ByGD
There is a war museum on the island of Terceira in the Azores. It seems a little strange for such a peaceful-feeling island to have a war museum. But Portugal was once an empire and the Azores are strategically located. The museum was interesting and tasteful – relating the facts without glamorizing them. Except for this office. I don’t remember what information it was supposed to relate. But the display gave me a sort of Hogwarts feeling. I want an office filled with floating books like this.
ByGD
The graphic novel series Saga by Brian K. Vaughan doesn’t need me to promote it. But reading the first volume of the hardback collection I couldn’t help but pause at this frame. That, as the kids say, is a mood.
ByGD
After decades in Seattle, I realized I had never been to the suburban “city” of Lake Forest Park. All I knew about it was that it had the famous Third Place Books bookstore. The name references a theory that people need a place to live, a place to work, and a third place to gather and form a community. As far as I can tell, the bookstore is the only third place in that small bedroom community. So one day we drove out there, and it was everything we could have hoped for. But it was still all the way out in LFP. Later, they opened a new store in Ravenna, a neighborhood that I could walk to. (I would never walk to the bookstore, though, because books are heavy and I’d never make it home.) We were thrilled, and it has since become our favorite bookstore. This photo is our haul from our first visit to the Third Place in Ravenna.
ByGD
Bookstores might be my Tiffany’s. This look back at the haul from my very first Independent Bookstore Day reveals the severity of my tsundoku problem. I still haven’t read any of the books pictured. But Independent Bookstore Day remains one of my favorite holidays. This year they’re doing things a little differently to accommodate pandemic safety precautions, and I’m still not sure how much I’m going to participate. But I think next year will be the year I actually fill my passport.
ByGD
As you do, I was gushing about Healer, one of my favorite K-dramas. In Healer, Ji Chang Wook’s title character did cool parkour style action and great fight scenes, but what stood out from other action heroes was his situational awareness. He always sensed when someone was following him and knew when he was walking into a trap before the bad guys attacked. The day after this enthusiastic one-sided conversation I got an offer to review an advance copy of The Power of Awareness, a personal safety how-to book. Since I can’t practice most of the exercises while social distancing, I thought I’d read using Healer to illustrate its principles.
