Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://houzz.com

Very Specific Book Nooks

I believe I have posted several times about book nooks on this blog. That’s only because I want a book nook of my own so desperately. Despite the fact that I now have my own living space, I still do not have a book nook to call my own. But perhaps one day! And perhaps I will want the book nook to represent a certain type of reading or a certain type of book. The book nooks in a recent post on the website Houzz listed 15 book nooks and what they want you to read.

I love the idea of pairing book nooks with certain types of reading material. For instance, the list shows a grand, Southern-style sort of reading nook and offers up Gone With the Wind as a reading suggestion. There is a calming, light and airy space that might inspire you to journal your feelings. My favorite (pictured above) is a cozy area with comfy couches that Houzz suggests pairing with some Jane Austen.

There are even more awesome reading nook-reading material pairings on this list. Check out the post on Houzz and see which type of reading nook is your favorite. Then think about a reading nook of your own. If you were given the chance to design your own reading area, what would you want it to convey? Would it call to mind cozy reads or hard-boiled mysteries? Would it make you think of classics or romance novels?

Leave a description of your ideal reading nook in the comments, and happy reading!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

Photo credit: Robert Dawson
Willard Library, Evansville, Indiana, 2011

Libraries

Last week we discussed your dream home library, but that can be a difficult thing to attain. You need money and space, and most of us don’t have either of those things on hand. But public libraries are always there for you. Libraries are amazing resources in your community and I think you should utilize them at every chance you get, especially in the summer! To me, the summers were always a time to get involved with libraries’ summer reading programs and stock up on books for weeks of exciting reading. Libraries can be meeting places, sources of adventure, ways to educate yourself, and so much more.

In honor of libraries, I want to link to this Flavorwire article that profiles many interesting libraries across America. There are some really amazing libraries on this list. There is the adorable Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana; there is the Queens Library bookmobile in New York that was in operation following Hurricane Sandy; and there is even a combination Super Bingo, Family Dollar, and Mockingbird Branch Library in Abilene, Texas. If anything, this list shows us how America is keeping the library alive in more and more creative ways.

But what about your library? What was your library like when you were growing up? What is the library that you now hold allegiance to? What role does the library play in your life?

I’ve always had small libraries in my life. Growing up, the public library was not too far from my house and sometimes we would bike there when the weather was nice. It didn’t matter that it was small because I was small, too, and I honestly had so much fun reading through the stacks at that library. After grade school, we moved and I had another small, cozy library to check out. Although it didn’t always have the books I wanted, the library was part of an expansive network and I could have plenty of books transferred in for me to read.

Let us know in the comments what libraries mean to you, and which library you love.

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://www.architectureartdesigns.com

Your Dream Home Library

Continuing the trend of fun bookish things we’ve been discussing this summer, let’s take a look at awesome home libraries! It seems like readers these days are rabid about their love of reading. If you take great pride in reading and call yourself a book lover, then you probably want to show off your books! For now, I’m sure those Ikea shelves are serving you well. But you may be dreaming of the majestic home library that you’ll construct once you’re older.

At least, I know that I dream of that ideal home library. There are hidden doors that lead to libraries, there are uniquely configured shelves, there are home libraries that look just like bookstores, and there is the ever-tempting option of using sliding ladders like the Beast’s library. You might think that home libraries have one style — it’s a room full of bookshelves — but there are so many things you can do! This post at the architecture art design website shows you just how much you can customize your home library.

There are home libraries that look like something out of Downton Abbey, with gilded edges on the bookshelves and old-fashioned furniture. There are more rustic looking home libraries, that have wooden shelves and wood panelling along the walls. I like home libraries that incorporate some kind of reading nook into the library, like the picture here.

What are your dreams and plans for your eventual, awesome home library? Share your plans in the comments!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://scelnews.com

Booksellers

Last week, the “Awesome Literary Thing” we focused on was bookstores. I think we can all agree that bookstores are awesome and that you should support more of them in your community if you want them to stick around. But what about the people behind those bookstores? What about the booksellers themselves?

Through BoingBoing, that great internet repository of awesome, I found a photo series by photographer named Steve Kenward. The series is called “Literally” and Steve has taken photographs of many booksellers among their books and inside their bookshops. On his website Steve says, “Independent bookshops are great places to spend time in. These portraits are some of the lovely people who can help you find something special. You really can’t beat the smell of fresh ink in a new hardback or the excitement on discovering a copy of that out of print classic. So next time you are passing a bookshop, pop in. You might be surprised what you find.”

I love the way Steve describes booksellers here, as “the lovely people who can help you find something special.” Yes, sometimes you go into a bookstore with a prepared list, all ready to find what you’re on a mission to find. But other times you come in less prepared, and you need a helping hand. These are the folks who can recommend, locate, and research for you.

These photos are fascinating because each one of these booksellers is completely surrounded by their wares. Steve has also collected each bookseller’s favorite book, which is a great way to get some insight into these folks.

