right around 70, but there was one black mark on the whole experience: my bike chain was so rusted that I could barely pedal the stupid thing. Not to worry, everyone, I have since used plenty of WD-40 on it (which I am informed will dry out, and that I need bike grease. What I really need is a new bike.)

Moving on, I almost got another Maakies book out, along with some other book that I have since forgotten, but ended up going for Adverbs. The cover says it's a novel, but it's really a series of overlapping stories with recurring characters. Some of it is in San Francisco, some in New York, some in Washington state. The author, Daniel Hnadler, is also Lemony Snicket who wrote the Series of Unfortunate Events series. I haven't read those, but I've heard great things, and I may actually have to try them now after reading this book. Sad, funny, packed with action, sex, and alcohol, but basically just a very well written book about how great and depressing love is, with some very interesting and believable characters who are all basically crazy. Worth reading for sure.

I got to the library at about 10:30 am, and the vast majority of people there were mothers or nannies with their bestrollered children. I don't want to say it was annoying, but I didn't spend any extra time there. The library was very spacious and well laid out, and the outside light lit the place nicely. The selection of books was excellent, and...I'm sorry, I can't remember anything else, the screaming babies drove it all out. Maybe go in the afternoon or something. Oh yeah, nice trees all around too. Windsor Terrace is a really beautiful neighborhood. Which I will now show you!

panoramic...

angleriffic...

closeropic...

and, a nice sentiment at the school across the street.

So I'm back, really, I'm gonna do this often again. So if you haven't given up yet, now is not the time to not start stopping reading this site. Seeya soon.

Greenpoint #41, 5/10/07

2007-05-11T11:02:00.000-05:00

Ok, moving on. I haven't made much of a dent in those Uncle Remus stories yet, primarily because the book I took out contains the complete stories, and is about 800 pages long, which is fairly daunting. What I have read so far is very good, but I doubt I'll make it through the whole book. In any case, I decided to take a break and...read some comics. My favorite freeform radio blog WFMU's Beware of the Blog, reminded me that Kim Deitch (also wrote Shadowland and The Boulevard of Broken Dreams))has a new book out, and the Greenpoint Branch had it. Even though yesterday was probably the most humid day we've had all year, I decided biking 13 miles (round trip...ok, yeah, its not that much) was a good idea. Well it was! Despite having a shirt so sweat-soaked that it didn't dry for hours, it was a day of firsts: first ladybug I've seen this year (flew into my face...luckily I was motionless at the time), first time I got splashed by water and was glad, because it cooled me down, even the first time I drank water from the sink in a library bathroom because there was no other water to be had and I perspired so much that I needed it to live. Onward!

Branch: Greenpoint
Location: 107 Norman Ave. at Leonard St.
Transport: bicycle
Book: Alias the Cat by Kim Deitch; The Grave Robber's Daughter by Richard Sala
Date: Thursday, May 10, 2007

So, I got to the library, and not only was there an awesome group of little kids holding the door for me with (I assume) their grandfather, who had such a sweet long beard that he looked like a wizard, but there was this other creepy looking comic that I kinda wanted to read but wasn't sure enough about to buy. That, of course, was after I got inside. Wait, let me start over.

The Grave Robber's Daughter is really cool. I read it already, and it wasn't at all what I expected; way creepier, but also way funnier. I recommend it. As for Alias the Cat, we'll see if it lives up to/surpasses Deitch's other work. I'm not too worried about it.

I didn't spend much time in the library, because I was hallucinating from lack of water and the walls were all bendy. No, that's not really true. Well, the first part is. It seemed nice enough...it took me forever to find the new books but I'm fairly sure that was my own fault. It was pretty dark in there, that's what really sticks out, but that could also have been my imminent unconsciousness/death. Ok, not really, I was fine. I don't know why I keep playing up the dehydration thing, it wasn't really all that bad. But seriously, what's with the consistent lack of water fountains? I guess I just feel like the people are...entitled to them. (Wink.)

I guess that's all I got. Oh wait, one last thing. If anyone is looking to improve his or her hitting, I noticed a book that should be most helpful: Don Mattingly's Hitting Is Simple, on bookshelves now. Perhaps on your bookshelf? Perhaps. Pictures...

left

right

down

Clinton Hill #83, 5/7/07

2007-05-07T17:24:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a short entry because I'm watching the Spike Lee documentary When The Levees Broke and it's very emotionally draining. Today was a gorgeous day, a little cool but good bike riding weather. I had finished The Children of Húrin from my last visit, and it was excellent (not extremely different from the Túrin Turambar version of the story in The Silmarillion, but definitely worth the time) so I hopped on my bike to head over to the Clinton Hill Branch.

Branch: Clinton Hill
Location: 380 Washington Ave. at Lafayette Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Book: The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris
Date: Monday, May 7, 2007

Yesterday Liz found a random book on the street about all of the classic Disney movies, and it included Song of the South, which I hadn't thought of for quite a while. It still isn't out on DVD, likely due to the racist overtones, but it is based on old folktales from the south that I had never read so I decided to check them out. The book is so large that I'm not sure I'll be able to read all of it (especially with the new Murakami novel coming out tomorrow) but I'm looking forward to reading what I can.

The library - and the neighborhood - are gorgeous. I had some errands to run so I couldn't spend much time there, but just the trees out front and the houses along Washington Street made the neighborhood very pleasant. The barely noticeable woman in the first picture saw me taking it and asked "You're just taking a picture of your bike, right?" She sounded angry enough that I was worried I was breaking some sort of library code and nodded profusely. Don't worry, your privacy won't suffer, your face isn't in the picture. Sorry about lying to you though.

wide

bike

entrance

next door.

This is a blog about libraries so I hate to talk about anything else in my life or in the world since it seems contrary to the purpose. That said, this movie about Hurricane Katrina is completely devastating, and not just because of what the storm did, or what the people in charge failed to do, but because we as a country have allowed those people to remain in charge. It's sickening and it makes me ashamed of myself and of my country.

I wandered around on some abandoned train tracks last Friday. Check it out here if you want.

"If you tolerate this, then your children will be next." - Manic Street Preachers

Ulmer Park #71, 5/3/07

2007-05-03T18:46:00.001-05:00

Whew, finally. That was a busy couple of weeks...I had a friend from Minnesota visiting for a week, went to New Jersey more than a couple times, had things stolen, finished my library school application (woo!), and read a few (gasp) purchased books. But eventually, I finally found the time to finish the book I took out of Flatbush, that being I, Stagolee. It was an excellent book, and the clear, straightforward prose would have actually made it a quick read if I'd had any time at all. It turned out to be much more complex than I had originally anticipated, though, which was a pleasant surprise. The bits regarding political corruption, and the state of both the Democratic and Republican parties near the end of the 19th century, were very interesting (though I don't know how much of it was based in fact). Apparently the author, Cecil Brown, also wrote a non-fictional account of the murder and the songs it spawned, Stagolee Shot Billy, which you can read about here.

So after finishing that book late last night, I set out today to the next library. My goal was to get the one available copy of The Children of Húrin, the newly released J.R.R. Tolkien book, in the entire Brooklyn Public Library system. It is a longer version of the story of Túrin Turambar, which is a chapter in The Silmarillion, which I have read, and which I recommend to any Lord of the Rings fans who haven't. Luckily enough, out of 33 copies, the one available one was in a library I had not been to. Therefore I set off for the Ulmer Park Branch.

Branch: Ulmer Park
Location: 2602 Bath Ave at 26th Ave
Transport: R train to 36th St.; D train to 25th Ave.
Book: The Children of Húrin by J.R.R. Tolkien
Date: Thursday, May 3, 2007

Can't believe it was two weeks since my last library, I was starting to go into withdrawal...anyway, the branch was very nice, filled with kids who just got outta school, working on projects, hanging out, whatever. I went to sit at one of the less occupied tables and finish the other book I've been reading, only to notice a sign reading "Reserved for Seniors." It's like adult swim, but...with tables. I'm not sure if "Ulmer Park" is an actual neighborhood, but according to my sources I was on the edge of Bensonhurst and Bath Beach. Ok, I guess entirely in Bath Beach. Anyway, the houses were gorgeous, the weather was gorgeous, the flowers and trees were gorgeous. Assuming the honeybees make it through this year, we can enjoy flowers next year as well, though I only saw one bee all day today, and it was a bumblebee.

In any case, the library was nice, a large selection of books and adequate facilities, ah who am I kidding, I was in full on Tolkien nerd mode, I barely noticed the place. It was nice though, really. And so far the book is excellent, by the way, sort of like an extended director's cut of a story, totally totally totally rad. Ok, I'm babbling, I just want to get back to reading some more of it. The upshot being that you should hear from me soon, cause I'll be done with this in no time. Or maybe more horrible/awesome circumstances will befall me and it'll be another two weeks. We shall see.

One last thing: my crappy rechargeable batteries (ENERGIZER! DAMN YOU!!!!!) can't hold a charge, and I was ready to go, so I figured I'd just buy a couple AAs at a convenience store in the area. I somehow managed to spend a dollar on batteries that are a) significantly lighter than normal AAs and b) didn't work. At all. Not even a little bit. By the time I tried them I was nowhere near the store and I didn't feel like going back and complaining, so I shelled out another $2 for some batteries that actually worked. I relate this story not to lament by own bad luck, but to warn you, the reader. Don't buy the batteries that aren't in the full packaging just cause they're a little cheaper. IT'S NOT WORTH IT! Pictures anyone?

Front! A car! A van! Panama!

And then there's always the door...

And the ever popular angle. Well that's it for today. I should be back very soon though, really. See you next time.

Flatbush #38, 4/19/07

2007-04-20T14:00:00.000-05:00

It's really nice today, and I should be outside, and I will, soon. A couple quick announcements: apparently it is National Library Week, you know the week that's about to end right now. I guess I've been derelict in my duties but...it's cool. Also I wrapped up my library school application, so that is all sent in, and now it's just a matter of waiting for the transcripts and recommendations to get there and then I find out if I'm a future librarian! Should be a little over a month, I'd imagine.

Well, I went to a Barnes & Noble (I know, I'm sorry, I had a gift certificate) and spotted a few things that I wasn't sure I wanted to buy but looked like interesting reading. I looked 'em all up and settled on I, Stagolee, the story of a legendary pimp from African-American folklore, now in handy novel form. They had it at many branches, including the...Flatbush Branch.

