Monday, August 30, 2010

Paper Time Machines



is the Japanese kanji for tree or big.
Add a little line at its base and you have this kanji:
It means root or origin.
It also, not surprisingly means book.

A good book is like a hypodermic filled with inspiration that you use to stab yourself straight through to the brain vein.

A hook you bite with your eyes.
A book is a thing of transport.
A conveyor belt of black squiggles on white paper.
A roller coaster ride down a rabbit hole of words.
A good book is also a Time Machine.
That can fit into your back pocket.
And a Place machine too.
A passport.
A vacation you take from yourself.


The artists who comprise Kooza are all on some or other concurrent path while they deal with the stresses of tour life.
For many of us, in many different languages, one of th
e avenues of finding our own personal Mask of Satori lies in reading.






Here then, are a few of the books I have read in the last few months while on tour.
Or had read
to me as an audio book while I was putting on my make up under a pair of powder smeared headphones.

First, some job related fiction:



Then some Memoirs, both real and fictional:




The Millennium Trilogy:




Some pure (and dark) escapism:


And some non fiction:



There's even a Kooza Book Club.
We're currently reading Yann Martel's delightful Life of Pi
.

Plus, of course, various poems and plays.
No ebooks for me, I like my books made of trees.
But I do indulge in podcasts including:



WNYC RadioLab

Risk!

The Moth

Storylife



McLeod's Bookstore, Vancouver.


"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
Inside of a dog it's too dark to read."

-Groucho Marx



1 comment:

Nick Trotter said...

Nice list! Where's this Northwest Coast mask? Did you shoot the picture?