David W.

  • Unleash your inner librarian!

    What are the odds? The brand spanking new Library of Congress subject heading for “Public Libraries – California – anecdotes’” is getting quite a workout. In the past six months we have seen the publication of two humorous memoirs by librarians in the Los Angeles area: Don Borchert’s Free For All: Oddballs, Geeks and Gangstas… Continue reading

  • Attack of the Evil Scary Children!

    Quick: what is more frightening than circus clowns? Okay, sure – scary dolls with eyes that follow you across the room are even worse – but what can strike fear into the hearts of even creepy clowns and disconcerting dolls? Children – that’s what! Don’t think children are scary? Here are some books and movies that might just have you thinking otherwise.   The Bad Seed,… Continue reading

  • Strangeness in the Stacks

    One of the best things about working in a big library that has been around for a century or so is all the odd and curious old titles one stumbles over in our own vast collection. If you want a sense of what I’m talking about, check out Russell Ash & Brian Lake’s Bizarre Books: A Compendium of… Continue reading

  • The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

    One of my favorite books in our poetry section isn’t a book of poetry at all. Richard Hugo’s The Triggering Town gathers nine brief lectures, essays and “sentimental reminiscences” by the beloved Seattle writer. I’m not a poet and I don’t plan to become one, but Hugo’s ideas are so wise and clear, and his humor and candor… Continue reading

  • The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton

    Hamilton’s best-known title is Hangover Square, but I think that the recently re-printed The Slaves of Solitude may be a better introduction to his genius to most readers, with its more measured, benevolent view of human folly and its sympathetic heroine — the sober, bewildered Miss Roach. Having fled the bombings, Roach returns from London each night to a boarding house in a quiet suburb where she… Continue reading

  • Flash Contest: Win Tickets to Marjane Satrapi!

    Shelf Talk has two tickets to An Evening with Marjane Satrapi at The Moore Theatre, this coming Monday, April 14, @ 7:30 PM. Marjane Satrapi is a critically acclaimed writer and comic artist who is best known for her film Persepolis, nominated for a 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Satrapi does an autobiographical talk… Continue reading

  • Tesla in the air!

    Every so often, someone will approach me at the library and ask for information about Nikola Tesla, often in the kind of knowing way that people ask about Bigfoot or aliens, rather than a scientist and inventor. Occasionally they’ll bend close and add in hushed tones that they want the straight dope about his death… Continue reading

  • Free Books @ the library!

    In what some have called a daring and radical departure from the successful business models of Barnes & Noble, Netflix and iTunes, The Seattle Public Library is loaning books, DVDs and music free of charge to anyone with a library card. In a scheme well-calculated to take advantage of the current thrift craze (or cheap… Continue reading

  • Cool Site: Overbooked

    Websites aimed at readers are often labors of love created by people who would really rather be reading, and so even the most promising sites come and go with unsettling rapidity.  So when a site like Overbooked.org sticks around for a dozen years, it is something to celebrate.  Years before metacritic or bookmarks magazine began summarizing critical consensus from the vast array of book… Continue reading

  • The Wire finale: now what? (A reading list).

    Okay, so it is over.  Case closed. After five captivating years, HBO’s lauded series The Wire calls it a wrap. Now what do we do? Aside from chain-watching DVDs of the series (and its excellent Baltimore precursor, Homicide: Life on the Street), we’re seeing a lot of Wire fans in withdrawal are turning to books to prolong the feeling. This… Continue reading

  • His time has (finally) come?

    There’s something in the air this President’s Day. Call it Millard Fillmania. You’ve probably all seen the recent car commercial offering a soap-on-a-rope effigy of the forgotten statesman touted to be the first to take a bath in the White House. (This oft-repeated “fact” was actually a sly hoax perpetrated by H.L. Mencken, by the way). Then there’s John Blumenthal’s… Continue reading

  • Big Sky Best Bet

    Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. We librarians have certain prized-yet-little-known titles that we return to again and again when suggesting books to readers. Over the years I have recommended Montana, 1948 so many times to readers that I felt the need to go back and give it another read, just to make sure I still… Continue reading