Branch: Flatbush
Location: 22 Linden Blvd. at Flatbush Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Book: I, Stagolee by Cecil Brown
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2007

This branch is over by the southeast entrance to Prospect Park, and though it wasn't as nice as it is today, it was pretty good, so I biked it. Up the hill, through the park, then down Church St. cause I was craving Subway for some reason, then back to Linden Boulevard. So, a pretty good ride. The branch was nice but seemed to have an odd lack of tables considering that it wasn't even very small. Plus I got there right around the time when all the kids were getting there, and they weren't being that loud, but one of the librarians kept yelling at 'em. Guess he didn't want to give them an inch! Another guy at the table I was sitting at decided to pack it in as a result. He even told himself it was time to leave. Didn't seem that crazy though. It was also odd that when I got there, a policeman was checking people out. I guess they all work for the city...

The Flatbush Branch seemed to fit in with the trend that if a library is in a not great area, it'll have worse facilities than one in a nicer area. It would be nice if Brooklyn spread it out better, but I suppose there's a chance they're just responding to demand, and it happens to be less in those places. Personally though, I doubt it. And here's a chance to actually help out, and I can't do it! Tomorrow is Support the Shelves Day where people can go to certain branches (Brownsville, Cypress Hills, Flatbush, Homecrest, New Utrecht, Saratoga, Sunset Park, Ulmer Park, Washington Irving and Williamsburgh) and donate books they don't need. Unfortunately, I'm going to be in New Jersey tomorrow having fun so I can't donate books. But if anyone reading this has books...and lives near one of these branches...you should do it! I know no one will, but if you do, I'll buy you something nice. Maybe even a beer!

I guess that's all for today, look at some pretty pictures.

wide shot...

entrance...

row houses across the street...

kids, a basketball, and a hoop. They were playing, ok, just not when I took the picture. There's no court though so it was more Horse than anything, or so I assumed. That is all.

East Flatbush #36, 4/13/07

2007-04-15T21:57:00.000-05:00

So, finished those other books right quick and decided to hit another library on Friday. As I said, A Contract With God was phenomenal. Cosmopolis was good too, engrossing and very imaginative. It was about an executive in a limousine and his entire day trying to get across Manhattan. He meets with various people in his organization, gets through an anarchist protest, etc etc. There were so many ideas going through it that I'm not sure there was a solid story or any real characters, but seeing Don DeLillo exercise his brain was still a fun time. Also, the book is dedicated to Paul Auster, and his work definitely seemed to have something of an influence on it, particularly The New York Trilogy.

And so, continuing my break after the monster that was Cobra II, I decided to get the next chapter in the Contract With God Trilogy, A Life Force, and they had it right out near where I went the other day. That is to say, at the East Flatbush Branch.

Branch: East Flatbush
Location: 9612 Church Ave. at. Rockaway Pkwy.
Transport: R train to Atlantic Ave., 4 train to Utica Av., 3 train to Saratoga Av.
Book: A Life Force by Will Eisner
Date: Friday, April 13, 2007

I read the book already. It's totally amazing, I think I liked it even better than A Contract With God. There's not too much to say about these books, just that if you have even a passing interest in either graphic novels or tenements or even New York City history in general, they are must reads. I think they might all be available in one volume too.

As for the library, honestly, it was nothing special. I was kinda having a shitty day, maybe something to do with it being Friday the 13th, who knows. The neighborhood sucked, a bitchy woman cut ahead of me when I was waiting to check out and then didn't care when I called her on it, whatever. Then on the 4 train into Manhattan I had to listen to a bunch of asshole teenagers yell over me about how "the village is the place with all the homos" and that they would never get off the train there, and that anyone who did was gay. I can never tell if that stuff sickens everone else in the train car the way it does me. Fuck it.

The one nice thing was that on the way there, I got to Atlantic Av. just in time to see a 3 train pull out. I hightailed it over to the 4 track and this time, when I got to Utica Av., the 3 was right behind us. Basically the opposite of what happened on Thursday.

Well that's it for that one as far as I'm concerned. With all the talk about this storm today I thought we were gonna float away, but that didn't happen. It's a relief I suppose. Now to the photo evidence.

The full picture...

and then there's the entrance...

and you know, it's always nice to have an angled shot. Greenhouse windows!

New Lots #52, 4/12/07

2007-04-13T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally did it. I finished Cobra II. There were times when the fight got too tough, and I was ready to give up. But I forged on, mind focused on my original plan, refusing to adjust no matter what. Maybe 600 pages is too much, my misgivings informed me. I have other things to do. I just want to get back to another library. I thought I'd be greeted as a liberator. Of the book. Or something. What I'm getting at is, the book was excellent, not just as a chronicle of military operations in Iraq, but as an indictment of the Bush administration (the authors' main targets seem to be Rumsfeld and General Franks) for their failure to recognize when they were faced with situations different from those they had planned for, and to adjust to those new situations. It works even better than other anti-Bush books because it is actually not an anti-Bush book; it is very even-handed, trying to represent the full picture of events throughout. I highly recommend the book to anyone who can spare a few days of their life to read all about Iraq, which at this point may be few of you.

Well, after reading that book for so long I felt weird when it was no longer with me, I decided it was time to get back on the library horse. And it was pouring like crazy yesterday, so after getting completely soaked whilst mailing my taxes (woo!) I hopped on the train and was on my way. Where to? Well, I figured I deserved something short after that monster I just read, and I liked the one Don DeLillo book I read in the distant past (White Noise), so I figured I'd try out another of his for size. In this case small size. What the hell am I talking about. Come with me, whoever you are, to the magical realm of the New Lots Branch.

Branch: New Lots
Location: 665 New Lots Ave. at Barbey St.
Transport: R train to Atlantic Ave., 4 train to Utica Av., 3 train to Van Siclen Av.
Books: Cosmopolis by Don DeLillo; A Contract With God by Will Eisner
Date: Thursday, April 12, 2007

I know the transport bit looks a bit convoluted. What happened was, I got an express train (4) from Atlantic in the hopes of passing a local (3) train on the way to Utica Av., which is the last stop on the 4. Not only did this not happen, but three more 4 trains arrived at Utica Av. before a 3 train came. Since the 3 train goes to a lot more stops than the 4, this is VERY STUPID. MTA, are you LISTENING TO ME!!!! I'M A JUDGE FOR CHRIST'S SAKE! HOW DO YOU THINK THIS REFLECTS ON ME? Ok, moving on.

A Contract With God is a Will Eisner graphic novel, his first in fact (and if you don't know who he is, click the link, because you really should), and since I have shamefully never read any of his work, I spotted this and snatched it up. I've read it already, and it's just fantastic. Not only does it give a true to life portrayal of tenement life in New York City in the '20s and '30s (I'm just guessing, but I'm pretty sure I'm right) but Eisner lets the tenement function as the whole world, giving us a look at the human condition. Really really really great. Read it!

And I also got the DeLillo book, which I understand is about a day in the life of a limousine, or something. I'll report back.

New Lots is fairly close to Brownsville and East New York, but it mainly just seemed fairly desolate. It was probably at least partially due to the rain, and I suppose it is way out at the end of Brooklyn, but it was really quiet and empty out there. There were also some odd sights that I have documented in the pictures. More on that shortly.

The library itself is a nice, large two-story building, though I think the second story is only for official programs and things, because I couldn't see a way for the general public to get up there. I was there before 2, so it wasn't filled with kids yet, though I overheard a policeman saying that it soon would be. As with some of the other newer buildings (well, 1957) it seemed to have more space than it was using, though the selection was decent. It just didn't seem much better than some of the smaller libraries, which is too bad, because they have the space for it. The most bizarre thing about the place, though, is this tidbit from the Brooklyn Public Library website: "The library site is thought to be a Revolutionary-era burial ground, containing the remains of soldiers, slaves, and English officers." That's pretty sweet, though it may cause problems in the future if you ask me. And before anyone asks, no, I did not see any zombies. YET.

Now for a story in pictures...

Here it is from the back, with an eerie abandon'd playground.

The side, all cover'd in ivy.

Left side of the front...

Right side of the front.

This neat old church was across the street, with its own little cemetery and everything.

An abandoned boat on the way back to the subway. Its registrations stickers read '94 and '97. I like to think it got there in some kind of flood. Which doesn't really explain, just to the right of it...

This car. And let me tell you something else, it seemed like it had been there a long time. Maybe I should be glad that the area was relatively deserted?

Well I got short books this time and finished one already, so there's no excuse not to check this space and soon. In other words, do that.

Brownsville #27, 4/3/07

2007-04-04T12:03:00.000-05:00

That's right, another post! After I posted yesterday, I read The Fatal Eggs and finished reading Brownsville. The Fatal Eggs was very good, definitely well written with an interesting story. Basically a scientist in the Soviet Union in the 1920s discovers a ray that makes animals become much larger and stronger, as well as more aggressive to the point of killing and eating each other and whatever else they can get to. Combine this with an inexplicable chicken plague and before you know it the Soviet government is using this "ray of life" on eggs to make the chicken stronger. Only they accidentally use snake and ostrich eggs. So it sort of becomes a monster movie at the end, but not really, because it's basically just satire the entire time. Science, the government, the press - Bulgakov attacks everyone. It's certainly not perfect but at 110 pages, I'd say worth reading. I'll probably check out some of his other work at some point.

Brownsville was good, I enjoyed the art style and subject matter but just felt that the plot was missing something. This seems to be confirmed by amazon.com reviews claiming that there is much better work on the subject of Jewish gangsters. But it served it's purpose in choosing my next Brooklyn neighborhood to go to, and I was off to the Brownsville Branch.

Branch: Brownsville
Location: 61 Glenmore Ave. at Watkins St.
Transport: R train to Atlantic Ave., 3 train to Rockaway Ave.
Book: Cobra II by Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor
Date: Tuesday, April 3, 2007

This branch was a bit of walk from the train, but it was a nice day, so I enjoyed it. Not like today's god-awful weather anyway. Brownsville was once a Jewish neighborhood, but these days it's mostly African-American. With it being so close to East New York (where apparently 25% of the crime in NYC occurs) I wasn't sure what to expect, but I actually found it to be a fairly bustling but also laid back area. Similar to the Walt Whitman Branch, this library is built right in the middle of multiple housing projects (though I'd imagine the library was there first, being built in 1914). There was plenty of open space and greenery, but I guess there's no escaping the generally bad vibes coming from housing projects, stemming primarily from building design. I'm pretty sure years ago someone told me about architects who designed low-cost housing that didn't feel so depressing, but their designs were rejected by cities for whatever reason. Of course I have no source on that whatsoever. That said, there were basketball courts right next to the library full of kids, and the feeling inside the library itself seemed to be an overall good mood. I saw an excellent chess game where the two players were basically trying to psych each other out.

