I came across a website, I Wrote This For You dot me, and found the writing of this person enamoring. He had published a book of various posts he had written over the years illustrated with photographs taken by his partner,  Jon Ellis. Naturally, I bought the book, I Wrote This For You straight away. I actually read the entire book aloud to a friend the night I bought it. We finished within an hour and a half and it was definitely worth the read. We stopped and discussed many of the passages, as well. The author has lovely insight into human frailty, pain, suffering and love. His words touch some part of us that are wounded, that may never heal. He writes to and for all of us. Telling us things we all need to hear every now and again. Reminding us it is OK to be gentle and open, to love without fear or love despite fear.

A few passages stood out for me. I bookmarked a lot of pages. But one really resonated because it reflects how I feel lately. It is titled, “The Bleach”:

You are your hair and your eyes and your thoughts. You are what you look at and what you feel and what you do about it. The light from the sun is still a part of the sun. My thoughts of you are as real any part of you.

This book is filled with lovely snippets of human emotion. Bravo to the author willing to share and lay his soul bare for the whole world to read and I hope it was as well-received by others as it was by me. You can get this book here.

This book was part of my reading challenge — the 2012 Eclectic Reader Challenge — under my favorite genre: prose.

In these lonely regions I have been powerful
in the same way as a cheerful tool
or like untrammeled grass which lets loose its seed
or like a dog rolling around in the dew.
Matilde, time will pass wearing out and burning
another skin, other fingernails, other eyes, and then
the algae that lashed our wild rocks,
the waves that unceasingly construct their own whiteness,
all will be firm without us,
all will be ready for the new days,
which will not know our destiny.

What do we leave here but the lost cry
of the seabird, in the sand of winter, in the gusts of wind
that cut our faces and kept us
erect in the light of purity,
as in the heart of an illustrious star?

What do we leave, living like a nest
of surly birds, alive, among the thickets
or static, perched on the frigid cliffs?
So then, if living was nothing more than anticipating
the earth, this soil and its harshness,
deliver me, my love, from not doing my duty, and help me
return to my place beneath the hungry earth.

We asked the ocean for its rose,
its open star, its bitter contact,
and to the overburdened, to the fellow human being, to the wounded
we gave the freedom gathered in the wind.
It’s late now. Perhaps
it was only a long day the color of honey and blue,
perhaps only a night, like the eyelid
of a grave look that encompassed
the measure of the sea that surrounded us,
and in this territory we found only a kiss,
only ungraspable love that will remain here
wandering among the sea foam and roots.

There is no frigate like a book
by Emily Dickinson

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry –
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll –
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.

Photo Source: (http://www.flickr.com/photos/alicerosebell/4979178953/)

A shop in London with a clever display… now that is a mannequin I can appreciate!

EL PAPEL AGUANTO TODO

Photo Source: (http://milerlagos.com/en/proyectos/13/)

Source: http://milerlagos.com/en/proyectos/13/

Source: http://milerlagos.com/en/proyectos/13/

Source: http://milerlagos.com/en/proyectos/13/

Source: http://milerlagos.com/en/proyectos/13/

HOME (Book Igloo)

Source: http://milerlagos.com/

Photo Source: http://milerlagos.com/

Photo Source: http://milerlagos.com/

Photo Source: http://milerlagos.com/

You can see more of Miler Lagos works here.

This poster was created by “Burning Through Pages” a non-profit organization based in Denver, Colorado. According to their about us page,

Burning Through Pages is a non-profit organization based out of Denver, CO dedicated to the advocacy of reading and writing for our city’s youth. The working concept of Burning Through Pages is that the literature assigned by public and private schools, while important, contains dated prose and often antiquated ideals. While the classics are classics for a reason, they are not always easily relatable to the current generation reading them. That’s where we come in. We are here to introduce new and updated literature to Denver’s youth. We buy books, give them away, and take the time to talk about them.

Burning Through Pages Inc. has one goal and one goal only:

To inspire a love of reading in today’s youth by recommending, donating, and discussing books.

Happy Day of the Book! The UNESCO website says the following about the International Day of the book¹,

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.
23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo. This is why UNESCO chose this date to pay a worldwide tribute to books and their authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and to gain a renewed respect for the extraordinary contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity. The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia (Spain) where it has become a tradition to give a rose as a gift for each book purchased. The success of the World Book and Copyright Day will depend primarily on the support received from all parties concerned: authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media.

Note: Today is also St. George’s Day (celebrated in England amongst other places). It is the day of their Patron Saint St. George who was said to be a fearless crusader and a dragon slayer! =) In Catalonia, they celebrate today as the Day of the Rose… a day where lovers celebrate one another, much like St. Valentine’s Day.

1. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/world-book-and-copyright-day-2012

This first one I think I would find myself trying to read every line on each dress. Wouldn’t you?

This one looks like it is make of paper mache (decoupage). Thus, I do not think you can wear it.

Another one you probably cannot wear but what an interesting piece of art it makes…

I am a huge fan of Elliot Perlman’s work. I have read all his work to date. The Street Sweeper was worth the 8 year wait. This book, like all of Perlman’s books, starts out a little slow. This is only because he intricately weaves stories and lives together like a masterful story teller…interlocking fates and personal experiences in the most minute of ways. His attention to detail is a gift that keeps me wanting to find each next little clue. He spends a lot of time developing characters, letting us lurk about in their thoughts and each page helping us grow to feel closer with each and every one of them.

The protagonists in The Street Sweeper,  Lamont Williams and Adam Zignelik, have nothing at all in common on the surface. They are from very different backgrounds, living very different lives but life is still full of connections we may never see and in the end we all have more in common than we seem to think. This is the story of two men and the stories of those they encounter, both dead and alive, entangled into a fantastic book worth reading. Adam is a flailing historian. Lamont, a struggling ex-con in search of his long lost daughter. Both men have an uphill battle towards fulfillment and both find themselves treading through the difficult memories of the Holocaust to get to wherever they are going.

This is a story of lives interconnecting in the simplest, rawest of ways, through stories, through happenstance, through love, through history, through family, through friends, through employment. This is a message of listening, of remembering and of telling the stories of those who came before us and maybe even leaving a story worth telling for those we leave behind.

This book was part of my reading challenges —

I do so love to just randomly share parts of my book shelves or stacks of books… Have you read any of these books?

Ode to Forgotten Authors

What though your humble names are never heard
In these ungracious days,
Yet by your words were many bosoms stirred
What time you piped your lays!
Then, your quaint prose or long-forgotten verse
Some student, it might be,
Would to his comrades lovingly rehearse,
So long ago, ah, me!
Among you may be some who in their time
Swayed many a heart, I trow;
Not to have read you almost seemed a crime
To those who prized you so!
Your names were once upon the lips of men,
Your volumes by their side;
They praised those prosings of your fluent pen
We “moderns” should deride!
And others of you who in numbers chose
To ease their teeming brain,
For some had all the sweetness of the rose,
The music of the rain.
Your books were read by many a crystal rill,
In sweet Julys long dead,
Or gladly conned when winter nights were chill,
And cheery fires burnt red.
And now your works are overlaid with dust,
They share oblivion’s night;
Till in the same box some hand by chance is thrust,
And drags one to the light!
The page for centuries closed we turn once more
Then, smiling, go our way,
Harder to please than in the days of yore—
Well, well, you had your day.¹

Old Friends, Old Books

Old friends, old books are surely best,
Already long they’ve stood the test,
In times of stress or indolence
Have ministered to soul and sense,
With grace responsive to each quest.
Aye, every whim by us possest
When winds blow east or winds blow west,
They kindly humor—not incense—
Old friends, old books!
The new may touch with keener zest
When we with ennui are opprest
But only briefly; turning thence,
With reawakened confidence,
We seek—for peace, for joy, for rest—
Old friends, old books!²

Ere Lamplight Dawneth

When do I love you most, sweet books of mine?
In strenuous morns when o’er your leaves I pore,
Austerely bent to win austerest lore,
Forgetting how the dewy meadows shine;
Or afternoons when honeysuckles twine
About the seat, and to some dreary shore
Of old Romance, where lovers evermore
Keep blissful hours, I follow at your sign?
Yea! ye are precious then, but most to me
Ere lamplight dawneth, when low croons the fire
To whispering twilight in my little room.
And eyes read not, but sitting silently
I feel your great hearts throbbing deep inquire,
And hear you breathing round me in the gloom.³

And since these were so lovely, if you want to read more wonderful book-related poems from the early 1900′s you can visit the Book Poem Project.

1. Title: Ode to Forgotten Authors, Author: F.B. Doveton, in: The Book Lover: A Magazine of Book Lore, Month of Publication: March-Apr, Year of Publication: 1903
2. Title: Old Friends, Old Books, Author: Charles R. Williams, in: The Book Lover: A Magazine of Book Lore, Month of Publication: Nov-Dec, Year of Publication: 1902
3. Title: Ere Lamplight Dawneth,  Author: Richard Le Gallienne, in: The Book Lover: A Magazine of Book Lore, Month of Publication: Aug,  Year of Publication: 1899