Remember that book club I started up with those jokesters over at The Larryville Chronicles about a year and half ago? We’re still going strong!
This month we’re switching things up with a book by a dead white guy. Make that ‘books’ plural. If you live in NE Kansas and like book clubs that are charmingly disorganized and consume copious amounts of cheap beer, you might want to join us for our weirdest experiment yet: Choose-Your-Own-Faulkner February. Continue reading
There have been too many things to love about the library this spring. At least five of them have to do with beer:
In March I headed to my first ever PLA conference, in adorable Philadelphia. I roomed with my boss, and we watched “Friends” reruns in our hotel room. So, it was pretty rad. These Amish women at the Reading Terminal Market made the best sticky buns I’ve ever had in my life. Beer was consumed. But my favorite was the Fabric Workshop and Museum, where I met the very awesome Chicago librarians Vicki Rakowski and Ben Haines, and scored some pink plastic tentacles and a bunny with a moustache. Then we saw Betty White.
Nate Hill, web librarian at San Jose Public Library, is my new favorite librarian — I saw him speak at PLA in Philly. Imagine: self-published books by library patrons that could be instantly cataloged and then vetted by upvoting, like on Reddit. And check out that sexy color coding on their website. These are some of the brain children of Nate Hill, who makes jokes about dogs and burritos.
Also a Philly highlight: talking about smutty books with about 100 fellow librarians at 8:30 on a Saturday morning. I learned that many erotic novels have purple or red covers, and I placed a hold on Fifty Shades of Grey.
It might not look live I’ve been blogging very much this month… but actually I’ve been blogging more than usual! Bookish hipsters all over Lawrence are rejoicing in the launch of the PBR Book Club, an intimate group devoted to beers and pretentious postmodern lit.
We’ve started with David Mitchell’s bawdy and labyrinthine Cloud Atlas, which we’ll be discussing at the Replay later this month, but in the meantime we’re using social tools like twitter (#pbrbookclub) and blogspot (pbrbookclub.blogspot.com) to mull over the experience as it unfolds in real time.
The blog is coauthored by several Lawrence nerds, including myself, @larryvillelife, @courtbelle, and hopefully soon (wink) @mentalplex and @indieabby88. It’s a little, um, saltier than what you might be used to seeing from me here. So be forewarned, have fun checking it out, and join in!
Rachel Smalter Hall 