The layout was confused me a bit, but I believe it was my own fault. It's another Carnegie building, though the upper floor/balcony seemed to be off limits to the public, but it took me a while to separate the adults section from the kids, and to find where the new books were. Then it turned out the book I wanted wasn't in the new section anyway. NBD. I took out Cobra II, which is apparently the definitive account of the war in Iraq, or so it claims. In any event I'm sick of this one thing dominating our news and elections and policy debates and not being informed enough about it. Plus the book only just came out in paperback and it was too heavy as a hardcover.

Pictures?

This one is of the general area, with the library in the background on the right side.

Tree, library, tower.

Aaaaaaand just the library.

Well this Cobra II is quite the tome, so it might be a while for me, but it might not, so, you know, keep checking. Commas.

Brighton Beach #24, 4/2/07

2007-04-03T10:13:00.000-05:00

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.

Carroll Gardens #31, 3/27/07

2007-03-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

So, I finished By Night In Chile yesterday morning and decided to get on my bike and ride somewhere, because it was an absolutely gorgeous day. The book was excellent by the way, short but very powerful. It was about a Chilean priest who also wrote poetry and literary criticism, and I guess...the regrets he has about his life, would be the best way to put it. It doesn't sound all that great when I put it that way, but it is. Something about the way Bolaño writes is just very captivating, it really makes me wish I were fluent in Spanish so I could read it the way it should be. But thats ok. Dave has started the Sinatra bio and says it is very good so far. So that's all for last time's stuff.

The other day I was in the Union Square B&N with my friend Sara (who just moved here from Minnesota) and discovered that it is apparently small press month. They had a whole table of interesting looking small press books, one of which I bought (a comic) and others of which I wrote down the info of. Very few of them are available in the Brooklyn library system, and most of those that are are in the Central Branch, which I don't feel like going to yet for some reason, but I found one book that seemed interesting by a Canadian author, Lucius Shepard, so I headed off to the Carroll Gardens Branch to get it.

Branch: Carroll Gardens
Location: 396 Clinton St. @ Union St.
Transport: bicycle
Books: A Handbook of American Prayer by Lucius Shepard; Der Struwwelmaakies by Tony Millionaire
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The library is another Carnegie branch, so it has the same layout as the others: one large room, small balcony with some other stuff on it. I was feeling a little out of it yesterday, and I kept thinking I was in the Park Slope Branch because they're very similar. Carroll Gardens has a great selection though, possibly due to the fact that it's an upscale neighborhood. It's always fascinating to me which branches have which books, because it tells a lot about the neighborhood. A Russian writer like Victor Pelevin, for example, you're most likely to find in southeast Brooklyn, like Brighton Beach or Gravesend, because those are the Russian neighborhoods. But that one is obvious. The book I took out yesterday, A Handbook of American Prayer, is at the Central Branch (most things are) but also in such fancy neighborhoods as Windsor Terrace, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, Greenpoint, and the Leonard Branch (Williamsburg). Roberto Bolaño is a bit different, because he's in libraries in neighborhoods with significant Hispanic populations (Sunset Park, Bay Ridge) as well as hipster enclaves (Carroll Gardens, Leonard). Although in reality his book Amulet is NOT in Carroll Gardens, because I looked for it, and so did the librarian, and it wasn't there, which was annoying because I bet it's good. DON'T STEAL LIBRARY BOOKS YOU JERKS!

Other points of interest: this was maybe the first time I've been to a library that I noticed not all of the computers filled with kids using the internet. Gorgeous weather wins again! As for the other book I got, it's a Maakies book. You know, that funny, gross comic strip. It rocks. I was surprised they had it in a library, but who knows what passes for books these days! Also, up on the balcony, there is a whole graphic novel section, which I thought was pretty cool. Of course, it's mostly just the superhero stuff and manga; the good stuff is mixed in with the regular fiction. Or in the "New" section, which is where the Maakies book was. Whatevs.

Pics:

Long shot

Closer shot

I guess this one's more of the tree than anything.

So that's it for now, I guess no one is reading this anymore anyway, but if you think that's gonna stop me, YOU'RE WRONG. See you next time. Or not. Probably not.

Leonard #46, 3/22/07

2007-03-23T10:27:00.000-05:00

Well, it's definitely been a while. I guess I can only hope that people still check this space...and if you do, thanks for that. Between books that I couldn't wait to read (basically just Day Watch...I mean, come on, it's part of a trilogy, and Night Watch was totally rad) and trips to Connecticut to see my dad, not to mention having a fever for the past week, making people hate me, and a little thing called MARCH MADNESS?!?! Yep, I'd say it's been a busy couple of weeks.

But I finally found time to read a book I got out at the last library, Dandelion Wine. I had the premise only partially right: it takes place in small town America during the summer of 1928, and it is magical, but not in the way I expected from Bradbury. He essentially managed to turn amazing memories from his childhood into a book so beautiful that anyone who reads it feels as though they experienced it themselves. Excellent reading for when you're sick in bed, but probably also for any other time, provided you feel like focusing on the good in the world, which is certainly a change for me. I'd bet it's best in the summer when you're about 12 though. But it makes you feel like that anyway, so...

Oh, and just a side note, the Paul Auster book I got for Dave, he didn't read, and I started it, and it sucked. The first page anyway. So I just returned it. I mean, lets be honest, scriptorium != a word.

For yesterday's selection, I decided to take out a book by Roberto Bolaño, a dead Chilean author who I read about in Believer Magazine, because I am a big fat lame hipster and that is how I find out about things. But I mean...boring train ride...it had a Stephen Elliott essay...fuck you guys, I'm not the one on trial here. Anyway, this was Bolaño's one book that wasn't checked out or in a library that I'd been to. And so, I trekked to what we all know as that nest of hipsters, the fancy part of Williamsburg, and so arrived at the...LEONARD BRANCH.

Branch: Leonard
Location: 81 Devoe St. at Leonard St.
Transport: G train to Metropolitan Ave.
Books: By Night In Chile by Roberto Bolaño; Sinatra: The Life by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan
Date: Thursday, March 22, 2007

There's not much to say about this neighborhood...I mean, you get off the subway and there's a health food store and a bunch of white people. You all know how it is. Thar be hipsters. Anyway...library was very nice, one large room that was half children's and half...you know, regular. The bathroom was easily accessible, and even the groups of kids in there were being pretty quiet. The atmosphere was so nice, I read a whole Entertainment Weekly in there. Partially because I'm lame, but also to kill time. I happened to notice a paperback copy of a Sinatra biography, and since Dave (roommate) has been asking about that, and also because I am all heart, I got it for him.

One thing about the library that seemed odd but I'm pretty sure was my fault: the entrance/exit. If the walkway coming in is a river, and the checkout desk is a large rock that splits the river, than the right hand fork (coming in) is the entrance. But for some reason, I kept trying to go back to that side to leave. First to take my books out, even though returns were on that side, which would make sense. Then I went back to the checkout side, near the exit, got my books, went downstairs to the bathroom, then came back up and tried to leave through the entrance again. The moral of the story is I just made you read a stupid boring story about how I can't follow directions. And now, pictures!

Most of the building, straight on, and in your face.

Perspective! Blocked by a big tree! But that's ok!

I don't know, maybe so you can read the writing?

That's all for now, but this book is pretty short, so hopefully I can be back on a reasonable schedule soon. I mean, don't hold me to anything, but I'm pretty sure...oh, who cares. Keep readin'!

Ryder #80, 3/7/07

2007-03-10T17:56:00.000-05:00

Mike here. Well folks, it seems that I have fallen into the bad habit of waiting multiple days after visiting libraries to write about them. This is clearly unacceptable, and I will work hard to have it rectified in the near future.

With that unpleasantness behind us, we can move on. For some reason, I decided to read a certain Ray Bradbury book. It was a snowy day, the temperature low and the wind speed high. You may remember it as...Wednesday.

Through the driving winds, I strove to find a safe harbor. Once on the F train, I seemed to be on my way to ye olde Ryder Branch (est. 1970). But alack! The F train continued on past my stop, one, two more stops to the Highway of Kings!

So, then I took the train back two stops. It was annoying, but at least I had finally arrived!

Branch: Ryder
Location: 5902 23rd Ave. (bet. 23rd Ave. at 59th St.)
Transport: F train to Ave. N
Books: Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury; Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster
Date: Wednesday, March 7, 2007

I didn't spend much time here, it was early in the day and I had many things to accomplish. It's a nice building, one of the newer branches, in a very similar neighborhood to the last view I've visited, but I'm sure I'll break out of it soon. Dandelion Wine is a sort of fantasy version of Ray Bradbury's childhood, or so I understand, and I'm excited to get into it. The other book is Paul Auster's newest novel, which I know next to nothing about, but I figured I could give it to Dave so he had something to read while in Chicago, and then read it myself when he gets back.

One interesting development: I talked to the librarians there, and they said to get a job, I should talk to the human resources department at the Central branch on Grand Army Plaza. So I'll get on that soon with any luck. With a job it might be harder to update as often, but...wait, I've only been doing this like once a week anyway. Well, whatever! PICTURES!!!

Crazy M.C. Escher view!

The side...

Another side.

And finally, a really large cemetery (Washington Cemetery) that I could see from the subway platform. Sweetness.

I guess that was the last snow of the Winter, so Spring should be here any minute now. EVERYONE BEWARE! DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME TOMORROW!!!!!!!!

Borough Park #25, 2/28/07

2007-03-06T10:39:00.000-05:00

Well, it has indeed been a while, and what makes it even worse is that it's all lies. I did go to another library last week, on Wednesday. I remember it like it was last week...it was warm, and gorgeous out; I rode my bike to the library, and finished reading the book I already had out; I came home and didn't write about it at all. But I have an excuse. I put it off and put it off, and then my computer stopped turning on, so I had to get THAT fixed, and now it is, so I guess it is time.

Unsurprisingly, I loved the post-punk book. Somewhat predictably, it made me nostalgic for late seventies New York, a time when it was terrifying to even ride the subways. (Anyone else remember tokens? Just a side question.) More on that later. But the first half of the book was totally rad, all about bands that I enjoy from the period, like Public Image Limited, Joy Division, and Wire, to name a few. Reynolds also discussed what the scenes in the different cities were like, from London to San Francisco (hence the discussion of No Wave-era New York). The second half of the book was equally entertaining and well written, but it was about groups I have less interest in: Adam Ant, Dexy's Midnight Runners, the Human League, and it finished up with Frankie goes to Hollywood. They all have interesting stories, if not interesting music. I highly recommend the book to any and all music fans.

