The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by Contrary Mary:

To continue a thread I took notes on in the other open thread: The building of bookcases. Will be building a big one soon, but the current task is to paint one I already own. Any tips on good paint for bookcases?

And to add to the simple-to-build knowledge, the current one in my home office is made from MDF/Medium Density Fiberboard, purchased from Home Depot. We made the mistake of being cheap and buying longer lengths to cut. Do not do this, it is evil to saw. However, it has survived four years with a four-plus foot span, stuffed with computer manuals showing NO SAGGING!!

But it is pink and the room it lives in is now purple. Paint tips please! Thanks.

I am reminded of a rule a knitter friend told me. She only fixed mistakes that would be noticed by someone riding by on a galloping horse.

It annoys me when people rip apart the prose of books written to be read at a gallop. Yes, what the complainers are saying may be true, but they refuse to offer any appreciation for the staggering acheivement of writing the "galloping book."

I think the measure of artistic success as "making a living at it" is a terrible one.

I worked on a friend's documentary video a few years back. One of the women artists we interviewed insisted that we include the various hodgepodge of jobs she did to earn the money she lived on. She railed against the unfairness of "artists" who pranced through interviews, urging others to live the creative life, belittling those who worked for a living, while not revealing the trust funds, wealthy spouses, insurance settlements, etc. that allowed them to "live for their art."

Part of how these vanity presses succeed is because of the gulf between your local creative writing class and the publishing industry. Author's earnings are kept secret (to help maintain the illusion that they are doing this entirely for love, not money), therefore, the path towards becoming a professional writer seems strange and impossible. Publication becomes the barrier and goal, not writing work that connects with an audience.

All that said, I think I will use the CafePress option to run off reading copies of my mystery when it is done. Offering voracious readers a typeset and bound book (with questionnaire) seems less of an imposition.

As a AVH shopper for over 20 years, I'll be sorry to see it go. But... I haven't been there that often since I moved to the suburbs. I think one of the real things that has probably hurt them more than they know is Abebooks. If there is an out-of-print book I am looking for, I can just go online and get it. No months of spending hours hunting through used bookstores. Plus I'm buying from a small independent bookseller, just one in another town.

Seeing as I spend more time in Harvard Square rather than Newbury Street, I'd like to comment on the decline in Wordsworth Books. First, no overstock stacked on top of shelves. Then, more books facing out, top or bottom shelves removed. Now I go in and see that in both the mystery and sci-fi sections have whole shelving units removed. (Three apiece instead of four.) The place is often empty. But Harvard Bookstore is jumping. Lines before you buy, shelves fully stocked, great used selection downstairs.

Interesting how this happens. I remember Wordsworth as being the far more jumping spot ten years ago.

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