a peek inside the fishbowl

It started with a tweet by @conniecrosby.

RT @booksin140 Just stumbled across this community bookcase thanks to @suziegardner. Amazing: http://ow.ly/pySN

OF COURSE I had to see what was so amazing. It was this post about a community bookcase. In case you’re not clicking through I shall summarize.

• There’s a shelf.
• In a public area.
• It has books.
• People borrow books.
• People leave books.
• People read books.

Simple, isn’t it? And then I immediately wondered why we don’t have one in our neighborhood.

Think of the benefits of the community bookcase!

• It’s free.
• It encourages literacy.
• It is community-minded.
• It provides reading material to people of all ages.
• There’s no library cards, overdue fines, or rushing to make timely returns. (!)

Inspired, I fired off an email to John Rapp, ED of Dovercourt Recreation Centre, and asked him what he thought about it and whether there’d be room for something in the upstairs “lounge” area at Dovercourt. It’d be the perfect place; an accessible, high traffic area which is used by people of all ages and from all walks of life.

Within an hour I got my reply. He’d get a shelf but I had to supply the books.

John has kindly held up his end of the bargain (THANK YOU!) and so now I’ve spearheaded a book drive.

This is what the bookcase looked like yesterday:

It looks a little empty, doesn’t it?

Here’s a close-up:

If you live in the Westboro area please consider donating some of your gently used books.  We’re looking for English and French books for all ages and reading levels in decent condition.

(Confession: I’m slightly worried that some people will donate books that aren’t exactly readable i.e. their university textbooks and WordPerfect 2.0 for Dummies. Wondering if what you’re donating is readable? Ask yourself if YOU would pick up this book and devote time reading it. Do you think other people will too? If so, donate. If not, use it for kindling.)

To summarize: Donations are welcome, but please don’t use this as an opportunity to unload your collection of National Geographics dating back to 1968.

If we get too many books (I’m thinking big, aren’t I?) I’d bring the overflow to Neighborhood Services (after we keep a few back to restock empty shelves of course).

The actual process of book borrowing would be rather informal and relies heavily on the honour system. People would be free to borrow any book (or any number of books) and take them home for any length of time. I also hope that people will exchange one book for another. I think it’ll balance out okay.

We’ll also need a few volunteers to keep the books in good order – sorting them and weeding out the ones that are falling apart etc. If you’re ever hanging out in the lounge waiting for your children’s swim/ballet/pottery class to end YOU’D BE PERFECT FOR THIS JOB.

I’d also love to have an informal sign out book so we know if the bookcase is getting use. That’ll be step two.

But first we need books. What do you say Westboro? Can you help? If you can’t part with your books please consider helping by spreading the word. Besides, good karma comes to those who answer THE ASK. ;)

Addendum: Many Fishbowl readers live outside the Ottawa area. Would you consider taking on the same kind of project at your local community centre? For a very small bit of effort this kind of thing sure does a lot of good. Let me know if you undertake something like this where you live!

The NAC is hosting a blogger night on Wednesday, September 30. I’ve been invited to attend AND I’ve been given two tickets to give away as well.

The concert will be a bit different from a regular NAC Orchestra concert. The show is called Beyond the Score and features a beautiful Mozart piece (piano concerto No. 27) with a pianist and soprano soloist.

The first half of the show breaks down the piece to explain more about what’s going on in the music and what was going on in Mozart’s life and times. The CBC’s Bill Richardson will be narrating and actor Pierre Brault will be playing the part of Mozart. The second half of the concert will be the music played straight through. Here is more info on the show.

LET’S HEAR IT FOR A CLASSY NIGHT OUT!

Other  perks include a pre-show intro from NAC Orchestra’s Artistic Planning Manager Daphne Burt, who will give a little run-down on what we can expect in the show as well as a post-show backstage meet & greet with Pierre Brault who has agreed to stay in costume for photo ops.

Interested in coming along? Leave a note in the comments below. I’ll do a random draw on Sunday September 27 at 12:00 noon EST.

Things to know:

• The winner will pick up his/her two tickets at the NAC box office before the performance
• The performance is at 8:00 p.m on Wednesday September 30th, 2009. Please don’t enter if you don’t think you’ll be able to make it!
• Please leave a valid email. This is how I’m going to tell you if you’ve won! And if your email bounces back I’m just going to draw another name out of the (virtual) hat.
• I use Random.org to pick the winner.

Good luck!

I used to make this all the time when the girls were small. I called it ice cream even though it doesn’t really qualify. There’s no cream in this ice cream. Or milk. And there’s no added sugar either.

There’s only one ingredient, and it’s probably something you have in your home right now: bananas. You’ll need three or four bananas to make four servings.

Here’s the how-to.

Banana faux ice-cream

1. 1) Take your spotted almost-too-ripe-to-eat bananas (we call them giraffe bananas), peel them, break them into 1-2″ chunks, toss them into a container and pop it into the freezer. It takes us a few weeks to accumulate enough bananas (they get eaten pretty fast around here).
2. 2) Ready to make it? Thaw the bananas for 5 or 10 minutes and throw them into your blender.
3. 3) Blend.
4. 4) Serve.

The consistency is amazingly similar to real ice cream, and it’s actually quite sweet.

Let me know if you try this one. I think you’ll be surprised at how yummy it is.