The Powers comic was good, not Bendis' best work, but it certainly kept me entertained throughout the half hour or so it took me to read it. And so, with these books (nearly) finished, I set out on my bike to enjoy the beautiful day and picked a library with another book about New York in the late seventies, this one with focusing on both politics and the Yankees. The ride was harrowing, because I started going down Third Avenue, which is split by the BQE, and there was heavy traffic on it. Then I had the long six avenue blocks uphill to Ninth Ave. But after that it was pretty much smooth sailing the rest of the way to the Borough Park Branch.

Branch: Borough Park
Location: 1265 43rd St. at 13th Ave.
Transport: bicycle
Book: Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning by Jonathan Mahler
Date: Wednesday, February 28, 2007

As you can see on my handy little map at the bottom of the blog, this library is pretty close to the last two I went to (Midwood and Mapleton). Therefore it should come as no surprise that there were, in fact, plenty of Hasidic Jews there. I mention this mainly because after a week, I don't remember much else about the place. The building is apparently from 1955, but they don't have a water fountain. Also, the drink machine was out of service. Whatever. Don't go there, it was boring. I mean, it was ok I guess. But public buildings should probably have some sort of hydration service other than the bathroom sink. If you ask me!

The book was so great. It's all about 1977 New York City, which included the serial killer David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) and the blackout, as well as the Yankees winning the World Series and Reggie Jackson's three home runs on three pitches. I really enjoyed the parts about the blackout, which is described in detail from the perspective of the ConEd workers, and the Yankees' manager Billy Martin constantly fighting with George Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson. The bits about the mayoral election were good too (Ed Koch beats Mario Cuomo). I felt a bit disappointed by the ending; it was almost as if Mahler didn't really know how to wrap things up so he just let the book end. Still, though, a thoroughly enjoyable read, and it'll have me on the lookout for more New York history.

I guess that'll do it for today. Pictures:

I liked it how it looked with the one next to it. Get it?

That's just it.

Just the front. Of it.

Well, there should be another entry soon, I mean, I finished that other book, so...yeah. It's too cold and windy for the bike today but there's always trains. And on that note, seeya later.

Mapleton #49, 2/27/07

2007-02-27T16:38:00.000-05:00

Wow, I guess the stock market just plummeted or something. Well, I'm sure everything will be fine. For everyone. Forever. Today's trip was sort of a minor one, as I haven't yet finished reading Rip It Up and Start Again, though I am completely addicted to it. I imagine I'll finish it soon, I just had kind of an off weekend in terms of reading. I wanted to get back out there, though, so I figured I could return the weird Klezmer CD and get a movie. I looked up Grey Gardens again, and finally, a copy had been returned, so I prepared to head over to the Washington Irving Branch.

I'm not sure why, but after getting all ready to leave the house, I did one more last minute check on the library catalog website, and where there should have been a "CHECK SHELVES" staring back at me, I instead found a "MISSING". I'm not sure what happened to change the status in those few minutes, but it turned out to be lucky, because the Washington Irving Branch is literally on the edge of Queens, and not near much (as far as I know). Although, as a side note, lately I seem to be enjoying the northern part of Brooklyn better, possibly because it's more run down feel fits my mood. It also feels more open, somehow, and definitely less crowded. Although if I don't like crowds, why do I live in this city to begin with? A hopeless muddle, to be sure.

So I looked up some comics or something, and headed down to the Mapleton Branch, which is a ways southeast from here on the N train.

Branch: Mapleton
Location: 1702 60th Street
Transport: R train to 36th St., N train to 18th Avenue
Book: Powers Volume 1: Who Killed Retro Girl? by Brian Michael Bendis
Date: Tuesday, February 27, 2007

I wasn't going to go just for this one comic, which I'm pretty sure is nothing overly special anyway (though I do like most of what I've read by this author) but the catalog also claimed they had a Harvey Pekar (of American Splendor fame) joint that I hadn't read, and they didn't. This library system seems to have a high instance of cataloging problems, but since it's the only system I've been intimately acquainted with, I have no idea whether it's higher or lower than normal. I'm also somewhat irritated that a different book that I would like to read, of which there is only one copy in the whole Brooklyn library system, has been listed as "DUE 02-20-07" for quite some time now.

Be that as it may, the library was pretty nice. Located across the street from ANOTHER Yeshiva, its patrons were probably about 50% Orthodox Jew. The neighborhood is nice enough, but a bit boring; nothing special in the houses, no business, a generally low traffic area. I wouldn't mind going back in the Spring or Summer, and it is close to a small park (Gravesend) as well. I think I'm just more interested in the outskirts of the borough for some reason.

The library itself is very spacious, although it does seem like much of the space isn't utilized. The entire second floor is children's books, but most of the shelves are half empty. The movie selection was pretty dismal, but there is a collection of Russian language books that must be fairly extensive. I mean, I'm just assuming. But hey, at least the building is built right on the corner in a weird polygonal shape. There's definitely something to be said for that.

From this angle the building looks terrifying and industrial!

But it's not really. Not from across the intersection anyway.

And here we have hope for the future. May all the flagpoles one day be empty!

Night.

Midwood #48, 2/22/07

2007-02-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

Well, you can't win 'em all. And when you (in this case me) take out a 500 page 18th century novel that is centered entirely around how funny it is to have long, pointless narrative digressions instead of a coherent storyline, you may find yourself returning that book at about the 30 page mark. Just saying.

In all actuality, I did enjoy Tristram Shandy, I just couldn't go without a library visit for as long as I knew it would take me to read it. Plus, I wasn't really in the mood for that kind of thing. But what I was in the mood for was another well written book about music, in this case post-punk, and the Midwood Branch had it.

Branch: Midwood
Location: 975 East 16th St. at Avenue J
Transport: R train to Atlantic, Q train to Avenue J
Items: Pastoralia by George Saunders; Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds; Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale (CD)
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2007

This was a pretty fun trip. It was raining slightly when I got there, but the walk from the train was very short. The neighborhood was very nice, lots of little shops on the avenue and homey looking apartments on E. 16th. It seemed to be largely a Jewish area, partially due to the fact that there was a Yeshiva next door to the library. In any case, the library itself had a large section of Judaism related materials, including the CD I took out. I basically got it because I was curious about Klezmer music, and the pig on the cover looked cool. Turns out it's just a Yiddish retelling of Peter and the Wolf, so I guess I'll have to get a real Klezmer CD next time. Not to say it's bad, just not what I thought it would be.

The library was nice, apparently the building is from the 1950s, and I really enjoyed how spacious it felt. It was well lit, packed with people, and just felt like a real gathering place and not just an internet hub like some others. In fact I sat there and read nearly an entire book, Pastoralia, which I didn't actually check out but thought I would mention anyway. I liked it, the usual themes of alienation from and disgust with the consumer society are there, and the characters deal with adversity but still manage to be fairly unsympathetic. Some disagree with me here and say that it's too formulaic, but I prefer his more recent work that at least has an element of hope and/or redemption for the characters. Pastoralia was well written enough, but all the short stories seemed somewhat similar (five words, I rule) in that the characters were struggling against shitty circumstances and were ultimately no better off than before. Maybe it's reality, but he could've mixed it up a bit, which in later stories, he does.

So far Rip It Up and Start Again is excellent, just the kind of book I've been looking for. I don't know all that much about the stories of the bands he discusses such as Public Image Ltd. and the Pop Group, so it should be informative if I like that sort of thing. And I do. Picture time!

blurry

See the raindrops!?

Pleasant entrance.

And, rectangular.

When I left it was sunny, but colder, and I decided to walk up to Avenue I and then go west the 16 or so blocks to the F train at Avenue I. My map told me I could do this, but reality had other ideas. It seems so obvious now, in retrospect, but as you all know, hindsight is 20/20. I lost a lot of good men that day...

Anyway, have a good weekend everyone!

Pacific #69, 2/20/07

2007-02-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

Hm eh huh what? AH! Oh, sorry about that, I've got a little bit of a cold and it's severely limiting the oxygen to my brain. Today MAY be the day I go out and buy some decongestant, we shall see. But enough about that, I apologize for my overly personal post last time, and if you're expecting that again this time, you can just forget it. I mean...don't worry.

I know I didn't really say anything about the neighborhood last entry's library was in, but it's Crown Heights, which is self explanatory. It's that place Dave used to live, 'nuff said. Also, I believe there was some sort of racial issue between the hasidic jews and the african americans during the 1990s. Moving on. The Astro City books were great, I always love seeing a superhero book that isn't just pointless beatings or an exercise in how fucked up once beloved characters can become. It sounds pretentious, but Kurt Busiek actually made a comic about superheroes that makes you think. So that's neat.

I wanted to go to my next library on Monday, but there was some fake holiday and all the libraries were closed. The past week saw me catsitting for my sister, and yesterday I also had an open house for a masters degree in library and information science program (that's right, someday I may actually BE a librarian), so I knew I if I was going to see a library, it would need to be somewhere between that other stuff (physically, that is. God, I'm incoherent today). The solution was the Pacific Branch. I rolled in there with very little idea of what I would get, and ended up getting something different.

Branch: Pacific
Location: 25 Fourth Ave. at Pacific St.
Transport: I walked...part of the way
Book: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Date: Tuesday, February 20, 2007

After a lunch special in a delightful Italian restaurant (where the older gentlemen also dining there couldn't remember the names of any of the actors or movies they were describing, loudly) I headed over to Fourth Avenue. This library is in one of the busier parts of Brooklyn, so it makes sense that it was the first Carnegie branch of the Brooklyn Public Library system. As such, it has all the trademarks; one large open room, smaller meeting rooms off to the sides, and a mezzanine level with the books they figure people are less likely to want. Well, maybe more people would take out the graphic novels if you had a better selection!

As I've written before, these turn of the century branches are very nice, but they start to all run together. Lately I like the branches that are in newer buildings, because at least they have their differences. But that is a minor complaint, and despite the fact that 75% of the internet machines in the place were being used to check myspace, the librarian called me "sweetie" and they let me use the bathroom (an elaborate process, I had to be buzzed in to an area and THEN use a key), so they're ok in my book. As for the item I chose, I guess there was a bit of hype around this title when the movie came out, and I figured if I can't enjoy a comedic novel from the 18th century, I probably don't have much of a sense of humour.

