In case you don’t already know – I like to occasionally document the weird and wonderful objects that make their way into my mailbox at work. It had been a while since I last checked my mailbox, but to my delight today I unearthed from its depths a couple of handwritten thank you cards from authors Jennifer Brown and Robin Brande. Both were thanking me for my part in serving on the Michigan Library Association’s Thumbs Up! award committee.

Jennifer Brown’s Hate List won the award and Robin Brande’s Fat Cat was an Honor book winner.

Kinda made my day you guys.

In ordering computer books for the library I was looking forward to the arrival of Chris Seibold’s Big Book of Apple Hacks. I didn’t really find much in there to improve my MacBook – which I already love as is. I usually refer to the lifehacker website once a week for a steady diet of updates and funstuffz on the computer. I had not, however, come across goPod.

In an effort to stave off lawsuits for bleeding ears syndrome due to high volumes of iPods – Apple set the volume to 9. goPod sets it back to 11 – which is good for me when I want to blast it in my car or hook it up to the stereo. So here’s an arbitrary link to the goPod website – where downloading and installation is easy-peasy.

(Amazon affiliate links aren’t very wordpress friendly. Had to redraft this several times to stop it from blowing up the front page – wish there was some php amazon code.)

In terms of recorded history, the emergence of sushi as a culinary delight in the United States is still a relatively recent phenomenon. Sushi’s surging popularity has propelled it from hot spot metropolitan sake bars into local grocery store cooling bins. The story of sushi, however, reaches back much further than the freshest milk.

In The Zen of Fish, Trevor Corson carefully wraps morsels of history and humor into bite sized chapters that taken together tell “the story of sushi, from samurai to supermarket.” From the procurement of the freshest ingredients in the early morning fish markets to the fostering and attentive care given by each chef to their personal set of knives, Corson prepares a delicious and enlightening tome. The author’s mastery of description spices the mind with the dancelike movements of sushi chefs as they prepare meals for the enthusiastic sake toasting guests lining the Hama Hermosa bar in Hermosa Beach, California. During the morning hours, the back room of the restaurant plays host to the California Sushi Academy, where we follow the trials of aspiring sushi chefs through a semester of training at the hands of their demanding instructor, Zoran. Most prominent among these characters is Kate, whose spunk and wit will have you rooting for her as an underdog amongst a handful of finely captured characters, each with their own substory.

A wonderful read that will unearth the foodie in you, The Zen of Fish entertains and educates.

Meanwhile, back home, Mel and Avery are beginning to forge a different kind of bond in their relationship. When Nina returns she senses something amiss as the once strong trio has become more akin to a lopsided duet. Finding herself struggling with the realities of the new situation, Nina turns to Steve, whose once comforting and frequent emails slowly begin to wane. It isn’t long before all three girls must begin to examine their relationships with their own selves to understand their relationships with each other.

The Bermudez Triangle is a page turning novel of discovery, relationships, the pain of heartbreak and the glory of friendship.

The Farmington Community Library hosts several book discussions a year for which we purchase several copies of the considered book. What do we do with those extra copies?

We keep em!

Then we let interested parties host their own book discussions and assist them by handing out folders complete with author information as well as discussion questions gathered from multiple resources.

I took this picture the other day for use in a little screencast promo we’re putting together…I’ll point to it when it’s done — so that’s all I gotta say about that.

Lots of fussiness in those listservs…

I went there (borders) in search of a few books — none of which were in the store. Many of which required 7 days wait. I hadn’t eaten breakfast and it was rolling into 4pm when I headed into the cd “stacks.”

The listening stations had some good cd’s lined up. I listened to a few tracks from an Iron and Wine offering, some Arcade Fire, Interpol, and a few others — but “We are Nowhere and It’s Now” plucked the heartstrings. It was an emotional swell that while surging with sadness was wonderful to have – Dionysian – reminding me that I am actually here.

I’ve begun reading Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock. Last night, early introductions to the characters — the words began to twine the net. Some observations.

The water washed round the piles at the end of the pier, dark poison-bottle green, mottled with seaweed, and the salt wind smarted on his lips.

Life was sunlight on brass bedposts, ruby port, the leap of the heart when the outsider you have backed passes the post and the colours go bobbing up. Life was poor Fred’s mouth pressed down on hers in the taxi, vibrating with the engine along the parade. What was the sense of dying if it made you babble of flowers?

and

Man is made by the places in which he lives[...]

The mind has cracks.

Nature brought no relief. Outside had ended. There was nowhere to go that wouldn’t be me.

It was much more engaging than I was expecting. As someone going in knowing very little about the ways and mores of copyright law — the book reeled me in. Lessig leads you slowly into the water — allows you to splash around a bit in the history of copyright — wades with you up to the modern era while always referring back to the history so that you always have it in your swimming trunks — and presents several sound arguments along the way — all building up to the Supreme Court case Eldred v. Ashcroft. At that point — you’re swimming in some pretty deep waters.

What one would expect to be a droll lesson in legality is tinctured with the bright, impassioned tales of an attempt to guide a corralled spirit into greener pastures. To open the doors of creativity. To free culture. Lessig’s writing guides you along so subtly through the case history that in reading you don’t realize the sympathies you’ve developed until the verdict is read and you realize what we’ve lost. You empathize when he speaks of his realization, devastation and circles of recalculation following the defeat.

When I reached the halfway point earlier this week I realized I would need to reorganize my aggregator feeds. I’ve been stifling Lessig’s blog by keeping him contained in my political folder — which has seen its popularity plummet since the election. The movement towards an improvement in copyright law is ongoing — and after this reading — has a reinvested follower.

The book, in its presentation of reforming current legislation, touches several times on instances that in one way or another seep into the bigger picture. Everything, to risk melodramatics, is in some manner or another attached to everything else.

(I’ve lost my initial point here — as I just returned from the dentist’s office with a mouthful of novocaine.)

Of particular interest to me was the point that in securing copyrights, publishers of trade journals or specialized writings are able to suspend the distribution of periodicals to libraries in favor of establishing databases that require a subscription to view. Much too expensive for the everyday joe to afford — the wealth of knowledge that used to be available to all is now relegated to those fortunate enough to be able to afford it, or belong to an institution that can proxy it. A more dramatic picture was painted of those movies that have been under copyright since the late 1920′s — but have no commercial worth – so instead of being digitally preserved by archivists — the film is slowly disintegrating into dust.

The reading touched upon several matters that I am sure I’ll be delving into in the next two years as I attempt to become a custodian of culture. It opened my eyes just a little wider to the importance of the position and the merits of librarianship. Libraries are a foundation of true democracy. They are supposed to level the playing field with open and free access to information for all. (and cue a deep swelling of patriotic music, slowly fading out the lights)

Recommended: Free Culture.