Books Destroyed In The Name Of Art.(Photo Courtesy Of Linda Thompson For The Missoulian.)The University of Montana's Mansfield Library will play host to a controversial art exhibit beginning January 7, 2010. "Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate" is an exhibit based on the deliberate destruction of books. A feature article on the exhibit in the January 3 Missoulian Online generated a firestorm of heated comments, pro and con. Roughly 4,000 books were rendered unreadable by over 100 artists to create the art works represented in the library's gallery. All of the books were donated by one man--known only by the initials "J.R."--in...
Separation of Church and Books? Pastor Signs Books Between Services
Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas is arguable the biggest congregation in the nation. The church is housed in the old Compaq Center which used to be the home of the Houston Rockets basketball team. On any given Sunday 40,000 people pack the church to listen to Osteen spew his version of the gospel.With a following like that one would expect Osteen to earn a hefty paycheck from the church but not a single penny of the church's money goes to Osteen. All his money comes from his books. His Wikipedia entry lists him as a best-selling author first...
Big Box Retailer Refers Customers To Indie Bookshop, Earth Shifts on Its Axis
Hard evidence of the existence of a parallel universe has recently surfaced, delighting physicists, confounding naysayers, and blowing the minds of independent book shop lovers.Tesco, the British super-supermarket chain that sells, amongst other non-grocery items, books, is, at its Wirral store in Liverpool, promoting the indie bookshop across the street in an effort to improve community relations.Through signage in its book department, Tesco is advising its customers that:“For a wider selection of titles and book-buying advice, why not cross the road to Lingham’s, where the specialist staff would love to help you.”Lingham’s has faced tough competition from the corporate behemoth,...
A Reading-Slut’s Confession: I Slept With 12,775 Books!
According to a new biography never to be published, over the course of fifty-two years of reading in bed (since age 6), I've slept with 12,775 books. Fifty-two years = 245.7 books a year = a book every day and a half. I keep my optometrist on retainer.I did so shamelessly, with little regard for the books as individuals. When I get an itch, I reach for a bitch of a book. 'Might as well face it, I’m addicted to livre.I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember many names; their title-pages are a complete blank.As a kid, I went...
A Library At The End Of The World
Abdoul Wahim Abdarahim Tahar of Timbuktu holds a book that has been in his family for generations. ( Photo courtesy of Karin Brulliard, The Washington Post.)According to a 2006 survey conducted by its Ministry of Culture, 34% of Britons thought this city "no longer existed" and the remaining 66% thought it was "a mythical place." They were 100% wrong. Timbuktu is a very real city today, and has been since at least the 10th century. According to a January 5, 2010 article in The Washington Post, the impoverished city may be ripe for an economic renaissance: a rebirth based on...