I encourage you to check out the photo series, “Literally,” and do some reflecting on the booksellers that you’ve come into contact with on your book-hunting adventures.

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://superhypeblog.com

That One Awesome Bookstore

If you’re reading this blog, I’m willing to bet that you have a favorite bookstore. That bookstore may be a cozy, independent place in your town or a Barnes & Noble that always has what you need on its shelves. Either way, that bookstore means something to you. It’s a special place where you go to discover new worlds, pick up the latest installment in your favorite book series, or just browse to spend some time around books.

I got to thinking about this topic when I saw a post on the New Yorker blog, in which cartoonist Bob Eckstein drew some famous New York bookstores. I loved looking through these and it made me think about the important bookstores in my own life.

Although it is a chain bookstore, I have called Half Price Books my home-away-from-home. The corner they have filled with bargain books is akin to nirvana for me. A Saturday spent at Half Price Books is a Saturday spent well.

Turning to the more indie side of things, though, I love Anderson’s Bookshop. I went there for the release of the seventh Harry Potter book and I got to see Rachel Maddow speak at an event that they held. Aside from being a really amazing bookstore, Anderson’s brings the authors and the events to the people, which can be so much fun.

I could happily spend hours in just about any bookstore, but these ones hold a special place in my heart. If I had any drawing talent, I would sketch little pictures of them to keep on my walls. As it is, I can only describe them for you in words.

Now it’s your turn! Share in the comments what your favorite bookstore is. Which bookstore holds a special place in your heart, and why?

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://theworkingwardrobe.com

Book Soundtracks

Many of us enjoy pairing music with what we are reading or writing. Sure, there are some folks who enjoy reading in complete silence to only focus on the story in front of them. But I think a lot of us prefer to put in our earbuds and add a soundtrack of our own to the story we’re reading. I know of some people who, when beginning a new writing project, take great pains to create a soundtrack especially tailored to their story. They’ll cherry-pick their favorite songs from their favorite artists, which they think are best tailored to their story, and construct a soundtrack.

The topic of soundtracks came to my attention recently when I saw a Galley Cat blog post about book soundtracks. When I saw the post, I initially thought that it would be about what I’ve already mentioned — creating a soundtrack for your writing project. Instead, the post is about a software tool that allows you to add sound effects, ambient noise, and music to e-books that you’re reading. This is an interesting thought, but I think the homemade, DIY versions of book soundtracks are more interesting.

There are times when I’m writing a certain type of scene, and I find a song that gives exactly the right emotional resonance to what I’m writing. Sometimes I just set that song on “repeat” while I’m writing a scene so that I can keep myself in the right mindset. Other times, I’ll create a playlist of songs that I can cycle through as I’m writing. These songs might correspond to certain characters, or might simply match the tone of the piece and the world that I’m writing within.

How about you? Do you ever create soundtracks for your writing projects? Is it something you might be interested in? Share your thoughts in the comments!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://www.nprberlin.de/

Writing Retreats

Even if you are not being paid for your writing, even if you don’t have a publishing deal with your name on it, even if you are just like me — someone typing away in her bedroom — I think that you would probably love a writing retreat. Typically, if you enjoy to write, you would like to be able to do it for many hours each day. There are many daily interruptions, however, that are simply a part of life. Many of us have to go to work, or take care of children, or just have other work that is not writing. So to have a retreat or fellowship that would allow us to write would be quite an amazing thing.

Well, folks. We have a definitive list of the best writing fellowships and retreats in the US. The tumblr blog of Open Road Media — a digital publisher and multimedia content company — has compiled this list. Fellowships are typically grants that allow you to study and work on your writing in a professional capacity. Retreats, on the other hand, offer you a place to stay and draw inspiration from while you work on a project. Either one, I think, would be a great boon to anyone’s career, and a great opportunity to get some real writing done.

There are some great opportunities listed here, and the best part is that this list is nowhere near exhaustive. If you do a Google search for either writing retreats or writing fellowships you come up with an almost endless supply of sites to check out.

What would your ideal writing retreat look like? Personally, I love the United States, but I think it would be amazing to have a writing retreat somewhere in the English countryside. I’ve always wanted to visit anyway, so why not do some writing while I’m there? I can just imagine a retreat in some great English manor, pretending to be either Jane Eyre or someone on Downtown Abbey, and working on a novel.

Where would you most like to have a writing retreat? Would you want other writers to be around, so you could all bounce ideas off each other? Describe your ideal writing retreat in the comments!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Jet Fuel Contributor, Virginia Smith Rice, Publishes First Book

Virginia Smith Rice publishes her first book, When I Wake It Will Be Forever.

Virginia Smith Rice writes poetry and teaches art in Woodstock, Illinois.

She earned her MFA in creative writing from Northwestern University and is co-editor of Kettle Blue Review, an online poetry journal.

When I Wake It Will Be Forever, is now available from Sundress Publications. Some of her individually published poems can be found on the Poems page.

Virginia can be contacted through Kettle Blue Review.