As for the becoming a librarian thing, I'll give more details as they arise. Obviously that would give this blog a bit more credibility, which I know all you readers crave. Just think, it could be the OFFICIAL blog of the Brooklyn Public Libraries. Crazy. A note on the pictures: If you know Fourth Avenue, you know that even crossing it is a death defying feat. Therefore, the pictures aren't all that good cause I couldn't get far back enough. And now here they are!

Just a guy.

AAA! I'M GONNA GET HIT BY A CAR!!!

Ok library, I'm leaving, you can go back to sleep.

And all of you can as well.

Crown Heights #30, 2/13/07

2007-02-13T18:39:00.000-05:00

This post won't be very full, because I was a little distracted today, so I didn't have my usual sunny disposition when I went to the library. Why not? Wasn't my trip good? Yes, it was great. L.A., Vegas, even the cold, cold Twin Cities. I had a wonderful time, it was one of my most memorable vacations ever. Oh. Well, maybe you're just kind of bummed out to be home then? Nope. I'd had enough of sleeping on couches and was more than excited to get back to my own bed. Well, I give up, what was your problem today, sourpuss?

Let's see. Got home late Sunday night, chatted with Dave a bit, was very happy to see him, all was well. Then I woke up on Monday freezing. Figured the heat would kick in at some point, but it didn't. ALL DAY. Woke up today, still wasn't on, and this morning I swear I could see my breath. So you see, going to the library today was more than a search for reading materials; it was an act of self preservation. Even so, I couldn't resist scouting out some stuff I actually wanted before leaving the house, and since I'm currently in the middle of two excellent text-based books (Dance Dance Dance and Paper Lion), I figured I'd go for some comics. One series that I've never read any of is Kurt Busiek's Astro City, which is supposed to be quite good, and the Crown Heights Branch had the first 3 installments, so I figured I could go there, hang out, absorb the warmth, get some books, and not have to freeze for a while.

Waitaminute, I almost forgot. The two books I brought on my trip. Well, Heart of Darkness was amazing, not much I can say about it except that if you've never read anything of Conrad's, this is an excellent place to start, because it is more straightforward and definitely shorter than some of his other works. That and the whole it being really really good part. As far as Johnny Got His Gun, I'm definitely glad I read it, and for the most part I agree with the author's anti-war stance. I was completely wrong about the setting, as it took place during World War I; it must have had a resurge in popularity during the Vietnam era, as the most recent introduction was written in that time period. All that said, it was a good book, but I generally feel that if a book is all message and no story, it would have been better served being an essay of some sort. There was a bit of story in this one, but it essentially only existed to serve the message of the book, so it wasn't very organic. Dalton Trumbo, the author, also wrote movies in the middle of last century, and that makes sense to me, as the characters in the book seemed underdeveloped, just as characters in an old movie might be. Now, on to today!

Branch: Crown Heights
Location: 560 New York Ave. at Maple St.
Transport: R train to Atlantic Ave., 2 train to Sterling St.
Books: Astro City: Life in the Big City, Astro City: Confession, and Astro City: Family Album by Kurt Busiek
Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2007

So this library was fine. I wasn't paying much attention, I mostly just sat there and read. It was warm. I guess it opened in 1958. I forgot to look up stuff on Nova Scotia for Dave. They definitely had a decent comic section...two shelves, anyway. I probably looked around this place the least that I have of any library to date. And an update on the heat situation, after being on for the first 10 minutes I was home, the heaters are now back off again, so that's just great. Luckily I borrowed Amy's space heater, so that's going now, though it isn't doing much yet. All landlords suck, and anyone who says different is a fool. Over and out!

Oh, right, pictures.

Entres vous!

La chose entière!

Une autre tour d'horloge!

Allez à la maison!

Gerritsen Beach #66, 1/31/07

2007-01-31T17:08:00.000-05:00

So here it is, the last post before my vacation. It was very cold today, so of course I chose to go to a library right near a beach. Since my landlord has decided we don't need any heat during the day (as of this writing it is 5:14 pm and the heat hasn't been on since sometime last evening), I figured the outside wasn't going to be much colder than my apartment. Therefore, I needed a greater challenge than the harsh winds of Gowanus; I needed to venture out to the heretofor unknown (by me) area of Brooklyn, Gerritsen Beach.

No wait, actually what happened was when I was reading the Howard Zinn book (see last entry) I remembered the existence of a book named Johnny Got His Gun, an anti-war book from the Vietnam War era, and also remembered that I had been meaning to read it since high school. The Gerritsen Beach Branch had the most available copies (according to the online catalog), so it won the honor of my presence.

Branch: Gerritsen Beach
Location: 2808 Gerritsen Ave. (at Bartlett Place)
Transport: walked up to 7th Ave. and Flatbush, B train to Kings Highway, B31 bus to Gerritsen Ave. and Bartlett Pl.
Books: Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo; Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A quick aside, you'll all be happy to know that the landlord just called and is gonna come figure out what the problem is. So hopefully that'll work out, he seemed friendly enough on the phone anyway. But you know how they are. He's just trying to catch more flies with honey than with vinegar! And that fly is me! But little does he know, I already had some honey mustard today on a sandwich. So there.

This library was quite a different experience from the past few. While the buildings have generally been very nice, the last several I'd seen were all made around the same time, and therefore had very similar designs (large, imposing rectangles). This one was not only built very recently (1997) but is trying to have a sort of beach/shore type feel to it. I liked it a lot, partially because of the bitter cold juxtaposing with said beach imagery. The selection was fairly standard - what do these libraries have against science fiction? - but there were some neat decorations, including one of these old bicentennial flags.

I roamed around in search of a second book I wanted, and finally settled on Heart of Darkness, another one that I somehow missed in high school. I loved Nostromo and am fairly certain that I could easily become obsessed with Joseph Conrad if I read a few more of his books. I am already halfway through Heart of Darkness, and I love it, big surprise I know. Appropriately enough, both of these books were in the "young adult assignment" section.

Something interesting happened to me after I left the library and before I got the bus back to the subway station, but I'll post the pictures first, as one of them is a good visual aid to the story.

Full shot from across the street.

This part looks kinda like a barn?

Here's the clock tower. The actual time was about 1:30 pm. Maybe it was struck by lightning at one time.

If you go to the full-sized image and look closely, you can see the ornamental owls here. No, I am not obsessed with owls.

Even wider shot from the bus stop.

The beach/park across the street...

...and another view of it. Here you can see all the tall grass, which there isn't really a scale for, but believe me, it was tall. I decided to go check it out, and there were a few little footpaths cut through it. I started walking down one, and hadn't gotten far before I realized that I could only see the top of the library building, and couldn't see the street at all. Then I turned around and saw a clearing with three fairly large gentlemen in it, not too far ahead of me.

They didn't seem threatened by my presence at all, and it was a public place, but there was no way either they or I were at all visible from anywhere except for the general area right around where we were. If they had wanted to do shady dealings in the middle of a day, they could hardly have found a better place. And even if there was nothing shady about it, the locals probably didn't want some tourist skulking around. I always assume that isolated peninsulas have more hardcore locals than other places. So I hightailed it back to the bus stop.

Only other thing to report: the white-haired librarian at the information desk looked so mean that I was afraid to take a picture of the weird '76 flag I mentioned earlier. Plus, I haven't taken any pictures inside of the libraries yet, why start now?

Well, I'm off. As I said I'll be back in a couple weeks, and hopefully I'll have lots to report. Keep checking though, if you want, cause I might try to blog on the road, or something. Have a good beginning of February everyone!

DeKalb #35, 1/29/07

2007-01-30T09:47:00.000-05:00

Well, that took a little longer than I thought. But, I can't always be as productive as I was last week. But get this: I not only read/watched the two things I got last time, but I already read the two books (comics) that I got this time! Wooo!

As for that other stuff...Howard Zinn's memoir was good, a fast read and gave another perspective on both the civil rights and anti-war movements. I think a lot of people try to play up the stereotype of anti-war demonstrators as dumb stoned hippies. And that is wrong! You don't have to be stoned to be against pointless killing. Probably helps though.

Salesman was great, depressing but also funny and entertaining. I would feel no sympathy for any door-to-door salesmen I encountered in real life, and in the movie they often seemed reprehensible, but you could see their point of view too. They were always away from home, sharing tiny hotel rooms; it was just a sad existence. It was somewhat amusing to me that what they were selling was extremely ornate bibles, playing on poor people's desire to be good Catholics. These things cost $50 in 1967, which is almost $300 today. I can't even imagine trying to get people who are already barely making ends meet to shell out for that.

For yesterday's trip I wanted to check out another comic by Kim Deitch, who wrote Shadowland, and Lucky by Gabrielle Bell, which Dave told me about, saying it was about 20 somethings in Brooklyn without jobs or something. Not sure why I'd care about such a foreign topic but it seemed interesting enough. And the DeKalb Branch had them both...

Branch: DeKalb
Location: 790 Bushwick Ave. at DeKalb Ave.
Transport: F train to Delancey St., J train to Kosciusko St.
Books: The Boulevard of Broken Dreams by Kim Deitch; Lucky by Gabrielle Bell
Date: Monday, January 29, 2007

I was pretty out of it yesterday and the cold was bitter, so I'll just say that the library is very similar to those others that were built around 1900. It's a very nice building, spacious on the inside, with a decent but not great selection. It also had a lot of loud kids running around with an elderly police officer sort of shaking his head at them, which I found hilarious. Oh, and a couple of old men, one of whom had a stack of books labeled for high school assignments, speaking animatedly in French at the table I was sitting it. So yeah, old people and libraries. Who knew.

As for the books...Lucky was good, according to my friend Claire it had huge word of mouth when it came out which I can understand based on the subject matter and style, but I'm not sure it quite lives up to it. Certain parts of it are interesting, but the project started out as a diary in comic form, and in parts it just feels like, yeah, this would be interesting if I knew you, but I don't, so it isn't. I'm glad I read it but doubt if I'd read it again.

The Boulevard of Broken Dreams was very good, and I will probably read it again at some point, but I think I enjoyed Shadowland more. The demon/cartoon cat Waldo is an excellent character, but overall I just felt that Shadowland had more going for it, the story was richer somehow. I also feel that the story of the unappreciated/crazy animator/comic artist has been done many times. This was probably the best one I read so far, but it was still an idea I'd seen. Then again, so is all the crazy carnival stuff...maybe I just liked Shadowland more because it had much bigger pages.

So, two minor disappointments but still good reads. Also, yesterday was just kind of meh until the evening anyway so that may well be coloring my judgment. Well, no use crying over it, on to the pictures!

