In the libraries of mediaeval monasteries, where once the collected knowledge of the Western world resided, books were chained to the shelves to prevent their theft. It was common practice not solely because the physical value of the books was highÑthough that certainly was so in the days before GutenbergÕs printing press. A book was valued for more than the sum of the leather, the vellum, the binding, ink, gold leaf, and countless hours of toil by scribes and illuminators. The greatest portion of a bookÕs value is in what it contains. Knowledge. Information. Power. Even in these days of massive presses that spew out thousands of bound, embossed, and boxed copies of paperback bestsellers an hour, this is still the case. It is precisely because the true value of a book is in its intellectual (though in some cases that might be disputed) property that there is a market for paperbacksÑif the value was in the trappings everyone would buy only leather-bound editions with encrusted rubies. And though much of the population of this country no longer reads books, they are powerful still. That the recent vote on library appropriations passed by a 2:1 margin (then again, so did the jail bond) shows that at least the people who cared enough to vote this time around realize that. Over the past century, libraries have come to represent an ideal of free and open knowledge, available to all comers, regardless of sex, race, or creed. An open library exemplifies the best of human achievement, closed, itÕs simply another building.



All's Well That's Orwell   -Doug Rennie
The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell
by George Orwell, edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus
Riding the Reproductive Merry-Go-Round -Angie Jabine
Are You Mine? by Abby Frucht and Ordinary Miracles by Linda Crew

Jane B. Good -Carl Hanni
She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll by Gillian Garr
Off the Beat Track -Paula Greer
Desolation Angels by Jack Kerouac
Pawns in White Satin -Casey Bush
The Tower Struck by Lightning by Fernando Arrabal, translated by Anthony Kerrigan
Physician, Heal Thy Profession -Bob McCullough
A Different Kind of Healing: Doctors Speak Candidly About Their Successes with Alternative Medicine
by Oscar Janiger, M.D. & Philip Goldberg
On Guard -Paula Greer
Incident at a Corner by Charlotte Armstrong
Didion's Bible -Gail Dana
After Henry by Joan Didion
Even White Boys Write the Blues -Bob McCullough
Bluesman by Andre Dubus III
Tommy II -Paula Greer
Tom O'Bedlam by Robert Silverberg
Hip-Hot Fiction -Robert Mayfield
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami; Vertigo Tales and Other Tall Tales by Mark O'Donnell; and Et Tu, Babe by Mark Leyner
Faux Paws -Barbara Moshofsky
French for Cats: All the French Your Cat Will Ever Need and Advanced French for Exceptional Cats: Sophisticated French for a Cat as Smart as Yours by Henri de la Barbe (Henry Beard)
Ruling Nature -A.J. Zelada
an original photo-essay
Don't Read That! -Gregg Morris & Doug Rennie
not your typical summer reading list
Hunter & the Haunted -Darrel A. Plant
Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson by E. Jean Carroll and Action Figure! The Life and Times of Doonesbury's Uncle Duke by G.B. Trudeau
Hold the Nature -David Oates
No Nature: New and Selected Poems by Gary Snyder and The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and Nature edited by Christopher Merrill
Just Regular Folks -Bob McCullough
The Road to Wellville by T. Coraghessan Boyle
Out Over Africa -Pearl Watkins
West With the Night by Beryl Markham
Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous -Paula Greer
Cordelia by Winston Graham
Children of Corn -Johan Mathiesen
The Story of Corn by Betty Fussell
East Drifts West -Bob McCullough
Adrift on the Nile by Naguib Mahfouz
Up Against the Walden -David Oates
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts Poetry Plus event announcement
featuring poems by Joan Maiers
Let Us Now Praise One Banned Book -Doug Rennie
scary personal reminiscence
Bishop Earth -Joan Maiers
Sister Earth by Helder Camara
Sky of Ill Repute -Rochelle Cashdan
Wind from an Enemy Sky by D'Arcy McNickle

Return to Plant's Index

Last Modified: 30 July 1996 by Darrel Plant
All reviews, articles, and stories © 1992-1995 by the authors. Other text and WWW material ©1992-1995 by Moshofsky/Plant Creative Services. All graphics ©1992-1995 by Eric Rewitzer, unless otherwise noted.
Hosted byMoshofsky/Plant Creative Services,