The Book Loft

If you ever find yourself with an afternoon in Columbus, OH, get a map and make your way down to the Book Loft in the German Village area. I've only been to a handful of bookstores that so successfully capture the pleasure of browsing. We spent Saturday afternoon here, and we'd just purchased a new camera, so I had a good time.


The 32 cluttered rooms, packed from floor to ceiling, are arranged by topic with the music in each room catering to the authors housed there. Occasionally, two rooms will be so small and close to each other that the music clashes. While this was annoying at first, we eventually commented on the feeling that the books themselves were speaking, almost trying to be heard over one another. So the Poozies might get an audience with someone camped in the sci-fi room while John Williams might gain a fan perusing the Celtic nook. And if you stand in the juxtaposition long enough, you have to consider that perhaps there's a connection between the Irish experience and outer space travel.


Some rooms are more organized than others, but in the extensive maze that makes this independent bookstore so charming and such a tourist attraction, I can only imagine it's staffed primarily by a handful of part-timers. For them to stay on top of shelving would be a full time job for at least 4 people. And I found some satisfaction in doing my part sorting out and organizing the works of my own favorite authors. If I lived closer, I think I'd probably volunteer a Saturday out of every month just to walk through and correct the shelves.

We will come here again. If you ever visit us and are a lover of books, we'll be sure to bring you here as well.

Speaking of Faith...

"To summon the kingdom of heaven as Jesus described it is not to call down perfection on an imperfect world, but to bring recurring, overriding virtues of the Gospel- love, mercy, and redemption- to moments that will probably not make the headlines."

Krista Tippett
Speaking of Faith

Pajama Reading

In a Blue Room by Jim Averbeck, illustrated by Tricia Tusa
Olivia and I found this treasure at the library. I don't know which I like better- the words or the illustrations, but together they take my mind off of busy days, politics, conflicts, general issues of a temporary nature, and lift my gaze to the big, the pure, the good....and not in a "forget the rest" kind of way, but rather with a calmy whispered "remember this."

Can't you just hear the thinking?

The Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, France, from Diane Asséo Griliche's book, Library: The Drama Within

Jump, Jump

I don't think I ever played hopscotch as a kid. I'm not even sure what a hopscotch game is supposed to look like, but Olivia loves to jump and we needed something to entertain while we did some yard work this afternoon. So I drew this on the sidewalk in front of our house and proceeded to pull the weeds. After awhile we abandoned the yard and the game to go in for a break.
We live just a few blocks from downtown, and our sidewalk sees a lot of pedestrian traffic through the course of a day. And to my unexpected delight, more than not, most passersby felt inclined to take advantage of our hopscotch diagram-mostly teens, but a number of seniors as well. In fact, I only saw one lone woman resist the temptation to jump.
Enough for now, I must get back to my post by the window.

Good things to come from Marilynne Robinson

I'm pulling this quote directly from Alan Jacobs blog. This is the first I've heard of a new book from Marilynne Robinson, and I'm still handing out suggestions for folks to read her last one, Gilead. Apparently, this new one is its companion and will be out next month. Here's a taste of why it's sure to be worth our time to pick it up:

"There is a saying that to understand is to forgive, but that is an error, so Papa used to say. You must forgive in order to understand. Until you forgive, you defend yourself against the possibility of understanding. Her father had said this more than once, in sermons, with appropriate texts, but the real text was Jack, and those to whom he spoke were himself and the row of Boughtons in the front pew, which usually did not include Jack, and then, of course, the congregation. If you forgive, he would say, you may indeed still not understand, but you will be ready to understand, and that is the posture of grace."

—Marilynne Robinson, from Home (to be published next month)

The Clustering of the Like-Minded

The small town dynamic continues to perplex me. And these days I'm still better at collecting others' thoughts than expressing my own. Maybe soon I'll have the luxury to sift through it all and pound out some coherent ideas, but currently that's not an accurate reflection of my mental map. There's not even a table of contents up there right now.
We don't get NPR in our town. It's on an AM station out of Columbus that I can sometimes pick up if I'm driving, but usually Olivia is with me, and the constant buzzing is too much to ask of her. So tonight, Brett fixed me up with a speaker loud enough for me to listen to the NPR Program Stream off my computer while working around the house. Thank you Brett, you've changed my life again. Within minutes, Talk of the Nation was coming through clear as a bell.
Tonight, Guy Raz was talking with Bill Bishop, the author of a new book called The Big Sort: How the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart. The big idea is that we tend to live, work, and play with people who think just like us. Bishop suggests that this practice is doing us, and our society at large, a great disservice. It's keeping us from engaging in legitimate discussion on all important issues. It's perpetuating ignorance. Before we recognize what's happening to us, we get entangled in group think and only see the opposition as absurd.
Here's the link to the interview which also includes an excerpt from the book. Joel, you'll be getting this in the mail soon- happy birthday, and welcome back. I'm checking it out at our library tomorrow (or I should say, I'll be requesting it through interlibrary loan).