390-399: Culture: Fashion, Manners, Daily Life, Holidays, Celebrations, Folklore and Myths

This is a pretty interesting part of the library! It's where you go if you are planning a wedding, planning a wardrobe, or dreading your next social event. It's also where you go to read folklore created by folks and modern fairy tales by Gregory Maguire. It's where I went to score the above four beach reads. Looking good so far!

Speaking of which. Looking good occupies about two shelves in the not-huge public library where I visited today, but you already knew that was a huge concern of our society. How to look good, why to look good, whether we should care at all.... How could I resist a book called Fear and Clothing? And then Cintra Wilson revealed herself as a kindred spirit in at least one respect, speaking of her upbringing in a houseboat community in the 70's: "The casual approach to nudity... gave rise to my firm belief in the magic of garments, a nearly pathological Victorian prudishness, and a lifelong horror of nudists." Well, you may not be sold on the value of fashion, but I hope that little piece of flash memoir will at least impress upon you of the value of clothes. Wilson makes it clear in her introduction that she is not interested in what makes people beautiful but what makes them look like themselves-- not actually in fashion but in style. I chose In Your Face, by Shari Graydon, from this section as well, because I also can't resist a book that promises to attack "the culture of beauty." Graydon's book proves on closer examination to be written for "youth." It's never too early to provide some counterprogramming to all the "pretty princess" and "little heartbreaker" stuff our society mainlines into us from birth.

Bill Bryson's author promo page opens with "Everyone loves Bill Bryson, don't they?" That's what I thought, so I selected At Home: A Short History of Private Life even though it's the size-- and has the look-- of an academic textbook. It's the kind of book I want to like, but I dunno. It's so long (540 pages). It's so heavy-- several pounds, I'd guess. It looks so much like a textbook (I know, I already said that, but really, the resemblance goes beyond striking)!

The Art of Civilized Conversation is by Margaret Shepherd, better known (by me, anyway) as a fantastic calligrapher and author of many foundational manuals of calligraphy. Stands to reason she would want to present the spoken word as elegantly and graciously as she does the written. And she is very thorough, covering all kinds of conversational situations. A sweet little read if you need a pep talk about the value and feasibility of talking to humans.