More specifically concerning: libraries
the local library
11 March 2011, around 17.39.
NB: This entry was initially published as a page to solicit donations to fund a project supporting the library; the campaign was successful. Goris is a small town located in the rugged mountains of Syuniq marz, which is the southernmost region in Armenia. Once the cultural center of the region, its situation on the road […]
the will to be peeved
12 January 2017, around 6.11.
Drawing (with self portrait) from one of William James’s notebooks I don’t quite remember what led me to read William James. It could have been PF talking about him, or the mention in The Dead Ladies Project, or it could have been something I’ve forgotten about entirely. In any case, I settled in and read […]
byzantine
2 July 2021, around 9.37.
A view of Constantinople, ca. 1635, by Matthäus Merian Somewhat jokingly I said that I wanted the shelves to reflect the great arc of history, not a hodgepodge of regional narratives. In the beginning, this was fine. There was room, narrative room, to arrange the books in something like a chronology to present something like […]
The Order of Books
2 December 2021, around 12.19.
By Roger Chartier, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane, Stanford UP, 1994 (1992).
Adversaria (34)
31 January 2026, around 4.11.
‘Engraved deep in the stone on the wall of my university library, stretching from one side of the building to the other, are the names of illustrious dead white males stretching back more than two millennia. Yes, it is a library. But it’s also a mausoleum with its dead holding court in the underground stacks. […]
in the weeds
20 February 2026, around 4.47.
Excerpt from Gilbert Jackson’s portrait of Robert Burton, ca. 1635 Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy is a book that invites background reading, both in terms of books that Burton himself might have encountered and supplemental reading to loosen the knots an unsuspecting reader might tangle themselves when reading unforewarned. Obviously, the best thing to do to […]