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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Books Reading Today

Posted by Paul Constant on Sat, Oct 31, 2009 at 10:10 AM

One reading today, and it is not Hallo-themed.

Amy Whitaker, who has worked for every major museum in the world except for Seattle's own Olde Curiosity Shop, reads from her new book Museum Legs: Fatigue and Hope in the Face of Art at Elliott Bay Book Company. Here's what the book is about:

Museum Legs—taken from a term for art fatigue—starts with a question: Why do people get bored and tired in art museums and why does that matter? As Whitaker writes in this humorous and incisive collection of essays, museums matter for reasons that have less to do with art as we know it and more to do with business, politics, and the age-old question of how to live. Maybe the great age of museums will yet be a great age of creativity and hopeful possibility in everyday life.

I had never heard the term museum legs before. Delightful! I wonder if there's an equivalent for people who attend too many bookstore events. Readings ass?

The full readings calendar, including the next week or so, is here. And if you're planning on staying in and you're looking for personalized book recommendations, feel free to tell me the books you like and ask me what to read next over at Questionland.

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"Readers ass" is a mite vuglar for bookish sorts, so let's put aside an anatomical phrase and go ethnic and apply a Yiddish term: "readers shpilkes." Shpilkes translates as "needles" and in the phrase "zitsn oyf shpilkes" means sitting on pins and needles. My wife, who comes from a Jewish family, abreviates this phrase and just says she has the shpilkes when she feels fidgety after sitting too long.

Posted by FreudianShrimp on October 31, 2009 at 11:23 AM