I MISS CONNECTING WITH SOME PEOPLE ON ‘FACEBOOK’. It was a good place to make and keep connections. But I quit over their giving Trump a million dollars. They’d donated much more to good causes and even cancelled Trump after January 6. They must have lost more people than me with that million dollars. Stupid move it seems. But what do I know. I find I don’t miss the time spent checking Facebook. I would go to it too often. If I have a gripe about Facebook it’s the cliques that form. You’re in or you’re out. I’m out now. 

 EVERY DAY a.m. 7:00-10:00. Nothing like it. C-SPAN. 

NO SIGN HELD BY ME THIS MORNING. I’m being a slacker I think. I didn’t go today or last week or tomorrow. I met a guy for breakfast. I still could have done that after holding my sign. I’m restless without that weekday calling. It gave purpose. Soon again. 

 

A VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH HAN KANG, Nobel Prize winning writer. Her writing is different maybe better than anyone I’ve read. ‘Human Acts’ especially. 

https://youtu.be/tQTI6bV0waE?si=GSlj4mSvGJCWl26W

 

JAMES BALDWIN WRITES of “crossing Fifth Avenue on my way to the Forty-second street library, and the cop in the middle of the avenue muttered, as I passed him, Why don’t you niggers stay uptown where you belong?”

 

UP EARLY, WENT OUT TO BREAKFAST. Joe Jr’s. 5 blocks down 3rd Avenue. Warm place. Everybody working there is from Mexico. Meeting a guy there for breakfast tomorrow. Early breakfast brings out other guys with white hair. 

A LIVELY VIDEO INTERVIEW with ELLE FANNING who I really knew nothing about until her important part in ‘A Complete Unknown’:

https://youtu.be/Tw53uAAO3GA?si=3P-OH7-EsNRYOBvj

WYOMING THREE GRANDDAUGHTERS. Photo sent to me. Senior in HS on the left. Center is a sophomore. On the right 8th grade. All public school. Town is just 10,000. Millions of tourists though: Skiing and national parks. NYC cousins came there yesterday. I’m here wondering if I’ll go out for breakfast like I did yesterday; blueberry pancakes are alluring. 

JUST A FEW PICTURES OF MY TWIN 16-YEAR-OLD GRANDCHILDREN who live here. You’ve seen some of the pix. Three are in their elevator before we went down the street for dinner the night before Christmas. The other three which you may have seen are at that dinner. I have time on my hands, so here they are. They left for Wyoming today to see their cousins, and my daughter and husband, and the two dogs. 

BOB DYLAN’S NOBEL PRIZE SPEECH: 

https://youtu.be/Bi3Ws2Qm8ck?si=7jTS2qb9c8cRiN81

 

LATE THIS AFTERNOON I went and saw the Bob Dylan movie. I liked it. Quite a bit. Movies aren’t real, so why would this one be. It made some points. Elle Fanning was very good. Ed Norton too. I had to look down at the floor while a half dozen previews were shown. Each was terrible and noisy. I don’t really go to movies anymore. I don’t even watch them online. They are about young people’s concerns. I liked this one though. 

 

I MET THE TWO NYC DAUGHTERS and twin grandchildren two nights ago. And again yesterday. After I came back to my apartment yesterday they decided they’d go to the Dylan movie. The oldest daughter gave it a 9 out of 10. The other a 7.5/8.0. The twins gave it an 8. I think I’ll go see it today. It was a nice two days with them all.

 Photos of the twins at dinner Tuesday night. 

 

THE TRAIN FROM CHICAGO TO NEW YORK, the ‘Lake Shore Limited’, was like 7 hours late. I didn’t get to bed until 1:00 a.m. Slept—sort of—till about 9:00.  Went to CVS and got one holiday card, some Dr. Scholl’s insoles for my new sneakers, and some batteries for a clock that ran out while I was away. Will see two daughters and twin grandchildren tonight, and tomorrow. Will we see the Dylan movie tomorrow?  Oldest daughter suggested it a couple weeks ago. Other daughter can’t stand the guy who plays Dylan. Happy Holidays. 

