Papermaking & Bookmaking: Do It Yourself
In conjuction with The World of Paper, an exhibit at Central Library through January 10th of next year, Central Librarian Chris Marshall has put together a list of titles about making paper and books.
First, the paper:
The Art and Craft of Papermaking by Sophie Dawson
The Craft of Handmade Paper: A Practical Guide to Papermaking Techniques by John Plowman
Papermaking for the First Time by Rhonda Rainey
Beginner’s Guide to Papermaking by Heidi Reimer-Epp & Mary Reimer
Papermaking with Plants: Creative Recipes and Projects Using Herbs, Flowers, Grasses,
and Leaves by Helen Hiebert
Teaching Hand Papermaking: A Classroom Guide by Gloria Zmolek Smith
Now, the books:
Creating Books & Boxes: Fun and Unique Approaches to Handmade Structures by
Benjamin D. Rinehart
Unique Handmade Books by Alisa Golden
Sewn and Pasted Cloth or Leather Bookbinding for Book Artists Requiring No Special Tools or Equipment by Keith A. Smith and Fred A. Jordan
Expressive Handmade Books by Alisa Golden
The Handmade Book by Angela James
More Making Books By Hand: Exploring Miniature Books, Alternative Structures, and
Found Objects by Peter and Donna Thomas
A Degree of Mastery: A Journey through Book Arts Apprenticeship by Annie Tremmel
Wilcox
Bookcraft: Techniques for Binding, Folding, and Decorating to Create Books and More by Heather Weston
Two Prose Poems by David Shumate
“Mornings with Freud” and “Teaching a Child the Art of Confession” from High Water Mark: Prose Poems, by David Shumate, ©2004. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
David Shumate is Assistant Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Marian College in Indianapolis.
Mornings with Freud
I wouldn’t call them sessions. More like periodic visits. He opens the door without knocking as if strolling into my subconscious itself. He hangs up his hat and cape and sniffs like a dog suspicious of what might be about. He goes to the kitchen and pours some coffee. He sits in the chair near my desk, flips through a few pages of my work and says if I were any more repressed, I wouldn’t exist at all. I think he comes here just to be around Carmela, the Mexican housekeeper with the dark, silky hair. The enchanting eyes. He has never met anyone like her. She is not rich and pampered. She does not have time for his neuroses or fixations. He follows her from room to room as she cleans. When he tries to raise her skirt with his cane, she slaps him broadside with her broom. When he won’t give up, she hits him again. She does not give a damn if he’s a pillar of modern thought. Or just some dirty old man. She has work to do.
Teaching a Child the Art of Confession
It is best not to begin with Adam and Eve. Original Sin is baffling, even for the most sophisticated minds. Besides, children are frightened of naked people and apples. Instead, start with the talking snake. Children like to hear what animals have to say. Let him hiss for a while and tell his own tale. They’ll figure him out in the end. Describe sin simply as those acts which cause suffering and leave it at that. Steer clear of musty confessionals. Children associate them with outhouses. Leave Hell out of the discussion. They’ll be able to describe it on their own soon enough. If they feel the need to apologize for some transgression, tell them that one of the offices of the moon is to forgive. As for the priest, let him slumber a while more.
S. J. Rozan Lecture: Every Story is a Mystery
Almost a month ago, on October 14th, author S. J. Rozan visited Central Library and gave a lecture called “Every Story Is a Mystery.” Rozan is the author of the Bill Smith & Lydia Chin mystery series, and she was in town to serve as Toastmaster for the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention downtown.
After the lecture, I rode down on the elevator with two women. One said that Rozan was a hoot, and the other, a writer herself, said that Rozan was inspiring. I agreed both times. You can find out why by right-clicking on the image to the left, choosing Save Target As . . . (or language to that effect), and downloading this insightful, hilarious lecture.
“Every Story Is a Mystery” was one in a series of lectures called ”Be a Better Writer.” The series was presented by the Writers’ Center of Indiana; and Rozan is introduced by the Center’s Executive Director, Barbara Shoup.
You may not hear the questions during the extensive Q & A, but Rozan’s answers solve that problem.
