The Canio's Books Blog

It seems lots of folks have been spring cleaning lately, based on the flood of phone calls we gotten that run something like this: “I’ve got books, lots of old books here (in the attic, basement, garage). Are you interested?” Or “I’m moving and I can’t take these books with me.” Or “my husband’s great uncle, a professor of linguistics, left him a house full of books. Do you want to take a look?” Books take up space, they tend to weigh a lot when grouped with other books, and when you’re not reading one, well, it just sits there. What to do with them? More and more, we’re thinking of books as inert objects. The only “screen” they provide is inside your own imagination. And that seems not to be good enough. A tip from our inventive brother John, led us to artist Brian Dettmer who “re-purposes” books. He’s got some imagination! See his fascinating work at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ5QGsiiUmc&feature=related. While I don’t agree with all of Dettmer’s ideas about the fading value of books over time, I do find his work interesting. He and others are raising questions about the role and function of books in our lives in the near future. Would that old refrigerators and outdated computers could be “re-purposed” so beautifully. And how about outmoded nuclear power plants. What do we do with them?