BookLust

BiblioQueria 21

I haven't done BiblioQueria for quite a while, so now's as good a time as any! And since it's so damn hot outside (I hate Summer – hate it. Were it not for my beloved garden, I'd be praying for snow), I thought it only fitting that I write a rather heated post.

Quite the image, huh? It got me thinking about my days as a library technician, when I first met my hubby. When we officially began dating, we were still working together for TPL. We worked in the Technical Services department, which meant that we didn't service the public, instead those working at that branch concerned themselves with receiving and cataloguing books, and dealing with a lot of administrative stuff. The building we worked in was the original old branch for the former City of York Public Library. It was a sweet old musty dusty building, which has since become a daycare centre after Toronto's amalgamation. Down in the basement of this building was the kitchen and the break room, as well as a section where we stored all of our Talking Books. Oy, if those books really could talk, they'd have  few things to say. I confess that on more than a few occasions, the hubby and I did partake in some quick canoodling down there, ok? But nothing really naughty. Certainly nothing worse than what you see in that poster. I dunno. There was something rather romantic about furtively kissing in a building devoted to books and higher learning. Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase Book Lust, huh?

So my question to you is...
What's the most interesting thing you've ever done in a library?

Random Readings 11

Once when no one was buying my cartoons I took a job ripping off the Tom of Finland books for an unscrupulous pirate publisher of gay eroticism. Deltoidal, no-necked, peach-bottomed sadists and cock-suckers wearing leather caps and curiously benign expressions, romping in a spunky never-never sodomitic kindergarten unimpeded by the needs or interdictions of wives and mothers. For a straight man who couldn't see what Tom of Finland had to offer, other than the clean lines of the illustrations and the absence, beyond twenty-four-hour on-tap buggery and fellatio, of any supererogatory fantasy or fuss, I reckon I made a reasonable fist of copying his creations.

– from Kalooki Nights by Howard Jacobson

That's what I read as I was sitting on the bus coming home after purchasing this book. Damn, I cannot wait to get to this. Yes, I've been reading some really lovely writing lately (and yes, I must start talking about some of these books here), but I must confess that I've really been craving something funny, I mean, goddam funny to read. And I don't just mean one inane joke after another kind of book – I mean something with substance, something about the human spirit, but written with an irreverent but sympathetic wit. At a party I attended recently I met a columnist for one of our national newspapers who just happens to be writing a novel. Knowing the kind of writing he does, I replied that I assumed the novel would be funny, and I was right. We talked a bit about roman á clef novels, the dearth of funny in Canadian Lit, and how much we miss Richler. And then over the weekend I discovered this book. How could I not buy it? Geez – the main character is a cartoonist.

My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors

Thanks to Bookshelves of Doom for taking me on a trip down memory lane. Anyone out there remember Moxy Fruvous? After King of Spain, My Baby Loves a Bunch of Authors was probably their most popular song. Unfortunately the quality of this video ain't the greatest, but it's the lyrics of the song that you should be paying attention to, not the visuals. Though do take a gander at Jian Ghomeshi's hair in the video. Hi Carumba!

Anyhoohow, take a boo at the video here.