Monday, September 28, 2015

A glorious weekend

I went to the Banned Books Festival at West Hollywood Library on Saturday, September 26. It was scheduled to last from 12 pm-7 pm. I arrived a little after 2 pm. First, I went into the library to drop off books that were due that day. Then, I went upstairs to see what books I'd like to borrow. I picked six works of nonfiction: Apathy for the devil : a seventies memoir by Nick Kent, It's what I do : a photographer's life of love and war by Lynsey Addario, Yesterday, today, tomorrow : my life by Sophia Loren, The book of firsts : 150 world-changing people and events, from Caesar Augustus to the Internet by Peter D'Epiro, The man in the white sharkskin suit : my family's exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado, and Funny in Farsi : a memoir of growing up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas. It didn't take long to find them because I bypassed the fiction. A few glitches at self-checkout but everything worked out. It was when I went downstairs that events became fascinating. There was a vertically aligned poster on a column that asked us, "What book were you afraid to get caught reading?" There was a marker attached for us to write our answers. I wrote the Kama Sutra. I still wouldn't read that openly. I rented it from the library about three years ago. Very much something I would buy. I also took some pictures. While I had my camera out, I began speaking to a soft butch lesbian named Tobi. She offered pointers on how to get the best shot. Her father was a gaffer in film production.( He was the person who knew how to create the desired effect for lighting in a scene.) She took over as a photographer from an attractive Latina brunette. Tobi had been living in San Francisco for a few years, then moved back to Southern California  in the summer of 2015. She was born in Panorama City at a Kaiser Permanente. ( I had told her that I was born at a Kaiser Permanente near the 10 in West LA.) She told me about Red Hen Press. I told her I love men and she accommodated my desires. A book called 52 Men by Louise Wareham Leonard. I look forward to reading that! I'll wait to see if the library purchases a copy. The price is a bit steeper than what I would like: $ 15.95 for 120 pages. That's a slender book. The author is from New Zealand. I have read multiple times that women from Australia and New Zealand are very progressive sexually. So she's true to her country.( Or possibly stereotype.) 

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