BookLust

Tit for Tat

Only fair I should show an old pic of my Dad, too. Handsome devil, huh? This photo was taken when my parents lived in Trinidad. The pic of my mom was taken when she lived in Jamaica.

Now both my parents are gonna kill me.

Isn't She Lovely

My mom's probably gonna kill me if she finds out I posted this. But I can't help it. It's one of my favourite pics of her. I borrowed a bunch of old photos from her because I'm organizing her upcoming 70th birthday party in June. Obviously it's not a surprise party, but she doesn't know exactly what I will be doing with the pictures, so it's still sort of a surprise.

You know, I'm glad I wasn't a young woman during the 50's, but I must say, the way women presented themselves back then was indeed lovely.

Don't you think she looks a bit like the Queen? I've always thought that. Better-looking than the Queen, for sure, though.

Spring and That Strange Beating in the Breast

An illustration sequence I did recently.

Happy Spring!

Poetry to Go

Thanks to BookGlutton, I now know that March 21st was World Poetry Day. Ok, so I'm a little late. Whatever.

BookGlutton gave some great suggestions on how to celebrate the day, one of them being creating your own Virtual Poem. So go ahead! Create a poem and email it to all your friends! Or if you feel really courageous, post a link to your poem here!

Who cares if I'm late for Poetry Day! Just as I cannot be confined by the constraints of metre and rhyme, nor can I be confined by the contraints of Poetry Day!

Bibliolicious

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

I love that quote by Francis Bacon. It conjurs up images of a literary gourmet feast. I wonder if Bacon ever came across someone who actually did eat books? In the Bibliolexicon of A Passion for Books, a Bibliophage is described as "One who eats or devours books". This affliction fascinates me. I'd love to know more about it. If anyone has any detailed information on the subject, I'd love to hear about it.

In the mean time, I'll direct you to a very enjoyable (and much less destructive!) form of Bibliophagia, known as The International Edible Book Festival. The event takes place around the world on April 1st, and "unites bibliophiles, book artists and food lovers to celebrate the ingestion of culture and its fulfilling nourishment. Participants create edible books that are exhibited, documented then consumed." The reason April 1st is chosen as the day of this biblio-feast is because it is the birthday of Jean Anthelmen Brillat-Savarin, who is revered as the greatest gastronome, no doubt due in part to his much-loved book Physiologie du goût.

There will even be a BookEats celebration here in Toronto, so if you are interested in either eating or actually creating an edible book, do stop by at the gallery space of This Ain't The Rosedale Library (483 Church Street), on Saturday April 2nd (note that it's the 2nd, not the 1st for Toronto folks). The exhibition and workshop goes from 1-4, and the feast begins at 4:00pm.

So come, and bring your love of books and food and art with you!

BiblioQueria 2

Bibliomania and the obsession with books is a subject which fascinates me, as is evident in some of my past posts. It is amusing to read about these afflicted souls who would, without blinking an eye, spend their last few dollars on a book, instead of say, a meal. But the stories that really intrigue me are the characters who go the next step, and commit crimes all in the name of acquiring that desired book.

In A Gentle Madness, the author Nicholas A. Basbanes tells the true story of Don Vincente, a former Spanish monk who ended up committing eight murders during the 1830s, all due to his obsessive need to acquire certain books, which all these poor unfortunate victims happened to have in their possession. The story eventually found its way to France, and inspired the then fifteen-year-old Gustave Flaubert to write his first short story based on this juicy tale, which he aptly titled, Bibliomania. I've read a translation of Flaubert's story, and it sticks fairly close to the original event, with only a few minor embellishments.

And so it is time to make my own sordid confession. As a teenager, I came across a book in my local library that I could not get out of my mind. I can't remember the title of the book (repression, perhaps?), but it was an engaging history of the alphabet, chock-full of photographs and illustrations. I signed it out from the library many times, but for some inexplicable reason, that wasn't enough to satisfy me. I had to actually possess the book. I somehow convinced myself that because I loved it so much, it really belonged to me, because surely no one else in my home town could appreciate the beauty and significance of that book, as moi, a young, tortured, misunderstood artiste. But how to steal the book? I had connections. A highschool friend worked at that library, and with my insistance, she removed the book from the system, and thus no one was the wiser. Except me, of course. After the initial thrill of finally capturing the book subsided, I was left only with feelings of guilt and self-loathing. You see, my mother is a librarian (and I myself ended up working in libraries a few years later). How could I face her every day, with this dark secret? I couldn't of course. No, I wasn't brave enough to confess to my mother, but after a few torturous years, one evening, under the cloak of darkness, I snuck up to the drop-off slot of my library, and slid the book back where it rightfully belonged. Oh, the agony. I wasn't passionate enough to be a true Bibliomaniac, for I could not live with the knowledge of stealing a book, but neither did I have the strength of character to march up to the librarians at the check-out desk and bear witness to my shame. That story still haunts me to this day.

I apologize for this very long preface to my second BiblioQueria question, but I felt compelled to share my sordid tale of bibliomania gone bad. So it begs asking....

Have you ever stolen a book?

Girls Who Wear Glasses...

...get all the art and writing jobs I hope!

Yup, it's true. I got me some glasses today. For the past 6 months or so, I've been experiencing horrendous headaches and eyeaches and so I finally broke down yesterday and got a real bona fide eye exam with the drops and all that crap. My eyesight is still 20/20, but it is weakening, so to make my life a little easier (since I spend a lot of time reading, drawing and sitting in front of this computer) it was recommended that I get a prescription for reading glasses.

