Coming Attractions
22 October 2006

Takeshi Nakagawa, a professor at the Department of Architecture of Waseda University will speak on the social consequences of the evolution of Japanese architecture in his talk on “The Japanese House in Space, Memory, and Language.”
To attend, please buy a copy of his book The Japanese House. Seating is limited.

Donald Keene will give a presentation on 26 November at Good Day Books.  More details later.

  Past Events
24 September 2006

Limbs and lyrics were linked as Leza Lowitz, read from her Yoga Poems while Erika and Akiko, yoga teachers from her studio, performed asana or postures. In the following picture, they are joined by Chie, a yoga student, who also read some poems in Japanese. It was an inspiring performance, ending with the audience joining hands and doing the “tree” asana.

BOOKCLUBS

The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen will be discussed on 15 October. Life of Pi by Yann Martel will be discussed by the non-native speakers’ group on 8 October.

Conan the Librarian says:

Some suggestions for the care and maintenance of books:

 One: Books should not be cleaned by throwing them in the bath or washing machine.

Two: While they provide much amusement, they are not Frisbee substitutes.

Three: Their value is not increased by excising pages with razor blades, or chopping pages in half with scissors.

Four: Books should not be packed in cat fur or, in fact, dirt, dust balls or feathers.

Five: Pages are not improved when covered with scrawls in multicolored marker pens, or ball pens.

Strangest sales pitch of the month:  “I’ve brought you my worst books.”

Title of “optimist of the month” goes to the man who crossed three prefectures to find a copy of a rare French book, in an English book store.

Did you know?  James Bond was named after an ornithologist, and author of Birds of the West Indies?

Your library is a map of your mind, revealing the worlds you’ve inhabited. Glimpsing at your books is like peering through a telescope at your mental universe.