I teach in the outreach program at Pine street and I have different classes for different people. At the moment I have a class for intellectually disabled adults, so when I am low on inspiration I come and look at the craft books and see what we can make. I take in consideration their level of ability.
Today I am dropping off some books for my boyfriend—he is a big library user. I am having a look at some cooking books to get some ideas for recipes. My partner has just joined – he is a man of extremes so he loves the library. He has been borrowing books on international politics and philosophy; he is a voracious reader.
We just got rid of a lot of books, we have been travelling for a while and I got a kindle for my birthday, I have resisted it for a long time, but now I love it. We travelled through South America and we then did the Camino de Santiago walk in Spain. It took us about 50 days to walk about 1000 km. I didn’t read any books prior to going, I wanted to go in completely fresh. My partner is writing a book about it now, he did extensive documentation along the way.
I have always loved the childhood book The House that Beebo Built by Jwhich probably did help me get into my profession of making stuff. It’s about a little kid who hangs out with his grandfather and the government want to take their house and to prevent it from happening they keep building higher and higher with these beautiful stacked objects to get away from them – into space. It is a gorgeous book. I found a second-hand copy of it at a garage sale recently. As a child, I remembered the magical house with the big library and bespoke balconies knocked together.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn is a book I like to recommend to friends. It’s about the world and the way humanity has developed through the eyes of a gorilla that has been living in the wild and then captured and caged. The start of the book begins with him advertising for a disciple to tell his story to humans. It’s a fantastic book. I like to lend that out and I bought a few copies.