Biblioburro: The Donkey Library, on PBS

Biblioburro: The Donkey Library is POV's latest documentary, and it looks remarkable. On weekends, librarian and grade-school teacher Luis Soriano carries books to the children in poverty-stricken and violent remote villages of Colombia's interior. Braving drug traffickers and wild animals, Soriano and his burros, Alfa and Beta, deliver donated books to eager children--- illustrating the hope that education and books bring.

Don't miss it.

Click here to sign up for PBS to email you a reminder of when the show airs in your area.

As seen in Biblioburro: The Donkey Library. Credit: Photo by Carlos Rendón Zipagauta

Luis Soriano rides one of his donkeys. As seen in Biblioburro: The Donkey Library. Credit: Photo by Carlos Rendón Zipagauta

Luis Soriano prepares one of his donkeys. As seen in Biblioburro: The Donkey Library. Credit: Photo by Carlos Rendón Zipagauta.

Design Hulk

Here's a little tip. Don't make designers mad. Some, it seems, may have been subjected to some kind of radiation (a la Bruce Banner).  Design Hulk doesn't smash things with his massive green fist and toss cars through the air, however. Instead, he just fires off some hilarious tweets.

http://twitter.com/#!/DESIGNHULK

Free Stuff Friday

I've had the pleasure of working on several books for the national parks, which is how I became familiar with the National Park Foundation. The NPF is basically the charity for the National Park Service.  They raise money to protect our 388 national parks.

Every Friday, all summer long, the National Park Foundation is offering Facebook fans and Twitter followers the opportunity to win a national park pass and NPF gear.

       

Take a ride on the Book Barge

Lee Rourke of The Guardian discovered what is arguably the most unusual bookshop in England---and certainly the most mobile.  The Book Barge is a floating bookshop on a 57-foot canal boat in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

Owner Sarah Henshaw explains: "By setting up on a canal boat we hope to promote a less hurried and harried lifestyle of idle pleasures, cups of tea, conversation, culture and, of course, curling up with an incomparably good Book Barge purchase.

"I hoped that by creating a unique retail space, customers would realize how independent bookshops can offer a far more pleasurable shopping experience than they're likely to find online or on the discount shelves at supermarkets."

Agreed, Sarah.

Photos courtesy of The Guardian.

Be more like Lady GaGa...

Librarian and popular blogger The Daring Librarian (aka Gwyneth Jones) gave readers a jolt in the Washington Post yesterday with her call for librarians to be more like Lady GaGa:

"This is one of the most exciting times to be a teacher-librarian in our country and is also the scariest. A revolution is at hand, and we need to be nimble, daring, digital and shift both our practice and the way the world thinks of school librarians and libraries. Some revolutions compel you to throw everything out. This revolution is easy... keep what you love but just make a shift....

"Shift perception! We need to be more like Lady GaGa than Lady Bird Johnson. We need to establish a clear, pervasive, vibrant, and involved presence in their school, community, and on the web. The more visible librarians are the less likely that they’ll be taken away. Those teacher librarians who are hiding their brilliant programs under a bushel, that's when they're most likely to get cut. We need to stay positive, be proactive, and always be professional!"

Book cover + skateboard

In celebration of its 65th year, Penguin Classics is giving away three limited edition skateboard decks featuring some of their classic book covers.

To enter the contest, submit a photo that features both a Penguin Classic and a skateboard and submit it to their Facebook page. A public vote will determine the winners, so feel free to campaign!

The contest ends July 31, 2011.
Grand Prize: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Graphic Classic skateboard deck
First Runner Up: Dharma Bums Graphic Classic skateboard deck
Second Runner Up: We Have Always Lived in the Castle skateboard deck

(They indicate each of the three skateboard decks is worth about $80.)

Bestseller lists -- setting limits

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post book columnist Michael Dirda suggests that bestseller lists serve to support established authors but do little to help less-established ones. His solution? “A writer can only be on the best-seller list once.”

Seems like a well-intentioned approach, but it sort of defeats the purpose of a bestseller list!  What do you think?

Read the article and leave your comments: Should We Set a Bestseller List Limit?

Building a bookstore in 76 seconds

At a time when some local bookshops are closing their doors and Borders is going under, it makes me pretty jazzed to see a new bookstore being opened. In this high-speed video, Half Price Books fills a new store in San Antonio, Texas. The store opens today!

The secret bookstore

Meet Michael Seidenberg. When his bookstore's rent quadrupled, he moved Brazenhead Books to his apartment. "It's not legal," he says, "so that's why it has to be hidden. It's a residence and can't be identified for that reason."

He continues, "Since bookshops have been banished from the city, there's no place for them." He said it wasn't Barnes and Noble and the like that put him out but rather real estate.

Seidenberg is in the phonebook, but so far no one has tracked him down and closed the shop. "I guess in the age of super-intelligence, no one has a phone book. I always thought it was pretty shocking that I was hiding in plain sight," Seidenberg explains.

"Come find me and visit me," he says, "and I'm yours."


There's No Place Like Here: Brazenhead Books from Etsy on Vimeo.

I had one good pickup line...

A fun little rant in the New York Times about ebooks, identity, and trying to connect in the digital age.

 

"I had one good pickup line, and e-readers ruined it. I can no longer hit on a handsome man on a long commute by asking about his book — because I can’t see it."  Continue reading...

Become someone else...

This clever ad campaign by a Lithuanian ad agency popped up in the design blog Black + Eiffel.  What a fun and effective concept!  Imagining all of the possibilities...

Embroidered book covers

Aren't these embroidered book covers by Jillian Tamaki for Penguin Threads incredible?