An Extremely Literary Week: BEA, Housing Works, and Shakespeare

I have just had possibly the most literary week of my life (outside of majoring in English at university), and it was spectacular. Here are some of the highlights:

BookExpo America

This is the annual trade fair for publishing in the US (which also attracts a lot of foreign exhibitors). As I did last year, I borrowed a pass from one of my coworkers and attended the fair for a few hours on Thursday. I got to gawk at the exhibits, catch up with some former colleagues, and grab a pile of galleys that I'm very excited to dive into (not literally):

And parked right in the Javits Center was the Penguin truck!

The moment I spotted this reminded me of being seven years old again, watching the ice cream truck come around the corner. (Maybe I was a weird kid.)

Housing Works Book Fair

Over the weekend, I volunteered at the Housing Works Book Fair. It's a great organization -- all proceeds from the bookstore go towards combating homelessness and AIDS. They have a street fair every summer where used books and media are sold very cheaply ($1 books!), with food, live music, and other festivities. There were pavilions full of books, which I was helping stock:

And at the end of the day, there were still boxes upon boxes of books remaining, so we constructed a great wall of books along the sidewalk (from which the books were loaded onto a truck):

Shakespeare in the Park

Tonight, my friend Deb won tickets to Much Ado About Nothing, the first play of this summer's Shakespeare in the Park. I adore Shakespeare, and though I've entered the lottery for (free!) tickets many times, I've never won. I was thrilled to finally be able to partake of this New York summer tradition, and it was every bit as excellent as I expected. I'd forgotten how funny Much Ado About Nothing really is (I read it years ago), and it's so much better live than it is on the page. I can't wait for King Lear during the second half of the season!

And that was my week. I'm looking forward to more literary pursuits in the coming months!

NYTimes: Instant Ramen Saves Lives

In college (and in bachelor pads everywhere), cup noodles often become a dietary staple. Any sort of instant food, but especially instant ramen, is generally not good for the body, as it is usually full of preservatives, artificial flavoring, and the like. Make no mistake -- I have a box of ramen sitting in my closet right now. It's not a completely terrible thing; it's actually pretty decent as far as junk food goes. It's just not something one should consume too often.

This article, however, vindicates instant noodles for a completely different cause (certainly a much better one than college students pulling all-nighters):

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/weekinreview/20noodles.html?ref=asia

Cup noodles for tsunami relief! (I wouldn't mind sending my box of ramen to Japan and buying something more like carrot sticks. Also, Japanese cup noodles are probably a sight healthier than what we have here.)

The Breaking Light (Vienna Teng)

Vienna Teng/Alex Wong have a new single out! (It's been out for a while, but I only just realized that I neglected to mention it.) It can be found on Alex's website:

http://alexwong.bandcamp.com/track/the-breaking-light-live-at-yoshis

All proceeds go to disaster relief in Japan, so go get yourself some awesome music and help out the Japanese!

Another cool tidbit: it was recorded live (with a bit of audience participation), and I, along with a number of Stanford friends, were at the show at which they recorded it. *grins*

Donate via Text Message to Help Japan

 Note (03/12): Because this is an actionable item, this post will stay at the top of the blog for a week.

I'm sure you all know about the situation in Japan right now. Here are a few quick and easy ways to help:

Text "REDCROSS" to 90999 -- donates $10 to Red Cross efforts
Text "TSUNAMI" to 50555 -- donates $10 to Convoy of Hope efforts
Text "JAPAN" or "QUAKE" to 80888 -- donates $10 to Salvation Army efforts

R.I.P. R. Sargent Shriver

The obituary article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/us/politics/19shriver.html?hp

He is best known as the founder of the Peace Corps. My interest in him and the organization he built is that I've considered, and still am considering, applying to the Peace Corps. My parents, as one may imagine, would not be best pleased.

Rest you now in peace, Mr. Shriver, knowing that you have done a great thing, a greater and more wonderful thing than most mortal men can claim for their legacy.

BBC: Tiger Team Marks Twenty Years of Conflict Resolution

One of the biggest problems facing wildlife conservationists today is human-predator conflict -- not the one-sided conflict between poachers and game, but rather that of ordinary villagers faced with large carnivores that venture ever-deeper into human territory, because they have nowhere else to go, by virtue of the destruction of their natural habitats and human encroachment onto their natural lands. Often, such stand-offs result in aggressive measures on the part of the human villagers, including resurgence of poaching in areas that would otherwise not engage in such activities.

This Russian Tiger Response Team reduces the instances of aggressive retaliation by giving villages recourse -- they deal with tigers in a humane, safe, and effective way -- and have been doing so for twenty years:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9313000/9313098.stm

It's heartening to see. 

