Posts from Battery Park City Library

Perhaps it's because audiences for poetry are a bit smaller than some of the other genres I'm drawn to, but whenever I finally get around to reading a poet others have recommended to me, it seems like knocking on the door to a little club of sorts. When the poet is as interesting as David Shapiro, one hopes to return to that door again and again.  

Shapiro is one of many distinguished contributors to the new journal Bridge, which promises "collaborations between poets, 

The most graceful way to come to terms with the memory of tragedy and destruction is often through the act of creation. In remembrance of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, staff and volunteers at the Battery Park City Library have been folding paper cranes for the past four months for a "Peace Crane Project." The culmination is a special origami exhibition displayed in the library throughout the month of September.

Japanese legend holds that if you fold a thousand origami cranes your wish will be granted.

Do you have a "voracious appetite" for reading? Have you ever “devoured” a book? Have you ever had the depraved desire to slather your first-edition F. Scott Fitzgerald classic with whipped cream and chocolate sauce? Do you look forward to resuming that book you put down on the subway with the same hunger that you anticipate that chocolate cake at your favorite restaurant? Does a good dessert make you feel equally comfortable as a good book, like you would want to curl up in bed with either (aside from the crumbs that a dessert might shed, of course)?   If you 

Do you remember the first time in your life when you started to question things adults had taught you? Do you remember the first time you thought about why you were here or what your purpose was? Do you ever find yourself still grappling with questions like these? If so, you will identify with the protagonist of Rebecca Rupp’s most recent middle-grade novel, Octavia Boone’s Big Questions about Life, the Universe and Everything.

This story is just about as close to a Philosophy 101 

March 15, 2011 marks the one-year anniversary of the opening of the Battery Park City Branch of The New York Public Library.   We’ve had a very busy year.   Throughout the past twelve months there is one thing I have always tried to remember: The Battery Park City Branch is someone’s first library.    This is where someone will discover their favorite book.    This is where someone will begin his or her lifelong love of reading.   I started using Twitter late in the Summer of 

If you're ready for the warmer, laid-back days of summer, you're not alone. We've had a brutal winter in New York, and everyone's sick of avoiding the miserable winds, freezing slush piles, and long, gray evenings of this icy time of year. 

So, a thought exercise.  Pretend it's summer already.  Life is awesome, and you need something fun, fast and funny to read.  Pick up

My copy of Life just arrived, and while it made me doubly sad to have missed NYPL's recent evening with Keith Richards, the book more than lived up to its excellent reviews and all the prepublication hype. Any fan of rock music or great biography (and those of us who love both) should find something to delight in here. 

As 

He is arguably the most recognized musician in New York City. The slight smile, patient and reassuring, that greets you every morning as you wait in line at the corner bodega for your coffee and bagel.

Regardless of socioeconomic class or race, from Bed-Stuy to The Bronx, from East Village to the Upper East Side, all New Yorkers know: Dan Smith will teach you guitar.     It is a simple and honest advertisement. Like most good advertising, it is very memorable.  Maybe it is so memorable because these 

Sure, there is still the postseason.  The Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants are in the World Series, but with the Yankees out of the picture for many New Yorkers the 2010 season of baseball is officially over. This seasonal end to the national pastime combined with the current seasonal change in temperature always brings to mind 

NYPL is celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act's 20th anniversary throughout 2010. One way we are getting the word out is via the Barrier-Free Library Facebook page. If you "FB," we invite you to take a look. But, though the current movie, The Social Network, tells us that more than 500 million people are users of Facebook, we realize there are many who opt out of that particular social network. So if you are one of those who don't subscribe to 

They are among the most asked Library questions of the past year:  "Do you have those books? You know the ones I'm talking about? The ones I see everyone reading. The Girl Who Played with Dragons? The Girl Who Kicked the Fire? The Girl with the Hornet's Nest Tattoo?"

For most of the past year the answer has always been the same: "I'd be happy