The Wanderlust Librarian | The Bookstore

It's true. I work at a library and yet... I still go to the bookstore. I cannot get away from books because they are so magical. Bookstores, for me, are places where I feel I belong when i'm not at work. They're full of delicious paper smells and things I love to look at. When I was in college, bookstores were places where I could study, grab a cup of coffee and just people watch... all for the price of a coffee. Nowadays, most bookstores have Wi-Fi, so one could have the added bonus of having their computer, studying, drinking a coffee and people watching! 

Luckily, I'm not the only person who gets my inspiration from the bookstore. 

Check out these books! 

My Bookstore: writers celebrate their favorite places to browse, read and shop

The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap

If you're reading this, you've probably taken a look at my last post about the Last Bookstore. If not, check it out here! I found that there were WAY too many pictures to put in that post, but i'm happy to share them in this post.

Until then, have many literary adventures! 

See you next week! 

I love the screen on this desk.
I wish the library had one! 

The performance / lecture stage 

Eye need a penny!!! 

Book birds! 

This confounded me, but it was cool to look at. 

Sheet music bursts out of its confinement

I could not get enough of this sign. 

Every great bookstore has a
Mystery Door! 

Miss Moneypennypincher | Musical Stylings

There are many ways to listen to music these days, with some great free options.  I myself, often listen to Pandora, the radio, and my personal music library.  Sometimes though, when I am shuffling through multiple songs - often times from different genres - it doesn't always seem like I am getting the "full story" from musicians I like, or think I might enjoy more.  And it's true.  Not all, but certainly a good number of albums really should be enjoyed from start to finish.  We (some library staff and I) came up with a list of some of our favorite albums and artists just off the top of our heads: Exile on Main Street, The Lumineers, Elephant, Abbey Road, Dark Side of the Moon, Mumford and Sons, Bruce Springsteen, American Beauty.  Listening to a few songs from the album are okay, but listening to the whole thing, all at once, is a different experience entirely.  However, albums are expensive.  The cheapest ones I find are usually still $9.99.  I don't want to shell out $10 for an entire album only to discover I didn't like most of the songs, or worse yet didn't like the whole thing.  

 Once again, the library comes to my rescue.  I can check out music here, figure out if I like it, and decide whether I want to commit to making that purchase.  One time (okay maybe more than once), I listened to every album by The Black Keys in order, some albums requested from SSJCPL and the others through Link Plus - a great way to find some more obscure stuff.  Listening to albums in order reminds me of reading books by a specific author in the order they were written.  It gives you much more insight into the person (or musicians) who wrote them.

"Why don't you like my overplayed song, Tara?!"

Not only that, I don't know how many times I have purchased a single song or CD thinking, " I could NEVER get sick of this!", only to listen to it over and over, and over again for weeks, until I never want to hear it again.  There are some songs I want to listen to again about as much as I want to stick nails in my ears.  I am not going to embarrass myself by calculating how many songs in my library are like that, and how much I have spent on them total (but I am pretty sure it is at least $500, easy).  However, I will never get sick of The Black Keys, ever.  I bought every single one of their albums.  They passed the repeated listening test, hands down.


Of course, I am not suggesting you take our CDs home and burn them (either with a fire or with a computer), because that is illegal, BUT, use the library to make sure that you REALLY want to download that song, or album, before you commit to spending that $9.99 on it. 

I want more suggestions though.  What is your favorite album to listen to from start to finish? 

Learning | Maker Faire, Part I

My family discovered the Bay Area Maker Faire a few years ago. I was so intrigued to hear my husband and teenage son rave about the 2011 event, that I decided to go with them in 2012. It was even bigger and better than they described.  

They had told me about the robots, and narrowly missing seeing Mythbusters star Adam Savage. (We listened to Adam Savage's presentation in 2012. He appeared in an Indiana Jones hat, and told a compelling story of a boy who liked to make his own props for imaginary play, then had a career in creating special effects for movies--which led to his phenomenal success on the Mythbusters television show.)

I expected to see robots everywhere, but I didn't expect to walk into a room full of R2-D2 replicas! Apparently, the cute little droid from Star Wars is one of the most popular subjects for amateur projects.

It seemed like everywhere I turned, there were people touting their 3-D printers, and talking about things to make with Arduino, a microcontroller that can be used for multiple purposes.  SSJCPL carries a title called Making Things Talk.  It's full of instructions for Arduino-based projects, like these:

• make a mat that tells you when your cat is sitting on it
• make a stuffed monkey talk
• make a simple electronic ping pong game.  

This book is published by the company that organizes the Maker Faire; it's affiliated with a magazine called Make:.

If you like do-it-yourself electronics projects, you might consider checking out some books from the Evil Genius Series. The publisher of this series had a booth at Maker Faire last year; one of the authors was there to autograph books. 

There are so many different kinds of creations and inventions at Maker Faire, that I am having trouble condensing it all into one blog post. One section is devoted to recycled objects and clothing--making something new out of something old. There are accessories and jewelry. Another section is devoted to growing food. And then there are the glowing sharks that seem to soar through the darkness in one pavilion. Families with children really seemed to enjoy the hands-on activities.  I was able to extract DNA from a strawberry at one table! There was an area where kids could learn (hands-on) all about how locks, keys and tumblers work.

One large section of the Faire is devoted to Steampunk.  This is a cultural movement that embraces science fiction concepts like time travel; it is both futuristic and anachronistic. I think it's really fun, but then, I'm a devoted Doctor Who fan. 1000 Steampunk Creations is loaded with pictures of contraptions, art, decor and fashion in the genre.  

The Maker Faire will be at the San Mateo County Fairgrounds on May 18-19, 2013.  Our family purchased our tickets months ago. Maybe I'll see you there.