the damage, week 29

Hey all,

Since I've spent my time at Aqua, of late, sending event-related emails, I haven't spent much time amidst the books. I mean, I know the books are there, but...I'm less inclined to spend my day browsing the books, making a stack of books to take home, taking the money Kelly gives me and returning it to him for books.

Except when poets comes in with a stack. Then I'm screwed.

Yesterday, I left the joint with two titles, one of which was a glorified pamphlet. I was proud in the way that only someone who will be surrounded by quivering stacks of books next week at THIN AIR can be:

Return to Open Water: Poems New & Selected by Harold Rhenisch (Ronsdale Press, 2007)

Manitoba Underground by Manitoba Department of Mines & Natural Resources (Conservation Extension Branch, 1970)

Last week, I took home a larger stack of poetry which, lazy blogger that I am, I photographed. I've been thinking about my upcoming poetry workshop and so pulled Rob Budde's Finding Ft. George from the pile to use as an in-class example.

And though I paid for other books last week, their weight made me wait until I had a motorized way home...of course, I only brought four of five tomes home, as the final volume somehow hid itself in the back of my drawer.

They're flashy for encyclopaedia, that's for sure. Tooled leather covers with bright swathes of colour and, inside, several many black and white photographs and colour plates. I want to cut them up and I simultaneously want to keep them intact...

Pays et Nations VI: Canada et Etas-Unis, ed by Paul Lefebvre et Jacques LeDuc (Societe Grolier Limitee, Montreal, 1949)

Pays et Nations III: Proche et Moyen Orient
Pays et Nations V: Afrique et Australie et Iles du Sud

This week too I spotted an errant volume of the series - this time in English - in a box of old books owner and proprieTOR Kelly unearthed from second floor storage and Kelly made me take it home.

Lands and Peoples I: British Isles and Western Europe (The Grolier Society, Toronto & New York, 1951)

Speaking of which, I had a lovely chat or two with bookish artist Deborah Danelley, whose show Material Circumstances just finished (drat!) at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery at CMU.

She'd been in the week before, sniffing for old books to transform, so when Kelly started unpacking that particular box, I knew I had to let her know, ESPECIALLY since she'd told me she was looking for bibles and hymnals in particular.

She showed up at the end of my shift and we talked books and art. She graciously offered me a studio visit and also advice on how to make paper out of wasps' nests, which I've been collecting in the hopes of making paper for some forest-related project.

Fun!