I want to learn the art of hacking up old books nobody loves anymore and making them into things of beauty... very much like this:
Or this...
And this...
A man could lose many hours of the day doing something like this - and aside from a little swordplay, almost everything else I do involves a screen. It looks complicated but it can't be insanely off-the-scale difficult because other people do it!
Consider it under investigation... but don't hold your breath over seeing any of my own paper carnage anytime soon. This might take some time.
Yesterday, I was digging around, taking a look at what cultural nourishment I could take in on a literary level in New York and discovered an event called The Franklin Park Reading Series out in Brooklyn.
So far as I can make out - and I believe my workings out to be pretty accurate - once a month, the event plays host to various up and coming writers (local and global) who then ummm... read. They've played host to writers like Kelly Link and John Wray and each event has a raffle in which people can walk away with books and literary merch.
I'm going to check it out while I'm out there - it falls at the right time - but then, I started thinking harder. Surely it's not a difficult thing to run? The concept is sound and while the South East of England may not be New York City, neither is it that far out of London to make it something feasible to get off the ground with a good chance of success.
Thus, this coming weekend, I shall begin scouting out some likely venues - I have two really good places in mind. There's no point sitting around and wishing there was a similar kind of platform. It looks very much to me like it's one of those things you need to get off your ass and actually do something about.
Sounds like a plan, right?
On a (slightly) similar note, one of the people who keeps track of things like this is Kate Gavin. She runs a tumblr called Last Night's Reading - go check it out - you'll know in about two minutes if it's something you'll get a kick out of in the long term.
Here's a clue simply because it's one of my favourites - and I agree with the statement itself one hundred percent.
That's about all I got today... be cool to each other.