Wednesday, April 30, 2014

On “Archy & Mehitabel”: A Book Review


To end National Poetry Month a review of a book of poetry…
 

Title: Archy & Mehitabel 
Author: Don Marquis
Genre: Poetry

About the book….
Originally published as a newspaper column starting in 1916, Don Marquis’ Archy & Mehitabel is a collection of poetry written by a typewriting cockroach named Archy (formerly a poet), including poems about his friend the cat, Mehitabel (who claims to have once been Cleopatra).

What I think…
First of all, I found the idea of a cockroach using a typewriter very amusing. It’s not often that you find something like this in a book meant for adults and this is what actually caused me to pick it up in the first place. 

In sticking with the impression that a cockroach has written these  Marquis’ complete lack of capitalization (Archy can’t press the shift key) and punctuation do take some getting used to, but after the first couple of poems it was not a problem.

Another aspect I liked was that many of the poems are accompanied by delightful sketches by George Herriman. In multiple cases this added to the overall humor of the poems and it was fun to see how someone else envisioned parts of the poems.

However, while some of the poems were exceptionally enjoyable, such as “archy at the zoo” or “archy creates a situation,” others left me feeling rather disappointed. Poems about or partially in Mehitabel’s words became very similar and repetitive to the point where I was contemplating skipping some of them. Considering that these were not originally meant to be read as collection, I am guessing that this probably would not have annoyed me as much if they had been read in smaller sections at a time.

To sum it all up…
This is an interesting collection of poetry, but probably not one I’ll be reaching for on a regular basis. If you’re looking for a collection of quirky poems, though, this might just be the book for you.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

On Five Reasons Why I Love Libraries

As National Library Week comes to a close, I thought I’d share five reasons why I love libraries.
 

1. They have a wide variety of books for a wide range of interests. Long, short, picture, chapter, reference, old, new, fiction, non-fiction…name a hobby or interest and you’ll probably find something or at least something related!

2. Libraries are a place that any age level can enjoy. Whether you're old or young or in between, there's a book waiting for you.

3. If you read a lot, they save you both space and money.

4. You can come across books you might never have thought of reading otherwise.

5. They often offer all sorts of resources for the community aside from books.

♥ ♥

Monday, April 7, 2014

On Two Sewing Projects for this Month

A very short post for this evening...

For this month I have two sewing goals:

First, despite my hopes to have been finishing up my overalls by now, I’ve hardly done any sewing over the past month and my practice muslin isn’t entirely done. However, I think in the coming weeks I should have more time to work on them and get them done quickly.
In progress...
Second, I came across two of these delightful cotton towels in the clearance section of the craft store today!


Everything about them just seemed to say ‘take me home and sew me into something,’ so home with me they came. I think they will make a rather fetching summer dress or skirt, which I’m already brainstorming and sketching ideas for and will be sharing soon.