Light Summer Hiatus!

The Personal Libraries Library is taking a summer hiatus, so that the Librarian can spend some time up in the Canadian Rockies! That said, you can still contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com.

Have a great summer!

JUNE 2013 PRINTED MATTER!

FINALLY! The Spring/Summer 2013 edition of printed matter is ready to be shipped!  Members and Friends of the Library can look forward to finding some or all of the printed matter in their mailbox.

Included in the packet is the first-ever PLL screenprinted work, featuring books from the collections, including Italo Calvino's t zero, The Moon by Isaac Asimov and Robert Heizer's Man's Discovery of His Past: Literary Landmarks in Archaeology:

 Also included is this letterpress print, SALT, using a paratextual illustration from L.W. Marrison's Crystals, Diamonds and Transistors (also seen above in the screenprint):

Lastly, is the fourth poster in the Entering the Robert Smithson Library series, Mazes & Labyrinths, by William Henry Matthews:

If you are interested in joining the Personal Libraries Library please contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com. Every member of the PLL receives bi-annual packets of printed matter.

WORD RAIN to THE AMBIDEXTROUS UNIVERSE

ASTRONOMY, GEOLOGY, and DINOSAURS make up the bulk of this spring's acquisitions.
Seen above are Stars: A Guide to the Constellations, Sun, Moon, Planets, and Other Features of the Heavens by Herbert Zim & Robert Baker and The Sun by K.O. Kiepenheuer, both from the Smithson collection.

Below are two spreads from these beautiful books:

Also from the Robert Smithson Collection, you will now be able to check out the cleverly designed The Ambidextrous Universe: Left, Right, and the Fall of Parity by Martin Gardner, and

The World of the Dinosaurs by David Dunkle,
Introducing Astronomy by J.B. Sidgwick,
CRYPTOZOIC! by Brian Aldiss,
¿Aguila o Sol? / Eagle or Sun? by Octavio Paz.

The Geology of New York City and Environs by Christopher J. Schuberth is exhaustive in detailing the geological history and current state of New York.

It also contains a fold-out poster, The Physiographic Diagram of the New York Region, pictured below.

And, finally, I am so excited to be accessioning WORD RAIN, or A Discursive Introduction to the Philosophical Investigations of G,R,E,T,A, G,A,R,B,O, It Says by Madeline Gins.

Within this piece of fiction (and concrete poetry,) Gins lays bare the production of texts and books by explicity marking sentences to be deleted and referring to the materiality of the book itself.  As the dust jacket states: 

In WORD RAIN, an unnamed narrator sits at a desk in a friend's apartment reading a manuscript. Surrounding the undefined character is a birthday party taking place in the next room, a glass of pineapple-grapefruit juice that is supposed to be pure grapefruit juice, the loose leaves of the manuscript, and the variable weather conditions.

For any questions about the Library, Collections or books, please contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com. 

ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES TALK / NYU Fales Library / March 27, 2013 / 6-8PM

I will be in New York City to participate in a panel on Alternative Libraries on Wednesday, March 27 from 6-8 PM.

The event has been put together by the Organism for Poetic Research (OPR) and will also include Andrew Beccone of the Reanimation Library and Marvin Taylor of the NYU Fales Library & Special Collections.

If you are in New York, or know someone that might be interested, here are the complete details:

ALTERNATIVE LIBRARIES TALK
Wednesday, March 27, 6-8 PM
Berol Reading Room at Fales Library
New York University, 3rd floor, Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South

Asimov! Doyle! Woolf! Williams! McLuhan! Hubble! Matthews! Poe! New Acquisitions / Winter 2012!

The following books are the most recent acquisitions to the Personal Libraries Library, all accessioned into the Robert Smithson Collection:

The Bloodstream: River of Life by Isaac Asimov
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man by Marshall McLuhan
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (also in the Borges Collection)

Also included is this spectacular volume of Kora in Hell: Improvisations by William Carlos Williams.  This is part of the Pocket Poet Series (No.7 in fact) published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and City Lights Books in San Francisco.  Everything about this book is splendid.  Everything.

The Realm of the Nebulae by Edwin Hubble and Mazes & Labyrinths by W.H. Matthews begin a dialogue from the onset.  Once inside, Hubble takes you to a "Group of Nebulae (NGC 3185, 3187, 3190, 3193)" that is found in the constellation Leo.

And to "Messier 33," a late-type style nebula, seen above.  Below is a tomb found in Knossos, in the shape of a "double axe" from Mazes & Labyrinths.  These continue the conversation.

For any questions about the Library, Collections or books, please contact the Librarian at personallibraries{at}gmail{dot}com.