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas (Book Review by IMCPL Patron)
For much of my life, a question has troubled me: What would the TV episodes of Mission: Impossible have been like if they had been written by gossip columnists and lasted two days? If you, too have wondered about that, read The Count of Monte Cristo.
The opening sections of the novel aren’t bad. I’m not giving away anything that isn’t on the liner notes if I tell you that sailor Edmond Dantès is betrayed by some scallywags and is jailed at the horrible Château d’If.
He eventually escapes, ascends into high society, and initiates a mechanism of revenge so complex that it runs for hundreds of pages, even in an abridged edition. This is the gossip-columnist part, and I’m weary of it. I have fifty pages to go. The book originally appeared in serial form in Le Journal des Débats, and I might have enjoyed it more if I had read it as a serial. Really, I’d rather be eating a cereal.
I think James Joyce loved this thing, and he knew more about literature than I do. I should get off my horse. A couple of Amazon.com reviewers make the point that you should only read The Count in an unabridged edition, and I’m reading the Barnes & Noble abridgement, so that may be part of my problem.
Both of these reviewers are singing the praises of the 1,102-page Penguin Classics edition which is translated by Robin Buss; and one of the reviewers writes, The abridged version is VERY confusing! The full text fills over 1200 pages, and pruning it to 600 leaves a lot of plot on the cutting room floor. Suddenly, arriving at dinner are 4 new characters; it’s very tiring to try to keep up with the hole-ridden story of the abridged versions. And you know where the holes are? Publishers “clean up” the book by omitting the affairs, illegitimate children, homosexuality, infanticide, hashish trips, etc.
I’ll admit that I was missing some connections in the story, but I thought I’d been nodding off. The library doesn’t seem to own the Penguin Classics edition, though one of the school libraries does. The library owns the Modern Library edition which fences with your senses for 1,462 pages. I’m going to read one of those unabridged versions right after Napoleon conquers South Bend.
No, enough stupid wisecracks. What did I enjoy about the book? The imprisonment in and escape from the Château d’If work well. The way Valentine communicates with her paralyzed grandfather (read the book) is winning. And . . . that’s all?
Another Penguin Classic enthusiast writes, Dumas has a wonderful grasp of human nature and a talent for rendering all the follies of man in delightful, snappy prose. I immediately recognized people that I know (yes, even myself) in his vivid characters, which made the book all the more engaging to me.
These characters don’t remind me of human beings at all, which means either that I’m living on the wrong planet or that I need to read the whole thing. Yargghh.
–Chester
The World of Paper
Wings, by Mona Waterhouse
This post really belongs over on the Arts blog, but my most recent Reader´s Connection post was about the availability of ebooks at the library´s Downloadables site; and I’d like to bounce back with a paperphiliac post about “The World of Paper,” an exhibit that will be on display at Central Library until January 10th.
On the Arts blog, courtesy of photographer Jeffrey A. Kisling, we have pictures of one part of the exhibit: artist Kyoko Ibe’s Flight, a glorious work that’s currently on view in Central’s Atrium.
But “The World of Paper” is all over Central Library, from the floor portholes in the Learning Curve (2nd Floor) to the Nina Mason Pulliam Special Collections Room (6th Floor), with more than 350 individual objects: art and artifacts from the Dard Hunter Collection as well as historic photographs and other material from the Robert C. Williams Paper Museum at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia.
If you’re feeling brave, you can click on the arrow below and start a fifty-second video. The cameraman was not, unfortunately, Jeffrey Kisling, and you may experience sea-sickness while viewing. The solution to this problem is to come to Central and see the exhibit in person. We obviously haven’t captured it here.
The video begins with sheets of Fiji tapa cloth, a forerunner to paper, on exhibit in the Yellow Room near the St. Clair Street entrance. After that you get glimpses from around the building (I don’t have details on how the paper with real butterflies was done), and you end up in the Learning Curve, looking at a cool paper shirt and some psychedelic watermarks.
Please join us at Central Library before January 10th and take this amazing tour. You’ll actually see some books here and there.