Photo is from Cleveland Amtrak station. 

 

THE TRAIN BACK TO NEW YORK IS FIVE HOURS LATE FROM CHICAGO. The freight train ahead of it had problems. I’m at the Amtrak station in Cleveland right by the stadium where the Browns play. I’d rather sit here and look at faces than sit on a couch in a living room. 

The photo is of homes across the street from where I stayed. Some doubles, like one I stayed in.

LAST DAY. SUNDAY. HOUSE NEXT DOOR LAST NIGHT. 

HAD MEALS WITH TWO GOOD FRIENDS TODAY. Cold here. Here is a photo this evening of a house on the street where I’m staying. 

I HAD A GOOD LONG BREAKFAST WITH TWO FORMER ‘EDITION’ GUYS YESTERDAY MORNING in Lakewood. One guy brought some old copies of the paper. Mostly we talked about now and Trump. They each drove over. I haven’t driven in six years or so. If I did, I’d see more of you. I never drive in NYC. I never do here because I just don’t. Two of us tried to convince Eric Broder he should write stuff like he used to. I had blueberry pancakes and some scrambled eggs. To extend the get-together I had a piece of cherry pie. It was non-stop good talk. We’ll do it again.

The photo is from the wonderfully busy living room where I’m staying. 

 

I SPENT TWELVE HOURS ON THE TRAIN. I hardly slept worried that I’d miss my 3:40 a.m. arrival in Cleveland. I’d worried that way every time I’d taken the train from New York. Many many times. There were so many Amish on the train.  My friend picked me up as he always does. We went to a 24-hour place and had breakfast. He droppped me off at a younger guy’s place where I was staying. He forgot to leave the door unlocked. In the dark cold I had to tap loudly on bedroom windows. 30 minutes of that before the woman he lives with came and opened the door. 

That’s a photo out the train window somewhere just outside New York.

 

IT’S 11:00 IN THE MORNING AND I’M AT THE LIBRARY. I was going to blow it off because I’m taking a train to Cleveland later today. But you can’t blow things off. Not things that do something for you. I went downtown and held the sign this morning. That does something for me even on a gray day like today. 

I have two books and two magazines in my backpack. I get into Cleveland way early. 

 

I CAME OVER TO THE LIBRARY at noon when it opens on Monday. My glasses were wet with raindrops when I got here. The rain kept me from holding my sign early this morning though I went down to the spot I hold it in case it wasn’t raining there. It was and I got right back on the train. That changes my mornings. I got my coffee at 7-Eleven an hour earlier. I made my daily oatmeal an hour earlier too. My plate of blueberries too. I looked at my computer. No Facebook which I miss, and I don’t. I looked at the New York Times which I get online. I waited a while and ordered book gift certificates for family members. I read a text that said a Wyoming granddaughter went with a friend and that friend’s mom to hear Billie Eilish who I sense from my YouTube obsession is a huge deal. Kids have their own world. Like we did.

 So, if I quit Facebook because the owner sucked up to Trump despite the millions Zuckerberg and his wife have given to good causes, I have to stop going to Whole Foods too. Bezos gave a million to Trump too. I’ll live. 

 I QUIT FACEBOOK TWO DAYS AGO. It bothered me that the owner was giving Trump a million dollars. I loved Facebook. And I’ll miss my friends there. Tell any of your friends to email me their email address and I’ll put them on this site. I plan to be more active. gunlockeb@yahoo.com. Thanks. 

Washington DC steels itself for Trump’s ‘takeover’: ‘We’re in for a bumpy ride’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/dec/14/washington-dc-trump

 

 cityReader  #70.  