Yeah, the sun's behind it, whatever. I'm not a photographer.

The door! Reflecting stuff!

I like the tree. On the left.

In other news, I'm going away on Thursday for about 10 days so I can't really do the updating thing. It's a four city tour, comprising Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, and a little bit o' Saint Paul. Good times! I might update one more time before I go, so hold your collective breath. Otherwise, I'll see y'all in a couple weeks!

Walt Whitman #62, 1/25/07

2007-01-25T16:39:00.001-05:00

Updates three days in a row! How does he do it??? Well, not to worry, I won't be keeping up this pace for long. Last night before bed I finished Shadowland (which was so good I'm sure I will soon be getting another of Kim Deitch's books, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams), so I figured, what the hell, I'll go get some more stuff. About Shadowland, it's very weird, very dirty, and involves aliens, murder, eternal youth, people being burned alive, and circus animals. Aside from the stellar art, I was amazed at how well the story held together, considering all the bizarre, disparate elements. I would recommend it for anyone who likes comics, carnivals, and isn't easily offended.

But the important thing is today's trip! I was so fascinated by Gimme Shelter, and lately I've been much more into non-fiction than fiction, so I figured I'd watch another of the Maysles brothers' movies. And since every copy of Grey Gardens in the Brooklyn Library system is either on hold or checked out, Salesman, a documentary on door-to-door salesmen made in 1968, seemed like a good option. I chose the Walt Whitman Branch because it had a cool name and I could bike to it. Finding out it had Howard Zinn's memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train, sealed the deal.

Branch: Walt Whitman
Location: 93 Saint Edwards St. (between Myrtle and Park Avenues)
Transport: bicycle
Items: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn; Salesman (DVD)
Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007

I hopped on my bike today at about 12:35 or 12:40, and I got to the library right around 12:54. By the time I had locked up my bike it was bout 12:55 (sigh), four minutes before the library's scheduled opening time, and there was a crowd of about half a dozen people waiting outside the door. When the man in charge of opening the doors arrived, we all started shuffling towards them, but he said it wasn't time yet and locked them behind him. This was annoying, it being 12:57 at this point, and two people in the crowd expressed that fact better than I could have. One man pointed out that it was a little ridiculous that libraries open at 1:00 pm to begin with, a practice that most branches engage in two to three times a week. The woman right in front of me mentioned that in the past (I believe she said at different branches, but nonetheless) they sometimes didn't open until five or even ten after one, so their holding out for an extra three minutes today was a bit ridiculous. When the doors did open and we went inside, the first face we saw was a police officer's. I wondered if maybe they had been waiting for him to arrive before opening, which was a bit depressing.

The last stretch of my bike ride was between the Long Island University: Brooklyn Campus's football field and Fort Greene Park, but the library itself is right in the middle of some housing projects, which as always don't seem dangerous to me as much as soul-crushing. The library building was nice though, just a large room with one floor and a mezzanine, and a small but worthwhile selection. I was a little disappointed when I noticed/remembered that most people these days just use libraries to read newspapers or use the internet for free, but it is nice that people can do those things, even if they are most often just checking their myspace accounts. Hey - we all do!

The only other addition is that I had an oddly difficult time finding the fiction, which was put in a corner next to the young adult section in such a way that I wandered around aimlessly for about five minutes looking for it before giving up and asking a librarian. It took a while to get to where I could ask her, though, because she was deeply involved in a conversation with the other librarian about the state of classrooms these days. What I took away from it was that while these days kids don't hesitate to throw around an "f you" or a (here her voice lowered to the point that I basically have to make up what she was saying) "suck my dick," the teachers can't really concentrate on that, because it's more important that they make sure the kids pick up even the most rudimentary reading and writing skills. A "pick your battles" type scenario. Then again, I got those skills, and now I'm an unemployed college graduate who can't even find the fiction in a library, so who's to say. Pretty uplifting experience in any case. But I'm expecting the Zinn memoir to be fairly uplifting, as it discusses his experiences in the civil rights movement and opposing wars. Of course, the documentary will bring me right back down. Sigh. Picture time!

Closer!

Further!

This church was across the street, and I thought it looked really great. Sort of a bright spot in the area.

And, here's what the buildings looked like. I'm not sure if they actually set out to make housing projects look so oppressive or if it's just the natural course of things. There was a nice view of the Empire State Building though.

That's it for today, but who knows, I may be back tomorrow! Or Saturday, or maybe Sunday...sometime next week anyway.

Arlington #21, 1/24/07

2007-01-24T18:37:00.000-05:00

Well, despite the minimal response to the last post, I went to another library today, so here's another one. I guess there won't be too much meat to it. Maybe I need to ask Dave for some more missions.

This trip was fairly arbitrary, as the book was a random comic that a website I have since forgotten said was good, so I just went to the furthest library that had it. In this case that was the Arlington Branch, which I had some reservations about going to since I wasn't sure about the neighborhood and the information the website gives on the library is minimal. But, as I am happy to report, both the library and the neighborhood were very pleasant. The library building in particular was one of the nicest I've been to.

Branch: Arlington
Location: 203 Arlington Ave. at Warwick St.
Transport: F train to Delancey St., J train to Cleveland Ave.
Book: Shadowland by Kim Deitch
Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2007

This library was opened in 1906 due to a donation from Andrew Carnegie. It really seems like the older they are, the nicer they are; this building was just very enjoyable to be in. In contrast with the Red Hook Branch, the employees and patrons both seemed happy to be there. I looked for a while trying to find something other than just the one book, but lately I'm held back by all the books I have laying around at home, so I decided one was enough.

I did glance through a book on neighborhoods in Brooklyn, though, in an attempt to find out what neighborhood I was actually in at the time (Arlington is just the street the branch is on). The book told me I was in Cypress Hills, considered by some to be a part of East New York. It said the neighborhood looks much the same as it did in the 1930s, which makes perfect sense; the first thought I had upon getting off of the train was that at one time, the area must've been one of the best parts of Brooklyn, with all sorts of hustle and bustle, and lots of early 20th century stereotypes. It's still very nice, but it does have a bit of a decaying feel to it.

To say a bit more about the actual library, the selection didn't quite match up to the ambiance. There were about five science fiction books, but the children's section seemed fairly thorough (it was the whole mezzanine area) and there were a few good DVD choices, including some Criterions. There were a few rooms below the main level as well, including a decent sized classroom, the sight of which excited me for some reason. I guess maybe it's been too long...

As for the book I actually got, I don't know much about it, even to the point of thinking the author was female until I read the introduction (his name is Kim, honest mistake). So far I love the art, and it seems to be very disturbing and about freak shows, so I'm sure it will be excellent. On to the pics!

View from the approach.

The wide shot (wide as I could get, anyway).

And, the grand entrance.

This time, I was also compelled to show a couple of pictures from the neighborhood that would illustrate the feeling of it much better than I could.

This house just blew me away. I've always loved houses like this, and there are a bunch in New Haven. I also liked all the trees that are sort of blocking it.

This was the view from the (above ground) subway platform. With that hill to the north, it really felt like I was in a little valley or something. Apparently that's called Highland Park, I'll have to go back there in the spring or summer.

So thats it for today. But I'll be back soon. Don't worry! Seriously though, if anyone wants to tell people about this blog, go for it. I also like comments!

Red Hook #70, 1/22/07

2007-01-23T19:45:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm back, reading Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight took a little longer than I expected, but it was well worth it. I knew very little about Africa going in, but I felt that the author, Alexandra Fuller, did an excellent job of her (albeit limited) perspective on what it was like there in the 1970s and '80s. While her treatment of the race issue and colonialism was probably as limited as it could have been, the book wasn't really about that; it was merely about her own experiences, many of them tragic, with her family, with Africa (mostly Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe) being the setting. That said, it is a much more alive setting than most, and dictated the course of the story as often as not. This is one of those books that it is almost strange to finish, as reading it every day has become a part of your consciousness by the time you have finished.

Moving on to yesterday's trip, Red Hook is probably the closest neighborhood to mine that I had yet to explore in even the most cursory fashion. Since no trains go to it, it has a kind of unique isolation within Brooklyn, in that it is not far out from Manhattan, but not many people really go there. Plus, the Red Hook Branch had a DVD I wanted and I figured I'd pick up a book as well, so I put on my new gloves, called Amy up, and we biked on over there.

Branch: Red Hook
Location: 7 Wolcott St. at Dwight St.
Transport: bicycle
Item: Gimme Shelter (DVD)
Date: Monday, January 22, 2007

Aside from a little while being lost on Bay St., which meant being able to check out Red Hook Park, this place was easy enough to find. Of course, the one time I don't have my map (my friend Gabe had borrowed it without my knowledge!) is the time when I have someone following me, and am in a neighborhood I know nothing about. Well, we got there all right, and then Amy got shit on by a bird, but the real disappointment was the library. Red Hook seemed like a quiet, unique neighborhood with a lot to offer, but the library was probably the worst one I've been to yet.

It was small and somewhat dismal, but the real problem was lack of selection. They had the DVD I wanted, as well as some other interesting movies, but the book selection was just about the bare minimum they could have, with none of the unique additions that other libraries seem to have. Perhaps it's because there isn't much of an ethnic community in Red Hook (that I know of). The employees seemed miserable as well, not mean but just depressing. The woman checking me out was scanning the wrong barcode on one of the books I was returning, which of course is no big deal, but when she realized what she was doing, she gave me a weak smile and said, "I'm ready to go home." I got the feeling that she always was, no matter the time of day or day of the week. To be fair, it was a Monday.

So, I got to see more of Red Hook, got good exercise on a fairly nice day (for winter), and Amy and I had an excellent lunch at the Hope & Anchor. The experience was good, but the library was just meh. Bu, not getting a book means I'll be back and updating in no time!

Also, I've actually watched the movie (Gimme Shelter) already, and it is amazing. I don't know about Altamont being "the end of the '60s" and all that jive, but it really is a scary, intense movie to watch. The editing in particular really blew me away, and the way the intersperse the footage from the concerts, and the Stones watching that footage, is really brilliant. I'm sure everyone's seen it by now though, so whatever.

Also, I'll be on the west coast soon, so maybe I can fight some Hell's Angels! More on that later. Now for the pictures!

Amy, her spirits high despite the bird crap, poses with the bikes and my backpack.

Wide shot (also, with Amy).

And finally, I think this one really represents the feeling of being there.

I guess that's all for tonight, with any luck there'll be another post tonight or tomorrow. Don't forget to watch the State of the Union tonight! I know I probably will.

