Posts filed under ‘books’
The Joy of Books
More of a bookstore shenanigan than a library shenanigan. Perpetrated by … the books themselves! Thanks, Amy Brooks and others.
Library Christmas trees made of books and bound journals
This photo comes from CSU-Pueblo in 2011. Many other libraries have done similar things, including the Aalborg Universitetsbibliotek in 2006 (they used their set of the National Union Catalog of Manuscripts), the University of British Columbia Library, and the Globe University Madison East Library. Thanks, Carol Dickerson!
Mysterious paper-sculpture gifts in Scottish libraries
In early 2011, the Scottish Poetry Library received an anonymous gift, a beautiful paper sculpture of a “poetree” (image at left). Soon after, other Scottish libraries and cultural institutions received similar gifts. Thanks, Amy Brooks and Sarah Milteer!
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Update, February 2012: The Library Phantom Returns!
The Joy of Dullness: collection of boring book covers
Bookride.com has put together a nice collection of boring book covers for the amusement of all. Thanks, BoingBoing!
Poem about a library visualized with library books
This postcard from ripple(s), made for William Corbett’s poem “Remembering Michael Gizzi,” which is about the Woodberry Poetry Room at the library of Harvard University, seems to me to count as a library shenanigan.
Addendum, April 2014: The Dayton Metro Library in Dayton, Ohio encouraged its patrons to make poems out of spine titles. Thanks, Dina Wood, for letting me know!
Huckleberry Finn, the robot edition
When NewSouthBooks had the great idea of replacing the n-word in Huckleberry Finn with “slave,” Gabriel Diani and Etta Devine though that wasn’t going far enough. They figure it would be even better to remove race altogether from the novel. So now Jim will be a robot.
One note from defensive librarian me: the video states “Librarians, like the sexy one in this picture, have been banning the book from their libraries for over a century.” To be more exact, school libraries usually have been the site of the battle against Huck Finn, and school librarians have usually argued against banning the book. But yeah … we’re sexy.
I suspect this video was filmed in a bookstore, not a library, but the endless shelves of books are true eye candy!
Thanks, David Weinstock and BoingBoing!
Edible books
Several libraries sponsor edible book contests, usually on or around April 1. The image at left shows a Goodnight Moon Pie from the Duke University Libraries Edible Book Festival of 2010. The International Edible Book Festival folks claim that at least 23 countries have held such festivals. The Pikes Peak Library District and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs had some great entries in their 2010 festival.
Captain Underpants library
Sarah Sloat’s blog post about the Dummhausen library (which had to close because someone stole the book) reminds me to document the library in Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series. The school library contains only one book, and the librarian is Ms. Singerbrains (say it out loud).
In Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (number eight in the series), our heroes George and Harold visit an alternate reality where their school’s library is full of books, and the librarian even celebrates Banned Books Week (she’s shown holding a copy of Mommy Has Two Heathers, a play on this frequently-banned book). And that reminds me! Pilkey has other library shenanigans in his book The Dumb Bunnies, too. In that book, the dumb bunnies “bowl a home run at the public library,” where books on the shelves include The Condo that Jack Subleased, The Second to Last of the Mohicans, and Green Eggs and Tofu.
book artist shenanigans
Many artists’ books are playful and shenaniganish, but there are a couple who seem particularly worthy of mention on Library Shenanigans. One is Brian Dettmer, whose “book autopsies” might be considered a librarian’s nightmare: he carves out the illustrations in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other books and turns them into three-dimensional book sculptures.
Another is Zach Gage, whose ANTAGONISTIC BOOKS set (Danger and Curiosity) self-destruct in different ways; each can only be “read” once.
Arcimboldo’s “The Librarian” (ca. 1566)
You’ve probably seen reproductions of Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s portraits of people composed of fruits and vegetables or other unusual materials. He painted this librarian made of books in about 1566. Thanks, John Lancaster!
Library Shenanigans 