Sometimes it’s hard for me to figure out whether I’m smelling piss or erudition in Berkeley. I think it was both. In a much-needed outing, I meandered around the maze of book booths and porta potties at the Bay Area Book Festival and did some serious damage to my meager post-grad wallet. There are things about Berkeley that I will not miss – the lofty classroom discussions, for one, while a sign of a healthy democracy, atrophied my youthful spirit with fear and intimidation. But I do miss the intellectual culture and commitment to social justice in Berkeley. I miss the smell of old books at Moe’s and Mad Monk, the mountains of cheap CD’s and DVD’s at Rasputin’s. I miss wandering down Telegraph Avenue and walking into mom-and-pop coffee shops and quirky restaurants. Being back in Berkeley is something like seeing an old ex you still love but know that the relationship won’t go very far if you try to re-ignite it again.
Anyway, I hauled home about twenty pounds of books and DVD’s. In the picture above, I’m taking refuge in the Berkeley Public Library after a couple hours of carrying around books. In case you were wondering, I finally picked up a pocket thesaurus after pining for one for a year! My work in content marketing requires a lot of writing and researching, and sometimes it’s nice to do so off-screen. So I’m hoping this little book will come to good use. I am covering myself with it in the picture above because the fast fashion industry sucks at making dresses for tall people.
I’ve been going through a Hugh Grant rom-com phase that won’t end, which explains why I bought Sense and Sensibility and About a Boy. Oh, and I finally gave in and bought Robert Dawson’s photographic essay The Public Library after eyeing it for a couple months now! I actually just finished it today and highly recommend it. It includes a series of beautiful images of libraries across America. But it’s not merely beautiful. As much as the book leaves the reader in awe of physical architecture, it also posits the public library as a space of moral architecture in American democracy. Through a collection of photographs, essays, and short observations, the book captures different facets of American public libraries which show how class and social differences can promote or hinder access to information and resources. Yes, I got that from my Goodreads review.
All right, peace out! Here are some other topics I plan on writing about in the near future:
- Florence Foster Jenkins
- Sense and Sensibility
- Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Bye!
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