Paerdegat #78, 1/10/07

2007-01-16T12:04:00.000-05:00

What? Oh, right, the blog. Not really sure why I haven't updated in so long...I've been busier socially than usual, and watching more movies than reading books, so that's probably the problem. Since the last update I've seen Battle Royale, Parents, The Devil's Backbone, the first episode of Firefly (which I didn't hate, surprisingly), Alpha Dog, and Children of Men. Not to mention...*shudder* the entire Golden Globes broadcast. Oh, and Moving Violations. Can't forget about that gem.

But, obviously, books are better than movies, so it's time to get back to the libraries. I actually went to the Paerdegat Branch (can't pronounce that) last Wednesday, but every day since then has been reasonably busy, so here we are. I was hooked on the Peanuts collections, as the early strips are so well drawn and entertaining, and have an interesting point of view on the 1950s, pointing out how anyone could have not been happy in that perfect time, so after finishing the first book, I needed more. Not to mention the awesome dream about Minnesota (Charles Schulz is from St. Paul) they inspired in me, complete with snow and Brian Eno music. Then I remembered I had been looking at Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight, so I found the one branch that had both books I needed, and it was way the hell out there.

Branch: Paerdegat
Location: 850 E. 59th St. at Paerdegat Ave. South
Transport: 2 to last stop, B6 bus for the rest
Books: The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954 by Charles Schulz; Don't Let's Go To the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
Date: Wednesday, January 10, 2007

This was an interesting trip. Out in the Flatlands, or maybe it's considered East Flatbush, there lies the Paerdegat Basin. Right near that, of course, is the Paerdegat Branch of the library. To get there, I took the 2 train all the way out to Brooklyn College (by the way, that stop has every fast food chain on the east coast in walking distance from it, including a Popeyes/Wendy's combo), then got on a bus for a mile or so. The neighborhood was interesting, not what I expected but still a bit depressing. It didn't feel dangerous, had a good amount of trees, but it was still kind of desolate, even with all of the houses. They were decent sized, but many were very dirty and had barred windows and doors. I was there in mid-day, which may be why it didn't seem like a bad area; certainly, at night, it could be one.

The library was nice, a cozy single level but definitely well stocked and staffed. In addition to having what I needed, they had a wealth of material on Ancient Egypt, a topic Dave was fairly interested in. He gave me a mission to spice up the hunt, and while all he wanted was a book on the subject, I actually sat down and did the research. So now here they are, for the first time anywhere: my findings on the daily lives of Ancient Egyptians.

They mostly operated with a barter system, with sacks of grain often functioning as currency. Their houses were made of mud bricks that baked in the sun, and as time when on they inevitably collapsed. They were also dark, with little airflow, due to the lack of windows. Because of this, the Egyptians often ate and even slept on the roofs. Guests were generally not invited beyond the main room of these houses, and being sent to the back of the house was considered a punishment, as the kitchens were there, and these would often get unbearably hot due to the large brick ovens they used. Lice and fleas were a common problem, and as a result they shaved their bodies and kept very little hair on their heads. As for deodorant, the Egyptians would roll incense into a ball and rub it into their armpits. The streets were very narrow, barely wider than a man's wingspan, and they filled up with rotting garbage quickly, as there wasn't really a waste management system.

Regarding food, the staple diet for the average Egyptian was bread, beer, and some vegetables, and maybe some fish. Meat was a luxury since there was no way to preserve it, and it had to be consumed quickly. The beer was made mostly from barley, and wine was made as well (from grapes). The first paragraph came from the book The Ancient Egyptian World by Eric H. Cline and Jill Rubalcaba. It was all right, but the second one (where the food info came from) seemed more complete; it was The Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt by Rosalie David. They are both published by Oxford University Press, so consult 'em! If you wanna.

Well I guess that's it except for the pictures.

The wide view!

The close-up!

And you can't really tell here, but the hours of operation sign has no hours, only graffiti. They never even tried to put them on in the first place! Weird.

I think I can handle another update in less than a week. Let's hope so anyway. Thanks for watchin'!

Gravesend #74, 1/5/07

2007-01-07T21:15:00.000-05:00

It was 70 degrees here yesterday. On January 6th. That is retarded and unacceptable. I've come to terms with global warming as a reality, but not as a next few years kind of thing, as a telling my grandchildren what snow used to be like kind of thing. What the fuck is summer going to be like at this rate? Walking over the Gowanus Canal today in a t-shirt while the sun reflecting off the water blinded me...it was a little like the world had ended except for the constant stream of cars still rolling over the damn BQE.

OK, rant over. Ode To Kirihito was great. It was like medical drama mixed with morality play mixed with people turning into furries. If you know what I mean by that, shame on you. I recommend it highly if you have even the slightest passing interest in manga, or comics at all. Or just...cool stuff. So even though I have all these new books to read, I figure comics are ok, so I looked up those Complete Peanuts books, found a place that had the first two (Gravesend), and off I went!

Branch: Gravesend
Location: 303 Ave. X at West. 2nd St.
Transport: F Train to Ave. X
Book: The Complete Peanuts 1950-1952 by Charles Schulz
Date: Friday, January 5, 2007

What's this? He said he went to the place with the first two books! And he only got one? You are too perceptive, dear readers. Allow me to explain. No, wait! Put that down! Let me explain! NOT THE BAT!!! ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!

What? Oh, right. Long story short, they contain a shit-ton of strips, and my bag is small, and I figured one was enough for now. It means another entry sooner, right? Of course it does. And that's what we all want. Peanuts is amazing. At least the early stuff is. I never felt about it the way I do about Calvin and Hobbes, but at this early stage you can definitely see the same type of genius. In fact, I've found at least one early Peanuts strip that a C&H strip directly rips off.

As for the library, it's in the Gravesend neighborhood of Brooklyn, out near Brighton Beach and Coney Island. The neighborhood is great, it had some weird looking bars/clubs, a medical + dental complex with a stone facade like an old diner, and an off-track betting place that was totally filled with people. Though it was early evening on a Saturday, so that makes sense.

The library is a big brick building from the 1960s with a really nice feel to it. So far I've been surprised by how these libraries are totally neighborhood hangouts and social centers, even in these fast paced times we live in. Maybe that's mostly because of the internet, but not entirely. The librarian at the info desk was a Russian man in his 60s who seemed to know most of the people in there, and at the table next to mine were two Russian women chatting as if they were in a salon or a park or wherever. The inside of the building had an interesting setup, with the main level (fiction, movies, new stuff) going about halfway back, and then splitting into either upstairs (non-fiction) or downstairs (childrens). For some reason that I don't quite understand, old-timey comic books are in the non-fiction section. So is ancient literature, poetry, and drama though, so whatever.

On the way out, I picked up a flier for a book club called "Pam's Picks." They're reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan next, currently a very popular book. The flier promises a "lyrical and emotionally charged novel" which "delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship." That's a hard sell, and though I previously had no interest in the book, the thought of showing up at the meeting, which I assume would be almost entirely comprised of middle-aged women, blows my mind a little bit. That said, I have until February 8th at 2:00 pm to read the book if I so choose, but as of this writing, the Brooklyn Public Library system does not have a single available copy.

I guess it's time for pictures:

From across the street. Also, you can see a cop giving someone a ticket! What you can't see is her car blocking an entire side of the street while she writes the damn thing. Well played!

These two are blurry, which is lame, but they totally connect to form one LARGER picture.

And finally, the angled shot.

Well that's it for me, but I'm already racing through this Peanuts collection so you may well hear from me soon. Or not, What do I know.

Park Slope #53, 12/29/06

2007-01-04T11:02:00.000-05:00

Well, I know I claimed I'd update before the new year. And I meant to, but after I got back from visiting family, I was sick with a fever, and some friends visited, and then it was new year's...Oh well. I did actually go to a library on the 29th, but since I was sick, I just walked it, so it was the closest one, Park Slope.

As a quick aside, while it's been an interesting year, and one that I enjoyed a great deal (certainly more than '05), I am still quite happy to see it go. Also, I really want it to get cold...I understand global warming and all that, but is there really not going to be any snow here in the Northeast this winter? Ludicrous.

So, before my friends visited, I had just gotten back from St. Louis, where I was visiting my aunt, uncle, and cousins. My brother, mother, and stepfather showed up for good measure. It was very relaxing, I had eggnog with rum for the first time, saw Goodfellas for the first time, and remembered how funny Ed Wood is. Oh, and got some sweet gifts too, mostly books and CD reissues (Pavement, Lucinda Williams, Eno & Byrne) but also a cool handheld Zelda game that so far seems nearly as good as Link to the Past. I also picked up a sweet cold from my grade school cousins that developed into a fever after I started feeding it with alcohol and not enough sleep. Woo!

But enough about that, on to the libraries/books. Well, I enjoyed The Plot Against America a lot more than I thought I would. It was kind of a thriller, but the historical/alternate history angle gave it a very interesting dimension. Beyond that, Roth's characterization(and using a version of himself as the narrator/protagonist), made it seem less like a strange, twisted version of history, and more a story of a family splintering during trying times. It seems like the kind of thing that may still happen today, based on divisive issues like the war in Iraq or gay marriage, but for some reason I feel as though it doesn't. Maybe people are more apathetic these days, or maybe the divides don't cut through families anymore, just different regions.

The Quitter was good, but I don't have much to say about it. It was the story of Harvey Pekar's younger years, but many of the more interesting moments had already been portrayed in other American Splendor anthologies. Personally, I enjoyed the moments as their own stories, trying to construct them into a coherent person without a strict chronology. So the book was good, but for me, a bit redundant.

And lastly, Shutting Out the Sun. This one was excellent, tackling both social and economic issues that the people of Japan are currently facing. I knew very little about the subject beforehand, so it was all interesting to me, but without a specific interest in this subject there is no reason to read it. If you have any interest in Japan at all, though, it is a fascinating read.

Branch: Park Slope
Location: 6th Ave. at 9th St.
Transport: walkin'
Books: Ode To Kirihito by Osamu Tezuka; The Very Persistent Gappers of Frip by George Saunders
Date: Friday, December 29, 2006

I'd been to the Park Slope Branch before, as it is my local branch. It's got a nice setup, a large children's room and main room, and a second floor overhang with graphic novels and...some other stuff. I don't remember, I was sick dammit! Anyway in the back of my mind I always remember it as crappy, but it isn't really, and I think I do that because the Hamline Branch of the St. Paul library, my old local branch, was crappy. As for why I chose these books, I've been eying Ode To Kirihito forever, but it seemed like a big commitment for some reason. maybe the thickness, though it is manga, but whatever.

