The Book Shopper

Mini-review: Robert Craig's Lecture at the Decatur Public Library

Where & When: Decatur Public Library Auditorium on May 23, 2012. Sponsored by the Georgia Center for the Book.

 Attendance: ~40 people with so many architects and preservationists present that Robert M. Craig, a professor emeritus of architectural history at the Georgia Institute of Technology, quipped that he was quite intimidated by the distinguished audience (excluding me, of course).

What He Read: Craig didn't read. Instead he presented an extensive slide show based on his new book from the University of Georgia Press, The Architecture of Francis Palmer Smith: Atlanta's Scholar Architect. For a half a century, Francis Palmer Smith (1886-1971) either designed or influenced dozens of commercial buildings, hotels, elegant homes and churches. Smith was the first department head of the Georgia Institute of Technology's architecture program.

Why I Went: I've always had an interest in history, architecture and gorgeously printed books like Architecture. Craig is correct in saying his book is no coffee table book – though it has over 400 color and black and white photos. The book is chocked full of building descriptions and detailed history about the architecture and architects of Atlanta. I especially liked the appendix that has the list of all the houses, buildings, and churches including addresses where you can drive by and see them for yourself. (Shown at the top of the posting is the Druid Hills First Presbyterian Church on Ponce De Leon Avenue built in 1939-40. And don't worry, Craig's photos are much better than mine.)

What Craig Talked About: Everything. The lecture was divided into four parts: 1.) The early influences of the Ecole des Beaux-Art on Smith ( who grew up in Cincinnati and studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania). 2.) Smith's partnership with another influential Atlanta architect, Robert Pringle. (1922-1934), which included many beautiful homes – many in the Druid Hills area. 3.) Smith's commercial work which began with Pringle and included hotels and Coca-cola bottle plants all over the Southeast. The bottling plant construction supported Smith's work during The Great Depression. 4.) Smith's design of churches including his crowning achievement, The Cathedral of St. Philip, here in Atlanta. Preliminary sketches were began in 1937, but the church wasn't built until 1960-62.

 

The Trouble with Book Shopping

The trouble with book shopping is the exhausting work of having to move them, which is what I did last weekend.

Shown here is my older daughter Cynthia after we packed about ten boxes of books out of her graduate school office at Harvard.

 

 

MARTA Book Club #19: Yes, It Exists

The other day I was reading Gabriel Zaid's fine book about the pitfalls of author-as-celebrity worship, The Secret of Fame: The Literary Encounter is an Age of Distraction (2008), and a young man sitting next to me stares unabashedly at the cover of my book. I look up and I was slightly taken aback, because in book spotting, there is a unwritten rule of viewer discretion. So the man says to me, “I am always interested in finding out what people are reading.” I show him the Zaid book and told him that there is a secret brotherhood and sisterhood of readers and riders called The MARTA Book Club.

 “Really, you mean there is a MARTA book club!?!” he asked.

I gave him the website address, (just type MARTA Book Club in Google) and you can find us. The only membership requirement is to read a book while riding Atlanta public transportation.There are no meeting times, no organizational rules, no t-shirts, and no dues. Very convenient.

 What We Have Been Reading

It's been a couple months since our last MARTA Book Club compilation (see the links category for all the lists) and there is much reading on the train to report. We regret since we cannot determine the title, electronic books are not tabulated. Here's the last offerings:

Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger

Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences (Inside Technology) by Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery by Eric Foner

Home: A Memoir of My Early Years by Julie Andrews

Agent X by Noah Boyd

Living Crazy Love: An Interactive Workbook for Individual or Small-Group Study by Francis Chan and Mark Beuving

Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Finding the Favor of God: A Discovery That Will Change Your Life by Ronnie W. Floyd

The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law: A Case Study of the National Service Bill by Stephan Waldman

Research Methods in Information by Alison Jane Pickard

Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood

Schism and Continuity in an African Society a Study of Ndembu Village Life by Victor Turner and Bruce Kapferer

God Speaks to Me: Stories of Triumph Over Tragedy from Women Who Listened to God by Valerie Love

It by Stephen King

Structure in Architecture: The Building of Buildings by Mario George Salvadori

Susanna's Choice by Sara Luck

Elizabeth Taylor: The Last Star by Kitty Kelley

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (thanks Emily Britt)

The Boss's Survival Guide by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcrow and Alan Levins

Sample Book Art in Decatur

This next week if you're in downtown Decatur and you like books, check out the Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur's book arts exhibit, Wallbound. The exhibit opened in March (how did I miss it?!?! I walk past the building all the time) and closes Monday, May 14th , so don't delay. Wallbound features the work of 23 local, national and international artists who accepted the challenge of creating of  book art that had to be hung on a wall. The gallery coordinator Angus Galloway,  Institute faculty members Jerushia Graham and Alicia Griswold, all who are bookmakers, artists  and paper makers as well, curated the exhibit. (Gallery hours are at the end of this article.)

Wallbound is an exquisite mini-celebration of the book and serves as a reminder that books are something we can touch and hold and enjoy visually. (Insert your disparaging comment about e-readers here.)

Books can also have a narrative that extends beyond the content. For example, in Claire Siepser's, Survivor Jacket (collage, lower right) she has transferred photocopied book jackets of plant and insect guides to  a Size 6 field jacket to create something that practically belongs in a L.L. Bean catalog.   Another artist who also appreciates word play and fashion is Johanna Renbeck. Her wearable book -- made from curly paper leaves is called Every Leaf (collage, center) and another wearable book – a tiled breast plate -  both belong on the runway, albeit at the American Library Association fashion show.

The geometric properties of words are investigated in Ruth Bardenstein's Geometry/Galileo, a large digital print on mylar, (partially shown, in the lower left). At first, the large print looks like abstract wallpaper from a chic boutique, but when your gaze deepens, letters emerge and then you begin to read the embedded words as well. (I appreciate the gallery permitting me to take these photographs even though they were warned ahead of time, that my camera skills are limited. )