Salem's Northeast Neighbors Association (NEN) Resumes Urban Hens Debate

Image by woodleywonderworks via Flickr

Finally, Salem's NEN neighborhood association is going to revisit the urban hens question on April 20. About time. All the details on the NEN website including a nice map to where the NEN group meets. If you're a NEN resident and want to help reverse the wrongheaded neighborhood opposition to urban hens, please turn out.

New Yorker writes about Bookmooch.com

No matter how much we'd love to buy all the books we want from our local booksellers, like Tea Party Bookshop, it's just not possible. And there's those books that you want to find good homes for -- how can you do it? Easy -- join Bookmooch.com and become part of one of the coolest things on the Interwebs -- a book giving and receiving service that operates in a useful, intuitive way without much stress. You simply list all the books you have that you'd like to give away, and browse the many books on offer from other Bookmoochers -- for every book you give (in the US) you get a point; for every book you mooch, it costs a point (2 for international mooches). That's it -- you get to maintain a wishlist so that, when someone lists a book you've been wanting, you get an email telling you it's available. And you get a tenth of a point for each book you offer, and you get a couple points to get you started when you first join (by listing ten books you are offering).

It's as cool as can be, so check it out.

Spring Break Week Treat

Yelm Community Library read-aloud. Image by Timberland Regional Library via Flickr

Story times for adults -- which are also perfect for precocious middle school and older teens too, in my view -- is happening at the Salem Public Library next week. Most readers got that way because someone read to them, and we never lose the joy of hearing a well-read story.

This week, on the big stage in Loucks Auditorium on Tues, at 10:10 a.m., a reading of "Mr. Sumarsono" by Roxana Robinson, a deceptively simple tale in which "A family headed by a vastly hospitable mother serves dinner to an Indonesian diplomat, striving to make a good impression and changing the way her family sees her." Library opens at 10, story begins at 10:10, over by 11.

I know many of you will be at work next week, or (even better) on a Spring Break adventure, but if you're looking for something to do on Tuesday morning, or are out and about already, grab a coffee and come on down! And if you can't make it, but know someone who might enjoy this, please let them know about it. Grownup Storytime is every Tuesday at 10:10, at Salem Public Library.