As for those pesky Gappers of Frip, I went intending to get a different George Saunders book, as he wrote one of my favorites last year (In Persuasion Nation) and I love his short stories. But I'm a sucker for interesting kid's books, and the art in this one looked great, and the book turned out to be excellent. I love the way Saunders highlights how selfish and horrible people are, but this one actually managed to have a happy ending. And now for the pics:

From across the street.

From across the avenue.

Right close up.

So that's that, I can't say when I'll go to another just because I'm a bit overwhelmed with books I got for Christmas presents, but I'm still not temping yet, so...whatever. I' should be able to get out there soon enough.

Brooklyn Heights #50, 12/20/06

2006-12-20T12:03:00.000-05:00

Oh my god, so yesterday, I was in line at the post office, and I had to wait like FOREVER!!! It was soooooo lame...just kidding. Aren't you glad it isn't one of those kinds of blogs? But seriously, back to libraries.

Yesterday I received something in the mail that I need to make copies of...what it is is of no importance. And I don't know any local copy places, and I refuse to go to FedEx Kinko's, because the one in Burnsville, Minnesota ripped me off to the tune of about a dollar. And then, suddenly, it hit me! Holy shit! Libraries have copy machines! Can life get any sweeter!??!?! Probably not.

Last night I finished Founding Brothers, and it was very good, though I don't think I'd say excellent. I really enjoyed learning more about the personalities of Franklin, Hamilton, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Madison, and the rest, but it seemed like Ellis had somewhat of a bias for certain figures (Adams, Washington) and against others (Jefferson, Madison). He also seemed to let them off too easy on the issues of slavery and the Native Americans, essentially saying "Yes, those things were regrettable, but what else could the founding 'brothers' have done? They didn't want to split up the nation! Revolutionary ideals and such!" Overall though, the book had some good insights, and the way it focused on certain key events in the early days of the republic was very interesting. I just have a feeling I would differ politically from the guy.

Branch: Brooklyn Heights
Location: 280 Cadman Plaza West at Tillary St.
Transport: bicycle
Books: Shutting Out the Sun by Michael Zielenziger; The Quitter by Harvey Pekar
Date: Wednesday, December 20, 2006

So this morning I woke up around 10, loaded up the backpack, and headed over to the Brooklyn Heights Branch. It's a gorgeous sunny day (I really should've written this tonight rather than waste it, but oh well) and the bike ride over was very enjoyable. I went up 3rd Ave., cut across the Gowanus Canal on 9th St., and went up Clinton St. the rest of the way there.

The library is great, really big and well laid out, and it looks nice from the outside too. There was a water fountain right when I went in which is a big plus. The first floor is just the business library, so I headed up to the second. On the way there is a hallway set up by some sort of Doll Museum, with a bunch of fancy dolls in glass cases. It was pretty neat. They also have a stuffed animal type version of a globe, only it isn't an animal and I totally used to have it. The books themselves are very intuitively laid out, and it was easy to head right over to the biography section.

I was initially looking for the book Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (based on a customer's recommendation back at the old B&N), and they were supposed to have it, so I checked, but to no avail. The woman at the information desk told me it was in the biography section, but when I said I knew, she couldn't give me any more information. Which was weird, because she was under a giant sign that said information. Oh well, she was nice enough.

Then I was panicked, I wandered from section to section, wondering what to read, having no ideas. It's like being in a music store and suddenly getting the odd feeling that you don't like music and you never did. Too much choice! Eventually I remembered there was some book about a Japanese "Lost Generation" called Setting Suns or Sons or something like that. Armed with no real information, I headed to the new in non-fiction area and sure enough, there it was. I also picked up The Quitter because I just reread my two American Splendor anthologies and really enjoyed them. This one is about Harvey Pekar growing up, and fighting people. Seems cool enough. Also I figured I can read a comic quickly, where the book on Japan might take awhile. Plus I still have The Plot Against America. Which I will read, really. I started it last night too. It's cool.

Getting copies was kind of a trip. I asked the info lady where the copy machine was, and she told me, so I headed over there. There was nowhere to insert money on it, just a place to swipe my card, so I did. It immediately told me that my balance of $0.00 was not enough to pay for a 15 cent copy. I then wandered around aimlessly until I found a kiosk where I could add money to my card, which was a bizarrely elaborate process. After finishing up, the guy behind me who was waiting to use the thing said, "It even gave you a receipt!" I had added 30 cents to the stupid thing, and I got a receipt. "Seems a little unnecessary," I replied. To quote Mitch Hedberg, I just needed two copies. We don't need to bring paper and ink into this transaction. Uh, that is, except for the copies themselves. You know what I mean, right? RIGHT???

The bike ride home was sweet, took Court to Union back over the Canal and the went down 3rd, and most of those streets have bike paths. I had a sweet game of cat and mouse going with a bus for a while, which I feel I eventually won. Then it was back up here to shower all the sweat off and write this delightful entry!

And that's all she wrote. Here are some photos.

This was the first part I saw. I thought it was a nice quotation, whatever it's from.

Some of the buildings in the area...

The front, with some neat engravings that I'm not sure are legible in this picture.

And, the whole building in two chunks.

That's it for me, and as for my many fans who enjoyed this daily update schedule for two days, I'm going to St. Louis for Christmas on Friday, so I can't go to any Brooklyn Libraries until I get back, which means no updates. But don't despair, I promise to update before the new year, so check in if you're interested, and thanks for reading.

Bay Ridge #28, 12/15/06

2006-12-19T11:29:00.000-05:00

I'm going to go to every public library in Brooklyn. Why, you may ask? And more importantly, why should I care? Unfortunately, I can't answer the second question for you, so I'll just stick with the first.

Since I still have no full time job, and because I like to read and go places, I’ve decided to travel to every library in Brooklyn, and get at least one book out from each one. And then read the books! The genesis for this idea comes from when I was living in Saint Paul, and I realized that just because I worked at a bookstore didn’t mean I had to keep buying every book I wanted to read. Plus, you know, saving money is nice. Saint Paul had some great libraries, like the nice, small town vibe of the Highland Park branch, and the big fancy Central Library. So, I started spending lots of time in them, and it was an excuse to get out of the house on the quiet days, and I ended up reading tons of awesome books and not having as much stuff to move when I came back to New York, which was great.

Being back in Brooklyn, and knowing that I didn’t know much about the neighborhoods except for Park Slope and Williamsburg (not to mention the unemployment thing), I decided to go to EVERY library in the whole Brooklyn Public Library system.

This blog is a little overdue, because I’ve already been to twelve of them. In the process I’ve read some great books, from El Borbah to a few different Hunter S. Thompson titles (I am now thinking of learning how to ride a motorcycle due to the Hell’s Angels book…) to a weird retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur by a contemporary Russian novelist, to one of my new favorites(which was also made into a great Russian movie recently), Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko.

But, despite this promising start, I recently decided that I need to start over. No one will ever believe that I’ve done this, I realized. Despite my blabbing on and on about it to family and friends till they just can’t take it anymore, and the “proof” in the form of all the library books that I’ve been lugging around and reading in lieu of all human contact, something was missing. Pictures! I’m shitty at taking them, but I won’t let that stop me; I’m gonna get at least one pic of each library, which means going to some that I’ve already been to, but what the hell. I have plenty of time on my hands, and this seems like a constructive enough way to spend it.

I have an unlimited metrocard (because otherwise I would go crazy), so I have no problem getting to the furthest reaches of the borough. Also, I just recently replaced my bike’s tires and bought a lock, so that’s always an option as well. And that is how I went to what has become the first library on my new photo tour of the Brooklyn Public Libraries, the Bay Ridge Branch.

Branch: Bay Ridge
Location: 7223 Ridge Blvd. at 73rd St.
Transport: bicycle
Books: Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis; The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Date: Friday, December 15, 2006

This was definitely a fun trip. Biking though Sunset Park (the neighborhood, not the park) at sunset is really gorgeous. I went down 5th avenue for the most part, and dodging the buses, cars, and people kind of sucked, but it also became like a game. Can I ride on the center line without dying? Should I jump up on the sidewalk to dodge a bit of traffic, even though for the most part I think sidewalk bikers are the lowest of the low? Are there cars coming, or can I run yet another red light? Good times.

As for the books, I hadn’t read any history in forever, and this Founding Brothers was always a popular one back at the B&N in Minnesota. Plus it won the Pulitzer, so I guess that’s worth something. And for whatever reason I was jonesing for something on the founding fathers, and 1776 is usually a hardcover in the libraries, so here we are.

The Plot Against America I’ve been meaning to read for a long time, because the idea of an alternate history with a more nazified America intrigued me (not least because it is pertinent today), and because I have heard that Philip Roth is a good writer, but I’ve never bothered to read anything he wrote before. So we’ll see how that one is.

I guess I’ll talk about how much I liked the books in the following entries, which is a bit of an odd format but seems like the only way to do it, since I don’t want to wait until I’ve finished reading them to write about the library.

As far as the library itself, it was dark when I got there, so it was very harshly lit by fluorescent lights. It’s very large and open, and was full of children and adults alike, even though it was closing in only an hour or so. It was well laid out for the most part, though finding the non-fiction was a bit tricky – it’s mostly all against the back wall, behind other, more clearly marked sections. The librarians were nice, though I did have to wait halfway through the transaction for one to get a roll of paper to replace the OTHER one’s roll. Get it yourself, bitch! But yeah, good library, good selection, definitely nicer staff than some I’ve been to.

Some pictures:

As you can see, my skills in this area leave much to be desired. I should also probably take these pics during the day. Oh well.

So, that's what it looks like! For the full sized images just click on those l'il ones.

I just want to end the entry with a comment on amazon.com. I don’t support them, necessarily; I personally try to go to local independent bookstores when I do buy books, and libraries in general. Since I can’t link to information about the books at either of those places, I link to their amazon pages. It isn’t an endorsement, just a way for people to read more about the books and see what other people thought of them. No one will read this anyway, but I’d feel like a jerk if I thought somebody did and then thought I was amazon.com’s number one fan or something. Well, that’s it for the first entry, hope somebody liked it/read it!

Oh, and a special thanks goes out to everyone who has listened to me talk about this wacky idea and feigned/expressed interest, and an EXTRA special thanks to Priscilla, who suggested writing about it in the first place, and to Natalie, who facilitated said connection, and who is almost always supportive of the crazy ideas I have.