NYTimes: Gifts of Hope

As Christmas Day draws near, many last-minute shoppers are scrambling to buy the gifts they have forgotten to get. This is my public service announcement, in more ways than one -- here are some options you might consider, ones that would benefit more than just the recipient:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/opinion/19kristof.html?src=me&ref=general

Today is World Animal Day, and the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi

It's pretty self-explanatory: it's basically a day to spread awareness of conservation efforts and animal rights, observed by a variety of organizations (such as animal shelters, wildlife conservation groups, schools, churches, &c.) as well as individuals from all walks of life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Animal_Day

Interestingly enough, it is no coincidence that today is also the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the much-beloved Italian monk who founded the monastic order that bears his name, and who is the patron saint of animals, nature, and the environment at large. He's another of my favorite saints; I tend to prefer the ones, I find, who did great and charitable works out of compassion and love, rather than merely being martyred for their conviction in their faith. (The exception would be saints who had particularly witty last words; see St. Lawrence.)

NYTimes: Unlikely Tutor Giving Military Afghan Advice

This is wonderful. It's extremely promising. For once, someone's getting something right in the Middle East:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/18/world/asia/18tea.html?ref=books

Greg Mortenson, of Three Cups of Tea fame, is a great person to have onboard with regard to Afghan strategy. He's someone -- and probably one of the only Americans on the ground -- who's not only concerned with America winning the war, but with the ordinary people of the area winning the war. Here is a man who can advocate for them, for these people whose cause few others would step up to champion, who commands enough respect in America to make a difference for these people where they themselves cannot. I'm glad he's there, and I'm glad the military (and especially the military wives who pushed for him) is listening to him.

Incidentally, one of our imprints publishes Three Cups of Tea. I already read it, or I would have snagged a copy.

NYTimes: The Dalai Lama, on Tolerance and Interfaith Relations

This is a must-read. If you read nothing else today, read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/opinion/25gyatso.html?hp

This is a religious leader. Gosh, why can't the Pope, or the Ayatollah, or whomever, be a bit more like him? There's a reason why he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and the rest of them didn't.

The Dalai Lama has other issues, of course -- among them is probably a surfeit of impractical, religiously-derived idealism -- but the sentiment expressed in this particular article is one that today's world sorely needs.

NYTimes: Pay-What-You-Want Restaurants

A rather intriguing concept:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/us/21free.html?hp

I like the idea very much (especially as a psychological experiment), but the implementation is necessarily very limited. It would only work, methinks, in relatively affluent neighborhoods (particularly in the current economic climate), where the average adult earned enough money to live comfortably without much debt -- the upper middle class, at least. The "working for food" option seems sound, as well, but it only fulfills the needs of a few people; it's unsustainable in poorer areas.

Still, it's a beautiful idea.

Petition to Save New York Public Libraries

Note (05/28): Because this is an actionable item, I'm keeping it at the top of the blog for the next week or two.

Edit (06/01): Quit Facebook Day having ended, this post returns to the top for a few more days.

Edit (06/03): My sincere thanks to anyone who petitioned, for your support for literacy in New York.

New York City is facing (more) budget cuts. The city government is considering cutting funding for the public library system. Considering the state of education in New York (and in the country at large), squeezing public libraries is not the best way to save money -- the societal cost is just too great.

Please sign this e-petition to reject budget cuts for, and closure of, public libraries in New York (even if you're not a New Yorker):

http://dontclosethebook.nypl.org/action?hpfeature=1

Spread the word.

This means a lot to me, personally, as well. I'm a lifelong, incurable bibliophile, and I would hate to see libraries close in my home city. My thanks to my dear friend Weily for bringing this to my attention, and also to everyone who petitions.

FreeRice.com: Alleviate World Hunger While Expanding Your Vocabulary

It's a great concept. Basically, you complete multiple choice vocabulary questions, and for each one you get right, ten grains of rice are donated. It doesn't seem like much, but if there are enough people playing, it adds up. It takes about 7000 grains of rice to fill a cup: get twenty people to complete a piddling 35 questions a day, and you've fed somebody in the world, and improved the usage of the English language -- everyone wins!

http://www.freerice.com

TOMS: A Model for Humanitarian Entrepreneurship

Their mission statement is "With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. One for one."

http://www.toms.com

Rather than asking for donations, of either money or shoes (which are the primary models for such efforts), TOMS charges enough per pair to cover the costs of an additional pair being donated. It's an absolutely brilliant idea; it gives customers a tangible, useful object for their money (which is the exact object being donated), and is a self-sustainable business model.

The shoes themselves are also rather pretty. I'm particularly fond of this pair and this pair, which is characteristically (for my tastes) very brightly colored. (Yes, I'm a bit of a child at heart. It's not a bad thing, really.)