Crafting Mistakes

Hey y’all, this is Savannah from the Macon County Public Library.  You’ve seen some of my previous blogs which focus here and there on escapism.  Since March is National Craft Month, I get to talk about my most favorite “escapism” of all – craft time. In case you didn’t know, there’s a lot of truth …

Stepping Stones

A few weeks ago a riveting image showed up on my Facebook page. It was something like this: I was immediately captivated by the artist's style and searched out more images of  Syrian artist Nizar Ali Badr's work. It turns out some of his creations, which he shares mainly via Facebook, have been used to …

Calling all Nerds! – Healthy Escapism 101

I am a proud, card-carrying nerd.  While I am not a stereotype, I enjoy and appreciate all things geek (I do, after all, work in a library).  Over the years, my inner geek has taken a back seat to jobs, school, moves, and financial constraints, however, the geek is and will always be around, waiting …

Kanopy

To celebrate the newly kindled partnership between Fontana Regional Library and the video streaming service Kanopy, let’s explore a few of the classics that we now have access to. But first, what is Kanopy? Kanopy started as a DVD rental company in Australia in 2008 that distributed to national school libraries. As technology advanced and …

Picture books!

Occasionally, I have to meet new people. Even more occasionally (thank goodness), I will meet a new person who, upon learning that I work at a library, will say some version of, “I like books – if they have pictures in them!” They will then look at me expectantly with an expression of inane smugness, …

The Truth is Out There: 13 Documentary Films

We watch movies for many reasons.  To laugh and to cry, to be amazed and to see things blow up. Mainly we watch them to be entertained. But some films can do more than just entertain us. They can also educate us, and show us the world in new ways. Documentary films have been around …

Culture Club

By Amy Despite how badly I want to make all the jokes, you won't find any Boy George here! And I'm not just saying that to make you cry! The Culture Club is a new program at Macon County Public Library. Parents of the some of the littlest library patrons mentioned that it would be …

Strange on Our Shelves

Chris:  Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff, is unquestionably a weird book.  It is shaped weird, tall and narrow, with oddly rounded pages.  The cover is bright yellow and has an image of a monkey on the front that is reminiscent of an ink blot.  But if we were only concerned with the physical properties of …

The Voynich Manuscript

By Loretta I love a good mystery - but not the kind written by Agatha Christie.  I prefer the kinds that exist in the world, many of them defying explanation.  And there are lots of them.  Sometime ago, I stumbled on one I hadn’t heard mentioned before, the Voynich Manuscript.  Of course, the first thing …

A Harvest of Art

By Loretta I don’t care who built them - I love crop circles.  They’re beautiful.  Period. That said, though, I do not believe they were built, sometimes in an hour or even less, by someone with a treadle and two ropes - or even a few people with treadles and ropes.  Pull the other one; …