Back at the Library
This was meant for you ★ please read
Weekly Digest, September 6th 2025
After going to the library to write about it for last week’s post I came home with an armful of books and knew that I had much more to say about the matter. So this will be a Weekly Digest: Library Edition. Let me introduce you to my stack of books.
Favorites:
Ed Emberley. When my brother and I were little we absolutely adored the Ed Emberley drawing books. They are step-by-step guides on how to draw things the way Ed does (who by the way is about to turn 94 and is still drawing!). My favorite was the Make a World book because pretty much anything you could possibly think of was in there — you could quite literally create your own world, and populate it, and employ and house its inhabitants. My library branch doesn’t seem to have that one anymore though so I brought home Trucks and Trains. Sitting down at my desk, I took out my sketchbook and filled a page with these tiny, dear, familiar illustrations and my heart was happy.
A passion for books, and an interest in making them. In lieu of new year’s resolutions I tend to make lists of things I’d very much like to do each year… which is more or less the same thing… okay maybe it’s exactly the same thing. Fine. I am one of those new year’s resolution people. Anyway, for Christmas last year I was gifted a book binding kit (straight from my wishlist, and big thanks to my little bro-in-law). It’s on my 2025 list to start making books - something I’m really excited about. So why don’t I do it? I think it’s that I’m so excited about it that it intimidates me and I keep pushing it off. But as autumn approaches I must face the facts, the year is going to begin to end and I won’t have made a single book. Soooo I’m gonna do it. I grabbed this fantastic book off the shelves at the library to help me get inspired because the sort of books I want to make are picture books. Not picture books for children though, more like one-of-a-kind art-object books of paintings with words for adults. The genre doesn’t really roll off the tongue but you get my vision. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in picture books! It’s a very detailed yet digestible look into their history, themes, techniques, the psychology behind them, and lots more. An informational and visual feast.
I figured that a good first step to making books would be to bind an extremely simple sketchbook just to get my hands on the materials, so that’s what I’ve done.
Journals as art, and a peek into the lives of others. This is a book that I discovered a while ago and went looking for again because it’s super inspiring. I don’t remember when I borrowed it last, but as I sit writing this, the open book beside me on the couch, my eyes fall on a barely perceptible transparent post-it note with a penciled underline. It shocks me to see it because I suddenly realize that it was me who put it there, so many months ago, maybe a year, to underline a Joan Didion quote in the preface. How funny to find such a note from my own past self which I had completely forgotten about tucked into a book that isn’t mine. Speaking of post-its, possibly my favorite spread in this book (which is a collection of visual journals from all different sorts of creators) is this one of Idelle Weber’s planner pages covered in drawings of faces she did on many colored post-it notes. It’s like she tiled the surface of her days in expressions. The effect is beyond interesting. My eyes linger on each drawing, then ping as if in a pinball machine from this one to that, swirling around and never losing interest. Idelle Weber created work in many styles and mediums throughout her career, including her iconic photo realistic oil paintings of trash. Looking through the catalogue on her website, one in particular of cardboard boxes captured my attention.
Idelle Weber calendar pages with post-it drawings 
Gary Brown sketchbook, Robert Parkeharrison sketchbook and photographs 
Boston Lettuce, Idelle Weber, 1974, Oil on canvas
Quote that I underlined:
“...I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. We forget the loves and the betrayals alike, forget what we whispered and what we screamed, forget who we were.”
― Joan Didion, Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Letter From a Stranger: While thinking of what library-related letter I might share this week I recalled having seen something a long time ago about a librarian who kept a log of everything she found between the pages of returned books. I looked it up and was delighted at what I found. Since 2013 (when the librarian Sharon McKellar had the genius idea), the Oakland Public Library has been recording everything they find inside their books and adding them to a digital log on their website. They scan each found item, give it a title, and categorize it. It feels like a museum of commonplace treasures, which is sort of what I want this publication to feel like, so obviously I love it. Here are a few of the ones that caught my eye.
Painting: Another book from my stack was a collection of essays by Julian Barnes called Keeping an Eye Open. I almost didn’t bring it home with me because the writing style isn’t my favorite, but when I saw that he had an essay on Pierre Bonnard and one on Édouard Vuillard I knew I absolutely had to read them. In the Bonnard essay, Barnes calls A Corner of the Table “one of the most discreetly alarming pictures of the century.” A statement which I questioned and which made me look longer and deeper at the painting until I thought I understood. So maybe I was won over by the writing style after all.
Food: Carrot muffins with honey and chai. When September hits the only sensible thing to do is begin to put cinnamon in everything. Though it’s a bit early for pumpkin, the combination of carrot, apple, and cinnamon in a muffin is, I’m finding, the best way to usher in the blessed season of baked goods. Also I just love the way the shredded carrot looked like a festive bowl of confetti.
What have you brought home from the library recently? I’d love to hear all about it.
Until next time,
Annie your writing, your sharing always gives me so much joy. I think it s the way you observe things and turn a light on them making them beautiful, or interesting. Your posts are a treasure trove of delightfulness . Thank you.