Yes, I know it’s not Wednesday. Blame United Airlines. They cancelled A’s flight home to Duluth (to be fair, it was foggy as fuck in Duluth), so she had to reroute to MSP, and so I went to pick her up there, and so most of my yesterday was spent doing that. It was actually great, because A came home, but it was annoying, because airlines, and so I didn’t get to making the post yesterday. (So it goes.)

This week we’ve got a lot of book/lit/arts kind of stuff, one thing about clothes, and some comics. Oh, and some killer fucking satire on AG Jeff Sessions (booooooo!). So without further ado, I present your Wednesday Weekly Recommended Reading, Thursday Edition:

A C.S.A. for Books

by Adrea Piazza

But when a C.S.B. works it can reinforce one of an independent bookstore’s advantages over Amazon: a close relationship with those who shop there. All of the booksellers described an independent-bookstore boom, crediting a surge of localism and a return to Main Street shopping. The American Booksellers Association says that it has been gaining members; last year, the association reported, independent bookstores sold about five per cent more books than they had the year before.

This was a cool article about a cool bookshop with a cool idea. I’m all about a CSA for books. And independent bookstores (Here! Read a thing I wrote!).

The Tricky Etiquette of Co-Working Spaces

by Henry Alford

I found myself asking the tall, rugged-looking manager of Input Lofts: “I brought a salad with a very garlicky dressing. Should I just mouth-breathe it over my desk mates?” He hunched his shoulders vigorously as if to say “Whatevs,” and then advised: “Enjoy. Sit where you like.”

This was a little silly, but mostly interesting. It doesn’t grapple much with the whys and what-means about the whole move towards a location-independent / freelance workforce, but that’s fine. It was mostly a funny character study in etiquette, and, having once worked at a coworking spot in Chicago, I found it by and large to be true in a good, still respectful but poking-fun kind of way.

JORGE LUIS BORGES ON THE TASK OF THE ARTIST

by Emily Temple

I try to simply express what I want and I try to do it with common words. Because only the words that belong to the spoken language are effective. It’s a mistake to assume that all the words in the dictionary can be used. There’s many that can’t. For example, in a dictionary, you see as synonyms the words “bluish,” “cerulean,” and “azureous,” and some other word too. The truth is that they are not synonyms. The word “bluish” can be used, because the reader accepts it, so to speak. But if I put “azureous,” or if I put “cerulean,” no, they are words that point to different or opposite directions. So, actually, the only word that can be used is “bluish”, because it’s a common word that glides along the others…

I like Borges. He’s on my long list of “to-read-much-much-more-of.”

Fig Leaves Are Out. What to Wear to Be Kind to the Planet?

by Tatiana Schlossberg

For consumers, the most effective solution may be to keep wearing that old T-shirt that your family hates, buy used clothes or just make do with fewer articles of clothing.

Vindication (for wearing old shit all the time)! But also I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem lately, especially as it pertains to the other kinds of fabric-based goods I buy. My Zaydie (grandfather) was a big environmentalist (his license plate was “BIO ECO”), and so these sorts of concerns have always been in my periphery (god forbid we ever leave a room with the lights on), but they’ve become more central for me as I’ve gotten older. Especially, you know, given the US’s current political climate. (We’re all fucked, is what I’m trying to say. But at least we can try to minimize our personal damage, even if individual actions won’t be able to ultimately solve the larger causes of man-made climate change… )

BEST OF BLUE NOTE RECORDS: THE JEFF SESSIONS

by Coleman Larkin

The Jeff Sessions Blue Note recordings, made over the course of several decades and now considered the definitive soundtrack of institutional racism, are unique among jazz records in their underlying anti-marijuana philosophy and their complete lack of African-American input. What follows is a complete discography.

Speaking of politics and “we’re fucked,” this was fucking brilliant. I don’t even think you have to be as much of a jazz nerd to think so. Just fucking brilliant.

Comics!

“The Kansas Experiment” Is a Failure

by Mattie Parrigon

This hits close to home (literally: I’m from Missouri), but also I think illustrates well the issues surrounding this type of economic policy. Solid comic.

My Parkinson’s Can’t Take Cartooning Away From Me

by Peter Dunlap-Shohl

Wonderful and heartwarming and great.