Berne Library Notes for Tuesday, April 13, 2021
It’s possible you may be preparing project proposals, mapping myriad fairy trails, or listing limitless quirky places to lunch as time lurches along. Are you ready to jump into the action? The library can help you access a couple of nearby adventures, in person, with snappy new visitor passes available with your library card.
Thanks to the Helderberg Hilltowns Association’s generosity, the library is able to lend out two family passes for visits to the U.S.S. Slater Museum. Each pass gives the borrower free admission to the Slater for two adults and two children. The museum is usually open April through November on Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You can view more details about this National Historic Landmark by visiting www.ussslater.org or call 518-431-1943.
Additionally, the Berne Library Friends group funds an Empire State Pass, allowing admission to New York State Parks and areas managed by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation like forest preserves and boat launches. Thinking locally, you can bet your sweet avocado toast that a trip to Thacher State Park with the Empire State Pass is a fine outing to embrace, and a real library bargain to boot.
In-house browsing
With the help of many hands contributing pieces that firm up the library’s framework, in-house browsing continues to be activated for short 15 to 30 minute look and load sessions. Hours are Monday to Thursday 2 to 7 p.m., Friday 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. If you’re on the hunt for printing and faxing, those services are available also.
Books
In other hunting news, the search for mountweazels is on. Take a dive into Eley Williams’ 2020 debut novel, “The Liar’s Dictionary.” Morphing from her PhD work starring fake dictionary entries, Williams gives you a buffet of expressions like you’ve never experienced.
Her acrobatic word usage sweeps you from “A is for artful (adj.)” to “Z is for zugzwang (n.).” Parallelling time lines running along one after the other, 100 years apart in the same place of business - Swansby House, gives you plenty to keep pace with.
With “clowders of cats” prowling about, it was a puzzler why “...a burlesque of mice was able to hotch beneath the floorboards?”
“Tiredness yawped and tangled across his vision,” as Peter Winceworth, the lexicographer from 1899, “...withered onto his bed.” Then, upon awakening, he “hoicked up his sleeves...sluiced his face and underarms with water” and “worked the small nub of pink soap until it was thick and fat bubbled.”
“The Liar’s Dictionary” beguiles you with entertaining characters, a sniff of mystery and page after page of word play: “...multiple laval shifts surge hot and impossible like hands reaching out from a rock” and “red and orange tongues lanced into the evening sky.”
A true word lover’s delight
To amuse your limbic cortex further, the Midway to Spring Reading Party is still on as the library concurrently celebrates National Poetry Month. Feed your poetic side through reading, writing and sharing poems all month. Then, keep up the action traction and sign up for the reading party extending through April 30. Haiku, anyone?