Did I ever tell you how much I loved The Book of Dahlia?

I was reminded of it last night while talking to a friend of mine about how much I wish I were Jewish (and how I'm secretly - or not so secretly - convinced that I actually am, somehow*). I connect so strongly to Jewish culture. Last spring I put my bibliographic search skills to work poring over the public library catalogue to find novels with Jewish protagonists. I found The Book of Dahlia (among others, rest assured. I'm a fantastic librarian.).

Dahlia is a chronic underachiever. The 29-year-old spends her time smoking a lot of pot and occasionally, vaguely considering grad school while watching old movies on TV. Then she has a grand mal seizure and is diagnosed with brain cancer. Yup. The novel is hilarious and smart and dark and sad and awesome. Love. LOVE.

*Seriously. Just after Dahlia gets out of the hospital after being diagnosed, she and her parents head to Barnes & Noble: "This is what Jews do when the shit hits the fan. Go find books." How am I not Jewish?

(This post in English brought to you by a rainy day where I really felt like expressing myself with some semblance of clarity and intelligence.)

A la bibliotheque

Alors j'ai trouver la bibliotheque. Quel surprise. J'ai empreunter:
Ni d'Eve ni d'Adam 
Casque D'or
Camille Claudel
Caché
Stupeur et Tremblements
Fucking Åmål

Beautiful things (/I love librarians)

I am a little bit in love with Hillary Webb's art. Hillary is one of the many (many) creative, lovely librarians-to-be I've met during my studies, and I've been wanting to share her work since the first time I saw it. I've always liked embroidery (my past is littered with unfinished cross-stitch kits), but Hillary's work takes it to a different level. I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but she hand dyes her materials with dyes made of nature (nature! things like marigold, dahlia, black walnut, cochineal and umbilicaria, according to her website). The idea of her collecting little bits of world fills me with this fleeting storybook feeling that I can't exactly pin down, but it's rich and deep and a bit spangly. She then fashions her materials into these lovely studies of shape and colour. Love, Me Boutique in Halifax has recently started carrying Hillary's work, and I'm sure there are other avenues by which it could be purchased, if that's your deal. 

I love librarians. And art. And colour. And nature.

Bright futures

Image via definitive touch

Oh, hello.

[blink blink]

I am thisclose to finished my degree. Yeah, that one that I moved to Halifax for almost two years ago.

What?

So I am almost officially a librarian. I don't have a job lined up, per se, but I think librarian is a title like doctor or artist - now that I am one I will be one forever, no matter what my job title actually is.

Speaking of job titles, I'm looking for a job. And as a part of Job Search 2010 I'm thinking I should develop some kind of official, portfolio-esque web presence. I just want to build a pretty simple space online, a my name here kind of thing, where I can showcase some of my talents (of which there are many, and metadata is just one of them), but I'm lacking in an awareness of how exactly to go about doing that. I understand how to get my own domain name. And I know some html, css, etc. But I don't know how to combine the two to end up with an actual space online. I was looking briefly at just using wordpress.com to build a page, but I quickly got frustrated by the fact that I would have to pay more to make any changes to the css, and I wasn't in love with any of the themes as they stood. Plus I'm actually really picky about design, so I'd like to have a little more control/develop something that's a bit more my own. So, if anyone has tips on how to go about getting started, please send them my way. Thank you. I love you.


Also: the closer I get to being a librarian the more drawn I am to classic nerd glasses. The need is almost physical, at this point.

Things I took out of the library today:

Born Standing Up / Steve Martin
The Gospel of Food / Barry Glassner
The Lovvers LP / AIDS Wolf
The Song Is You / Arthur Phillips
You Can Pick Me Up at Peggy's Cove / Brian Doyle (Tiffany's recommendation/ she went and got it off the shelf and handed it to me. We were at Peggy's Cove on Thursday.)