I am a lover of books. Big books, little books, children's picture books, teaching texts (Dornyei is a favorite), novels, Jane Austen, novels, and many others. Books have changed me. When I look backwards and reflect on this, its the books as well as the place where the books are that has changed me. And it's a blessing that the public library concept has arrived in Korea. There are now 3 different libraries we can visit.
As library-lover Steve Jobs memorably, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards,” and these formative dots have since been connected to paint a clear picture of my deep love of libraries — those most democratic cultural temples of wisdom where we come to commune with humanity’s most luminous minds; where the rewards are innumerable and destiny changing, and the only price of admission is willingness. Between the walls of the library are the building blocks of the most powerful technology of thought there is.
That’s what Laura Damon-Moore and Erinn Batykefer, cofounders of the The Library as Incubator project, celebrate in The Artist’s Library: A Field Guide(public library) — an imaginative and practical collection of artists’ stories and ideas for how to use the library as a sandbox for creativity, a productivity-booster for your work, and a source of immense nourishment for the life of the mind. What emerges is an invaluable tool for any artist, by the wonderfully loose definition of “a person who learns and uses creative tools and techniques to make new things.”
The following poem was written by Joseph Mills, a nomadic poet who gets a library card every time he moves himself to a new city. He calls it growing roots. It is one of the highlights in the book.
IF LIBRARIANS WERE HONEST
“…a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work…”
–Benjamin Franklin
If librarians were honest,
they wouldn’t smile, or act
welcoming. They would say,
You need to be careful. Here
be monsters. They would say,
These rooms house heathens
and heretics, murderers and
maniacs, the deluded, desperate,
and dissolute. They would say,
These books contain knowledge
of death, desire, and decay,
betrayal, blood, and more blood;
each is a Pandora’s box, so why
would you want to open one.
They would post danger
signs warning that contact
might result in mood swings,
severe changes in vision,
and mind-altering effects.
If librarians were honest
they would admit the stacks
can be more seductive and
shocking than porn. After all,
once you’ve seen a few
breasts, vaginas, and penises,
more is simply more,
a comforting banality,
but the shelves of a library
contain sensational novelties,
a scandalous, permissive mingling
of Malcolm X, Marx, Melville,
Merwin, Millay, Milton, Morrison,
and anyone can check them out,
taking them home or to some corner
where they can be debauched
and impregnated with ideas.
If librarians were honest,
they would say, No one
spends time here without being
changed. Maybe you should
go home. While you still can.
Libraries contain books. Books are beautiful. Books are a sandbox for creativity, a productivity-booster for my work, and a source of immense nourishment for the life of the mind. What emerges is an invaluable tool for anyone who is interested in creativity, growth, nourishment, and transformation.
Brain pickings.org first promoted the book above. I thank the site for the poem above and the beautiful newsletter they do each week.
As library-lover Steve Jobs memorably, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards,” and these formative dots have since been connected to paint a clear picture of my deep love of libraries — those most democratic cultural temples of wisdom where we come to commune with humanity’s most luminous minds; where the rewards are innumerable and destiny changing, and the only price of admission is willingness. Between the walls of the library are the building blocks of the most powerful technology of thought there is.
That’s what Laura Damon-Moore and Erinn Batykefer, cofounders of the The Library as Incubator project, celebrate in The Artist’s Library: A Field Guide(public library) — an imaginative and practical collection of artists’ stories and ideas for how to use the library as a sandbox for creativity, a productivity-booster for your work, and a source of immense nourishment for the life of the mind. What emerges is an invaluable tool for any artist, by the wonderfully loose definition of “a person who learns and uses creative tools and techniques to make new things.”
The following poem was written by Joseph Mills, a nomadic poet who gets a library card every time he moves himself to a new city. He calls it growing roots. It is one of the highlights in the book.
IF LIBRARIANS WERE HONEST
“…a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work…”
–Benjamin Franklin
If librarians were honest,
they wouldn’t smile, or act
welcoming. They would say,
You need to be careful. Here
be monsters. They would say,
These rooms house heathens
and heretics, murderers and
maniacs, the deluded, desperate,
and dissolute. They would say,
These books contain knowledge
of death, desire, and decay,
betrayal, blood, and more blood;
each is a Pandora’s box, so why
would you want to open one.
They would post danger
signs warning that contact
might result in mood swings,
severe changes in vision,
and mind-altering effects.
If librarians were honest
they would admit the stacks
can be more seductive and
shocking than porn. After all,
once you’ve seen a few
breasts, vaginas, and penises,
more is simply more,
a comforting banality,
but the shelves of a library
contain sensational novelties,
a scandalous, permissive mingling
of Malcolm X, Marx, Melville,
Merwin, Millay, Milton, Morrison,
and anyone can check them out,
taking them home or to some corner
where they can be debauched
and impregnated with ideas.
If librarians were honest,
they would say, No one
spends time here without being
changed. Maybe you should
go home. While you still can.
Libraries contain books. Books are beautiful. Books are a sandbox for creativity, a productivity-booster for my work, and a source of immense nourishment for the life of the mind. What emerges is an invaluable tool for anyone who is interested in creativity, growth, nourishment, and transformation.
Brain pickings.org first promoted the book above. I thank the site for the poem above and the beautiful newsletter they do each week.
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