“Both shimmering and seething, haunted and haunting, the complex, dazzling contours of When I Wake It Will Be Forever beckon the reader with the imperative of ‘listen’; and we do, because Rice’s poems vibrate with a ‘voice thorned and singing / but not human.’ Like her poetic parentage—Desnos, Szymborska, Tranströmer and Csoóri—there is a wisdom contained in this work that transcends a singular being’s experience; ultimately elegiac, yet ‘lit by inner, hidden suns,’ this book is a stellate network of memory, loss, longing, silence, and voice. Often serving as witness (to an aunt’s suicide, a stranger’s suicide, ‘the suicide in my voice’) Rice pays tribute to the manifold ghosts that clamor inside us. This is one of the most solidly exquisite and lingering first books I’ve had the honor of reading.”
-Simone Muench

“Virginia Smith Rice has created a tremblingly precise, intricate, bright-edged evocation of a world both ecstatic and ominous, grieving and vital, broken and mending, but rarely mended. Her poems are richly colored and intensely focused on the shapes and forms of the world and of inner life and relationships. They are crowded with living plants and creatures and intense feeling, and Rice can even describe the color of solitude. Her language is sensuously complex, her angle of vision is oblique and finds the memorable touch of reality off-center, at the edges, just this side of perceptibility. She has created a delicate yet vivid response to what she calls the ‘percussed absence’ that haunts human life. This is a marvelous first book.”
-Reginald Gibbons

“A Virginia Smith Rice poem is naked, like a bulb, although, unlike a bulb in the dark, it does not want to be seen dangling by and for itself, it does not want to be interpreted as the centre of its universe, even as a frame does not. Her poems say instead their warm color of incandescence to some still life hanging from a wall. When a Virginia Smith Rice poem says, ‘Autumn laps gently as a well-fed dog: each pale / branch remembers leaves as essential things, / and how easy it is to let things go,’ it at once frames a scene of plenty, of longing, and of regret. In this way, the poems in When I Wake It Will Be Forever are always pleasurable, colorful and sincere in and to every sense.”
-Rethabile Masilo, author of Things That Are Silent

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://en.paperblog.com/cozy-nooks-29673/

Cozy Reading Nooks

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all had a pretty rough winter. The sad news is that it isn’t even over yet! I have come home from work on many evenings and have wanted nothing more than to curl up with a good book and keep warm in a heavy cardigan. The only thing that could make that scenario even more appealing is my own personal reading nook.

As a quick disclaimer, I will say that it’s possible I’ve already posted about reading nooks for an Awesome Literary Things post. In fact, it’s more than possible. But sometimes, when it’s freezing cold outside, you just need to look at some pictures of reading nooks on a Tuesday morning. Do you agree? If so, read on!

This time, the cozy, aspirational reading nooks are coming to us courtesy of the Design Sponge website, which is a design blog. A little while ago they posted a wonderful list of 10 Cozy Reading Nooks. As readers of this blog will know, I love looking at pictures of other people’s bookshelves. My second favorite thing to look at is reading nooks. As you can imagine, this list was very fun for me to look at.

So many of these reading nooks are adorable and I wish I could transplant them directly into my house with just a click of my mouse. Some are cramped and block out all other distractions so that you can read in peace, like the first one on the list (I would also like the house surrounding this particular reading nook). But others are light, airy, and open, such as the fifth one down on the list. I love the variety displayed on this list. That makes me wonder what you would like to see in your own, personal reading nook?

What would your ideal reading nook look like? What would be included? What would be excluded? Share in the comments!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan

Discuss: Awesome Literary Things

http://cnn.it/189aq7y

Exquisite Libraries

Once again, I am assuming that we’re all book lovers here. Am I correct in that assumption? Excellent, then we shall press on. Are you feeling tired already and it’s only Tuesday? Are you freezing in the middle of this Polar Vortex? We here at the Jet Fuel blog understand you, and we’d like to offer you something cozy and simple on this Tuesday morning. After all, sometimes it’s nice to take a break from serious-ish, advice type posts and just look at some pretty pictures of libraries. In that vein, I bring you exquisite libraries around the world, courtesy of the CNN website.

There are large, opulent libraries with lots of gold embellishment on the shelves on this list. There is also the ancient library in the Haeinsa Temple in South Korea. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the truly grandiose libraries, and the libraries that are far more subdued. It might be said that the two kinds of libraries are completely equal, despite their difference in decoration. When it comes down to it, libraries exist to catalog and dispense knowledge. It doesn’t matter what they look like, as long as they house the annals of knowledge. All that being said, it is quite nice to look at these exquisite libraries, don’t you think?

My favorite library on the list has to be the Merton College Library in Oxford, UK (pictured above). It seems to be the perfect mixture of grandiosity and coziness. There are some lovely decorative windows, but it seems to be mostly made of wood. It’s the library that I could most see myself studying in.

Which library do you like best? Which one would you transplant into your home, if that was possible? Share in the comments!

— Jet Fuel Blog Editor, Mary Egan