June 21 - 27, 2008

The Age of Dreaming

A Novel

Nina Revoyr

Paperback, 2008

4 cards

This book has an amazing title, one which grabbed me as I read one of the Believer Magazine's wonderful reviews. I enjoyed reading this book though it would fall more into an interesting summer read than one that took my breath away. The story weaves between past and present in a way similar to Water for Elephants. An interesting, well-crafted character drives the story and it carries a great sense of place (Los Angeles) throughout.

Selections:

"That for which we find words is something already dead in our hearts." Nietzsche

14- "And the stranger's phone call yesterday morning was akin to a chance meeting with a friend from one's youth, who reminds one of how much has changed in the intervening years, and how far one's strayed from the course one first embarked upon."

15- "There is no one else who remembers what we did or who we were."

16- Alzheimer's

20- "It is a tragedy when a man's great contributions to the world, once heralded by all, simply vanish beneath the rollings waves of time."

22- "...with each turn, more of the city disappears."

30- "There was no future, only the present, and the project of the moment was everything."

61- "'You will always be the standard against which I measure myself. May I always fall just short of your mark.'"

62- Green Lantern- coffee shop

-(Los Angeles) "people seldom gather to engage in substantive conversation"

77 (father's words) "'Live where you are, no only where you think you should be. Otherwise, you will end up living nowhere.'"

81- "For silent movies are a singular forms, one that viewers cannot appreciate without a basis for understanding what they see."

-"lost too has been the language to discuss them."

107- "Almost always, I undertake these excursions alone. There is something to be said for experiencing great art, or nature, but oneself; the absence of other people makes the enjoyment more pure, and one's perceptions grow acute and discerning."

-"Nonetheless I cannot deny that it is pleasant to occasionally partake in the company of others."

-diners- Silver Spoon on Hollywood Blvd.

134- Book Haven

136

141- "I wanted to ask her a million questions, but did not know where to begin."

188- "'he's interested in my mind.'"

240- audience- supply the absent connections

254- diner

262- speaking one's heart

326- "We understood that moving images are the catalysts of dreams- more eloquent when undisturbed by voices."

February 14-15, 2008

The Principles of Uncertainty

Maira Kalman

2007 hardcover, library

5 cards

Maira Kalman is fabulous. The word fabulous exists because of people like Maira Kalman. If you've seen the new Elements of Style you know who Maira Kalman is; she painted the wonderful pictures in a fabulous new version of that book. She also wrote/painted/created/thought of this book, The Principles of Uncertainity, a conceptual walk that's also a picture book for those in a reflective and contemplative state of mind. I first saw this book during the holidays but I didn't look at it too much for fear that I would need to have it. The book jacket's inner sleeve confirmed my suspicion but I put the book back before leafing through. Then the library had it. Thank you library! Kalman's paintings are unique undertakings, seemingly simultaneously drawing upon Milton Avery, Francis Alys, Florine Stettheimer and Jenny Holzer's Truisms- completely magical and profound. The index and the appendix are also delights for bibliophiles and collectors, not to mention a map (A MAP!!!) in the back!

It's all fabulous but these pages I found particularly fabulous:

p. 3 dodo

p. 4 Evdaimonia

p. 5 stuffed Pavlov's dog

p.8-9 map her mother drew

p. 20 looking between slurps

p. 26 walking and cities and magnificent chairs

p. 28 "excellent United Pickle tag lying on the sidewalk" (pickles!!)

p. 37 old people and walking (so true)

p. 42 "How are we all so brave as to take step after dtep? Day after day?"

p. 46 we are all going to die

p. 47 fruit platters

p. 50 obituaries "Maybe it is a way of trying to figure out, before the day begins, what is important. And I am curious about the things that make up a life."

p. 52 (fabulous painting of a donut shop)

p. 55 bundt pan

p. 56-57 Tolstoy and Gorky

p. 65 Alzheimer's

p. 83 "The world is coming to an end. What to do Spend the day on the subway."

p. 97 string

p. 99 "How do you know who you are?"
p. 102 collections "...tangible evidence of history, memory. Longing, delight."

p. 111 Abe Lincoln

p. 122-23 candy collection (I had one of these when I was younger)

p. 124 "It is well known how much Goethe loved candy."

p. 162 "The silent sink in the Corbusier house that speaks the truth." (Tim would like this.)

p. 163 "The ottoman on the way to the Proust room."

p. 164-65 Proust notebook

p. 166 museum guard

p. 176 Sabine- "clothes and shoes she made herself." "She tells me to read "Butterball" by Maupassant. I will."

p. 184-85 Louise Bourgeois

p. 186 "I think of her Bed Construction that says, 'Art is the guarantee of sanity.' I really hope that's true."

p. 192 "Washing dishes is the antidote to confusion. I know that for a fact."

p. 194 Alzheimer's, Sweet 'n Low packets

p. 195 Charlie Chaplin look-a-like contest "That is a very big poin in the plus column of life."

p. 208-211

p. 236-38

p. 242 "How do you go mad? How do you not go mad?"

p. 245 "The truth is everybody gets on everybody's nerves."

p. 251 Freud and Wittgenstein

p. 252-53

p. 259 "Berlin Childhood around 1900" by Walter Benjamin

p. 261 Helen Levitt

p. 270 "One thing leads to another."

p. 284-85 Cartier-BResson photo

p. 287 "You cannot order a Deluxe grilled cheese sandwich. There are limits to deluxe."

p. 296-97 "Keep calm and carry on"

Fabulous index

Fabulous appendix- especially: things that fall out of books, packets, postcards