Scott over at Blankbaby elicited opinions from his FOB's (Friends of Blankbaby) as to what kind of new frames he should purchase. I happily obliged, with some of my own creative suggestions. So I thought, I should probably do the same somewhat, and try and share what my glasses look like (nope, still don't have a digital camera; this month, I swear!); so I drew a little cartoon pair over my pic. Kinda lame, I know. I'll post a real pic as soon as I get my digital camera.

I will now make a confession. I have wanted glasses for quite a while. Some girls like to try on shoes, or hats, me, I love to try on glasses. It is silly, I know. I have even been tempted in the past to just get a 'fake' pair, but I thought that was really pushing the limit of pretention. I was willing to wait (and hope) for a legitimate prescription to come my way, so I could be a poseur with complete impunity.

So now I am the ultimate Book Lust Lady. I got the glasses, I got the cats, and I got the home chock-full of books, as well as a Biblio Boy who also wears glasses. It's more than a gal could dream for.

One more thing I'd like to add. Not too long ago, Paul Giambarba wrote a wonderful post about my work. The one comment that I really enjoyed was when he described my style as "different and fetching, the way women who wear glasses often are."

Say It Ain't So, Tina!!

I am heartbroken.

One of my favourite shows, TVO's Imprint, has been cancelled, after running for an amazing 15 seasons.

I knew there was trouble a-brewing, when this year they changed the time-slot for the show from Thursday at 7:30 pm to Monday nights at 11:00pm. I simply do not understand it. The explanation for the cancelling of this stellar show is so that it can make room for more 'educational' shows. WTF??? So a show about books, writers, publishing and reading isn't educational?

I won't deny that I think the quality of the show wasn't at good as when it originally started, when the so-very-clever Daniel Richler got the idea to do a TV show about books and authors. After Richler left the show, gradually it became less literary, and more 'hip' and 'pop-centric'. But I still enjoyed it. The present-day host, Tina Srebotnjak, although not as gritty and witty as Mr. Richler, is very intelligent, elegant and insightful. Imprint used to be an hour long (what joy!) but in the past few years was whittled down to only half an hour. It was one of the few places where authors could get great promotion for their books, and I loved the wide variety of people and authors who were interviewed, and were interviewers themselves. The other TV shows about books that I have seen pale in comparison. Fine Print? Please. Bo-ring. Carolyn Weaver needs to put a firecracker under that ass of hers. Mary Walsh's Open Book? An embarrassment. Evan Solomon's Hot Type? Yes, I watch it, albeit begrudginlgy, because he can be such an annoying pompous ass at times. But he does have good guests, and he does ask very thoughtful questions. Personally, I wish Ian Brown from CBC Radio's Talking Books could get his own book show on TV. That I would watch religiously. I can't afford to pay for the extra cable to watch BookTelevison, and why bother now, since Daniel Richler is leaving that show as well, to move to the U.K.?

So what will authors do now to get more coverage? There's so little of it in print as it is. I suppose they will scramble for these other shows, no doubt. And perhaps they will turn more and more to book blogs for promotion. Well, I am here, ready to do my duty, with my arms wide open.

Doppelganger!!!

I was puttering around Robert Gray's blog this morning, when I read this sentence: "April at Book Lust let us know that she has found a copy of Ballad of the Whiskey Robber at the library."

My first thought was, "Hey! My name ain't April! And I've never heard of The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber!" Then I clicked on the Book Lust link, and horror of horrors, Someone else has a blog called Book lust!!! Someone call the authorities!!! I was here first!!

But seriously, this whole name blog thing is interesting. Can you have absolute control over the name of your blog? I'm assuming not. But just out of curiosity, what if someone else out there started up a blog called BookSlut or Boing Boing? Would there be problems? Does anyone know any hard and fast rules about this? I guess it would have a lot to do with whether or not the actual name of your web site is the name of your blog, right? And let's face it, Book Lust was the name of a book before even sweet little ol' me came along with my blog. And in fact, it's also now a calendar and a reading journal, too. Not to mention that there is also a second Book Lust book out now. That little librarian's got a good gig going, I must say. Hope she doesn't come over and sue my ass off any time soon. Heh. Maybe I'll just direct her to the doppelganger site if that happens.

Anyway, just remember: I was here first, honey!!! There ain't anyone lustier when it comes to books than me!!!

We Wanna Drawn You In

I'd like to introduce you to a new and wonderful blog, the brainchild of the clever, talented and oh-so-adorable John Martz, aka, RobotJohnny. It's called Drawn!, and is, as Johnny so aptly describes, "a collaborative blog devoted to finding the best daily links and treasures related to illustration, art, and cartooning".

Collaborative is the operative word here, and Johnny has the help of some pretty darned talented artists. Included in the mix: Matt Forsythe, Jay Stephens, Scott Thigpen, Claire Robertson, Jared Chapman and Ward Jenkins. Check out their work and be amazed. I'm sure they'll all contribute some super cool links, with that combined wealth of knowledge and talent.

Oh, and yeah, for some bizarre reason, Johnny also asked me to join the party; think of me as the kooky artist with the lampshade on her head. I have yet to add anything; for the past couple of days my brain has been functioning way below par for a variety of reasons; hopefully I'll be able to clear my head very soon and make Johnny proud.

UPDATE:
I've already screwed up, on my first post. Apparently the info I posted about this artist is all made up. Aren't I a clever girl? Let the fun begin!