 

Haruki Murakami: ‘My books have been criticised so much over the years, I don’t pay much attention’

John Self

As his new novel is published, the acclaimed author discusses complexity, writing female characters and meeting his fans

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/23/haruki-murakami-my-books-have-been-criticised-so-much-over-the-years-i-dont-pay-much-attention

 

Journalist and Collector Nikole Hannah-Jones Leads Tour of 1619 Project Art Exhibition at the Brooklyn Public Library

https://apple.news/AUcV6VzeBTPGug2bbuZ5cIw

 

Report—from England—finds ‘shocking and dispiriting’ fall in children reading for pleasure

National Literacy Trust finds only 35% of eight to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their spare time, a sharp drop on last year to the lowest figure yet recorded

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/05/report-fall-in-children-reading-for-pleasure-national-literacy-trust

 

FINALLY WILL READ THIS. Bought it today. 

 

‘I emerged painfully transformed from her books’: Han Kang readers on her Nobel literature prize

From penetrating words to images that linger in the mind, Han Kang readers tell us what her work means to them

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/oct/15/i-emerged-painfully-transformed-from-her-books-han-kang-readers-on-her-nobel-literature-prize

 

Beyond The Tipping Point: Malcolm Gladwell on Covid, Trump and what he got wrong

Sophie McBain

Twenty-five years after his bestselling debut, the author has updated it for ‘a more anxious age’. So which of his theories stood the test of time – and what does he find ‘embarrassing’ to read now?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/sep/28/beyond-the-tipping-point-malcolm-gladwell-on-covid-trump-and-what-he-got-wrong

 

For the first time, Hong Kong imprisons a journalist for sedition
. 

The Stand News editors are the first journalists to be convicted of sedition in Hong Kong as China seeks to crush dissent and remake the city in its image.

https://apple.news/A5rv6LqBaS9OSKs5tqLyN8A

 

Smuggled out of a Santa Monica safe, the top-secret documents that changed American history

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-09-14/smuggled-out-of-a-santa-monica-safe-the-top-secret-documents-that-changed-american-history

Elizabeth Strout on 'Mrs. Dalloway' and the Book That Broke Her Heart

The award-winning author of Olive Kitteridge and Tell Me Everything takes our literary survey.

https://apple.news/ALurWdUxeQu-lE6QuBbnjFA

 

Forced to close in China, a beloved bookstore finds a new home — in D.C.


Jifeng Bookstore’s journey from Shanghai to Dupont Circle spanned six years and seven thousand miles.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/09/04/chinese-bookstore-dc-jifeng-books/

 

‘The point is to exist’: W. Paul Coates on his decades running Black Classic Press

Coates has been named the winner of the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award

https://apple.news/AaAF7tQmUSruwe-JasKBhzg

Last night I sort of wished it’d be raining the next morning, Friday morning, so I could just not go out with the sign. Even though I know that’s what I’m supposed to do. It wasn't raining in the morning. I got up as usual, knowing it’d be a very un-populated Chambers Street and maybe no one expected I’d be there. I reminded myself, as I often do, that I was lucky to have this ‘mission’. I went. Saw a few smiling, appreciative faces. Lucky me. Seriously. Lucky me. 

 

 The beautiful chaos of Jason Reynolds’s bookshelves

The celebrated author of “Ghost,” “Long Way Down” and other titles for young readers walks us through his eclectic collection of books and literary artifacts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/interactive/2024/jason-reynolds-book-tour-home/

What the Deliberate Targeting of Libraries Reveals About the Nature of War

Priscilla Morris on the Burning Books and Besieged City That Inspired Her Novel

https://lithub.com/what-the-deliberate-targeting-of-libraries-reveals-about-the-nature-of-war/

 

Native American author Tommy Orange selected as the next Future Library writer

The Pulitzer prize-shortlisted novelist behind books including There There and Wandering Stars will pen a manuscript that won’t be published until 2114

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/12/native-american-author-tommy-orange-selected-as-the-next-future-library-writer

 Letter from a Region in My Mind 

‘Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.’  —James Baldwin

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind

 

         Scene of destruction at the Factor Druk printing house, after it was hit by a Russian missile in May.

Ukraine's bookstores are thriving, but a top printing plant took a deadly hit

https://www.npr.org/2024/07/18/nx-s1-5041979/russia-ukraine-war-books-publishing-literature-kharkiv