"Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free.
A great library is freedom."
-- Ursula K. Le Guin
I just have to say, there are never enough books in my life. Our house is filled to the brim with books, in literally every room (okay, minus one guest bathroom, which is too small), many of which I've not read....and yet, I am forever making the trek to the public library or making purchases for more. I love a day with nothing on the schedule, with nowhere I have to be, so I can sit with a book, savoring the language that sparks ideas, deepens understanding and that takes me to destinations far flung and unknown.
Most of my library treks take me to the public library in Vermillion, but the other day I was on campus and made my way to the university library, which has a sizable collection of new fiction and non-fiction available for checkout. Uh oh....I couldn't resist coming home with yet another stack of "impossible to finish by the due date" books. In case you can't read the titles in the photo above, they are, from top to bottom:
Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live / Akiko Busch
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries From A Secret World / Peter Wohlleben
Bottomland: A Novel / Michelle Hoover
The Exiles Return: A Novel / Elisabeth De Waal
The Atomic Weight of Love: A Novel / Elizabeth J. Church
The Last Days of Night: A Novel / Graham Moore
The Blind Astronomer's Daughter / John PipkinMy husband and I have a little ritual of "story time", in which we read a book together....me reading aloud to him. It doesn't happen every day, as life gets a little crazy, but it is the goal to have a chapter read at some point during the day. The book currently on our story time docket is The Last Days of Night, a novel that takes you into the intrigue between Edison, Westinghouse and Tesla in the early days of electric lighting. In my own reading, I am nearly finished with The Exiles Return and have already dipped into The Hidden Life of Trees. I'm like a kid in the candy shop!
But there's something else I want to share. The Ursula Le Guin quote that began this post, which pays homage to art and libraries, as well as the life of the mind, is one that I found on Brain Pickings, an online newsletter that provides a cornucopia of riches. If you follow the link here, you'll be taken to an issue with an article that highlights the sacredness of the public library. In revisiting that issue today, I just realized there is another book I need to add to my already-too-full list of reading material....The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader and the Imagination by Ursula K. Le Guin. I urge you to check out Brain Pickings for yourself....there is much thoughtful research that goes into its creation. Of course, I must admit, I don't really have time to devote to reading it, as I have all those library books to get through. And really, I should be down in the studio right now, but tomorrow is another day!
A couple of not-so-recent dailies I just added to my Missouri Bend Studio shop. I had a stack of these 3 x 3 inch pieces and had forgotten all about these little collage items from a few years ago. Kind of fun! Enjoy your weekend....happy reading! Since you know what a book fanatic I am, feel free to share your reading joys here...always looking for wonderful finds.
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