Amara Lakhous on prejudice and immigration in Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio

Amara Lakhous‘ Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio takes its title from a movie that one of the characters, Johan Van Marten, wants to make about tenants living in the same building, what the elevator represents to them, and how they interact with one another as a result of the shared space. A long-time tenant is found dead in the elevator. One man, Amedeo, is accused of the crime, but none of the tenants believe he is the murderer, so they each give their suspicions, opinions, and prejudices.

The most trusted tool of a reader, the bookmark

I have a number of bookmarks, and yet I still sometimes use a receipt, a ripped piece of paper, or even just a pencil. Here are most of them. Not all, of course, because there’s probably some lost in old books on my bookcase. And I did get rid of some of them, those that I had no recollection of where they came from, as well as the duplicates.

Bookmarks are wonderful because they are anchors to who we were and where we were. They also mark where we left off and save a book from dog-eared pages and silly scraps of paper that only get lost in the pages.

Pictured above are some of my earlier bookmarks, from when I was in grammar school and high school.

A Portrait of a Ranch’s Library

Continuing my series on people’s personal libraries, I photographed the books at my Aunt Eva’s ranch in New Mexico. Her parents, my grandparents, as well as her grandparents also lived on a ranch. She has a number of old family books stored in her workshop, in cabinets to keep the dust off them. Her library is spread out, to different rooms, different buildings, and spans generations. She owns books from her father and grandfather. They have been folded into her library easily, and referred to often by multiple readers.

Chuck (Palahniuk) in SF? Check, I was there.

Chuck Palahniuk was in San Francisco again. This time he was signing comics at Comix Experience. This was probably my seventh time seeing him. He’s one of my favorite writers (but also one of my favorite readers. However, since this wasn’t a book tour,  he didn’t read.) Thanks to our friend Dom alerting us to the event, Gib and I were one of the first 40 people to get our comics signed. My friend Jenifer brought Frankie the dog along as well.