Literature takes a habit of mind that has disappeared. It requires silence, some form of isolation, and sustained concentration in the presence of an enigmatic thing.
Philip Roth (via libraryland)
Category: general
To elevate the soul, poetry is necessary.
Edgar Allan Poe (via bookoasis)
Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind.
Jeanette Winterson (via tacit-delinquency)
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.
Annie Proulx (via scribblersabode)
Ten Reasons Why the Internet Is No Substitute for the Library:
1. Not Everything is on the Internet.
2. The Needle (Your Search) in the Haystack (the Web)
3. Quality Control Doesn’t Exist.
4. What You Don’t Know Really Does Hurt You.
5. States Can Now Buy One Book and Distribute to Every Library on the Web… Not.
6. Hey, Bud, What About E-Books?! (Reading on any e-reader is a chore.)
7. Aren’t There Library-less Universities Now? (No.)
8. But a Virtual State Library Would Work, Right? (Only if you like bankruptcy.)
9. The Internet: A Mile Wide, an Inch (or Less) Deep.
10. The Internet is Ubiquitous, but Books are Portable.
(via sleepinginyourflowerbed)
PREACH! (via chartophylax)
Schola Optima Studium Librorum
“The best school is the study of books.”
For me to remember friendship is to recall those conversations that it seemed a sin to break off: the ones that made the sacrifice of the following day a trivial one.
Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011
Postscript: Christopher Hitchens, 1949-2011
Over the course of his heroic, uncomplaining eighteen-month battle with the cancer, I found myself rehearsing what I might say to an obituary writer, should one ring after the news of Christopher’s death. I thought to say something along the lines—the air of Byron, the steel pen of Orwell, and the wit of Wilde.
A bit forced, perhaps, but you get the idea. Christopher may not, as Byron did, write poetry, but he could recite staves, cantos, yards of it. As for Byronic aura, there were the curly locks, the unbuttoned shirt revealing a wealth—verily, a woolly mastodon—of pectoral hair, as well as the roguish, raffish je ne sais quoi good looks. (Somewhere in “Hitch-22,” he notes that he had now reached the age when “only women wanted to go to bed with me.”)
– Christopher Buckley on his friend Christopher Hitchens: http://nyr.kr/u3IjyF
The Electric Car Paradox:
Electric vehicles are creating a lot of promise in the green world, but they don’t necessarily lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Consider the cases of China and Sweden, which have both heavily encouraged electric car ownership among their citizens but have failed to enjoy an attendant drop in transportation-sector carbon emissions.
What’s going on here? Keep reading …
The colder it gets the more I want to stay home, make a fire, and read a book.
New York Times, November 11, 1911
theatlantic: One of our favorites here at The Atlantic inothernews: The story of In Flanders Fields, one of history’s most memorable wartime poems. (h/t brnttecnfessns)
In 1934, Ezra Pound told James Laughlin that he was never going to make it as a poet and ought to do “something useful” instead. Laughlin took “do something useful” to mean “publish experimental literature,” so, in 1936, he founded New Directions, a publishing house dedicated to writers at the forefront of the literary expression of the day.
Flood Reading Series, Posana’s, November 11, 2011
DeWayne Barton is a native of Asheville, N.C. who grew up in Washington, D.C. and is a Gulf War Veteran. He attended Norfolk State University from 1996-1999, majoring in Social Work. He is the author of a recent book of poetry, Urban Nightmare Silent Screams and has been involved in community improvement and youth development for over 15 years. He is both a co-founder and co-director of Asheville Green Opportunities, a job training program designed to prepare Asheville area youth and adults for “green-collar” careers. Both his sculpture art and his poetry reflect his commitment to environmental sustainability and social justice.
Gyorgyi Voros is the author of Unwavering. Conrad Aiken says of her poetry: “The music of Voros’s poetry is more than music. It’s the motion of life and lots of things in it thinking, changing one’s mind, forgetting and remembering.”
Voros is also the author of Notations of the Wild: Ecology in the poetry of Wallace Stevens, published by University of Iowa Press. She teaches poetry and creative writing at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg Virginia.
Landon Godfrey has just been awarded a North Carolina Arts Council 2011-2012 Artist Fellowship. Her book, Second-Skin Rhinestone-Spangled
Nude Soufflé Chiffon Gown, which was published in 2011 was selected by David St. John for the Cider Press Review Book Award.(via an email newsletter)
Rhythm extends the possibilities within the shape of language—it’s reaching for that surprise, the blue note.
—Yusef Komunyakaa, BOMB 65, 1998
” E-books are fantastic at keeping us reading; traditional books are great at reminding us why we started in the first place. We’re fortunate to live in a world where we don’t have to decide on one or the other.”
(via I’m a Used Bookseller, and I’m Not Afraid of E-Books – Speakeasy – WSJ)
I like how Gini Dietrich handles this: “…before you use the digital tools to give your customers access to you, think about what it could mean down the road. Think about it strategically.”
Is there anything larger than a venti coffee?
Maybe I shouldn’t have stayed out so late with poets & writers… especially when I have to wake up at 5 a.m.
Coffeehouse Junkie 