Thoughts from the Stacks Blog

The other night, as I was trying to drift off into sleep, I begin thinking about books (surprise, surprise). More specifically, I was thinking about the book I am currently reading – Sourdough, by Robin Sloan – and how simply bizarre and delightful it is. My mother devoured it in one sitting on a Saturday. That in turn got me thinking about how there are all these unfound gems sitting on library book shelves across the country, each different and unique to their communities, and that...

I have found myself in that unfortunate and maddening place of not knowing what it is that I want to read. You know that place? For me, this place involves spending quickly dissolving time scouring the internet looking for book lists that spark my interest. For example, I’ll find a book on Goodreads that I once read and then scroll down to the book lists that it is including in (i.e. “What Women Born in the 90’s Are Reading Spring 2022” or “52 Book Club: #9 A Book That Sparks...

It feels as if I have been living in a handful of different worlds at present. I just finished reading Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, whose writing – as an acquaintance so aptly observed – is like delving into the mind of a method actor and embodying the main character. Then, because I felt my life needed some lightness and idealistic love, I began watching the Korean rom-com Romance is a Bonus Book. (If you know anything about Korean dramas, you know that those things will just...

My boyfriend and I are going through a challenging period in our lives, which is carrying into our relationship (because how can it not?). As two rather sensitive individuals, the cultural climate and external events hit us harder than others. And in the case of my boyfriend, personal challenges are also dominating this sensitivity space as well. (Not to mention that he is a poet and if you are one that understands that ‘poet’ – every artistic identity really – is a verb and...

Lately I have been confronted with the challenges of language. The development of a common language within a group of people is quite convenient. It is much easier to tell someone that there is water than to gesture wildly and get that person to move with you toward the source. In that sense, it makes communicating with other people who speak your same language much easier. However, there is so much left to interpretation in language. Take any book and ask two or three people their...

Since returning from a short vacation, I feel as if a shift has occurred in the world. Or maybe not necessarily the world, it feels like there has been a shift in the town of which I live. Maybe it is all the planets that are currently in retrograde affecting the energy flow or maybe there was a shift within myself or maybe we are all just losing it. I think it is a combination of all three plus many other factors, but there has definitely been a surge in aggressive energy and actions of...

I have been ruminating heavily about money lately and I do not think that is something my mind has been stuck on as unrelentingly in the past as it is now. I am certain some of it has to do with the ever-increasing price of everything, the bar for the “average” cost of something creeping up to a silly amount and this exhausting “here to stay” trend of subscriptions for basically everything and anything. (Can we *please* stop this subscription nonsense, with its imperceptible...

The other day I pre-ordered a sequel to a YA book that I have been quite looking forward to reading since finishing the first book. I got the call – the book was in! – so I wandered into The Bookshelf to grab my copy and take it home. The Bookshelf is such a delightful independent bookstore and even though I am surrounded by books pretty much all my waking hours, I still adore browsing the shelves and scoping out books. The thing is, I don’t like buying books. How awful does...

The other day, I learned about the theory of “the filter bubble”. Maybe you have heard of it. I had not. It is basically a theory that we are living in a bubble that prevents us from correctly perceiving reality. This theory was explained in the book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You by Eli Pariser, which simply says that by forming our opinions on the internet, we run the risk of isolating ourselves from other information that is farther away from our cultural...

The Library book club that I facilitate met this past week to discuss the month’s selected read, Having and Being Had by Eula Biss, and our discussion did not stop from the get go. It was really a delightful example of the power of connection that a work of literature embodies. I bring this up because I have been thinking about connection and communication lately: connection and communication to one another and to ourselves. Reading is clearly a solitary pursuit, most...

I just finished up the last in a trilogy surrounding the implementation of Plato’s Republic. I, myself, have not read The Republic by Plato (though I will be picking it up soon, inspired by the ideas within the trilogy), but it got me thinking about what such a society/culture would look like and if it is even possible for the human species to uphold. Being ignorant to the entirety of The Republic and going off only what was described in The Just City trilogy, individuals all live in an...

The other day I was thinking about the personalities and characteristics of the people of which I work. More specifically, I was thinking about how tolerant and non-judgmental all the people I work with are (or at least of what I perceive of them). I once had a lovely co-worker who felt that we should make a list of everyone’s astrological zodiac to see if there was a trend in those that stayed with us longer than others and take that into account when hiring. (Of course, this was just...