Post by Christmas Chief on Feb 16, 2010 17:45:13 GMT -5
Article: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/02/15/DDMU1BRGJH.DTL
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Pulling away from the Cafe Flore on Market Street, San Francisco author Daniel Handler feels all the power and the weight of the 33-foot-long bookmobile as he cajoles it up the Market Street hill en route to his childhood library branch at West Portal. Unused to navigating large vehicles - "I've never even driven an SUV" - he is remarkably calm as he chugs through traffic on a recent afternoon.
"My wife made me promise not to do anything that would result in the headline 'Author Dies in Unfortunate Event,' " says the characteristically deadpan, pen-named author of Lemony Snicket's 13-volume orphan saga, "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Except for one scarily sharp right turn with an inch- and-a-half clearance between the back wheel and a parked Toyota, Handler keeps his promise without breaking a sweat.
As he drives, Mill Valley musician, author and documentarian Tom Corwin rides shotgun, peppering him with soulful questions about what books have been important to him, while cameraman Jim Dziura captures it all on HD video for a documentary called "Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile."
Corwin bought this decommissioned bookmobile in October, for $7,500, from a library in a suburb of Chicago after Marin County author Peter Laufer told him over dinner that he'd seen it on Craigslist and wished he could buy it.
"By the end of dinner, I had come up with this whole concept of buying the bookmobile myself," Corwin recalls, "and having authors join me, taking turns behind the wheel, and driving across the country interviewing people about the books that have touched their lives and creating a documentary film and a Web-based literacy outreach component. Peter Coyote was my first call, and he said, 'I love it. I'm in.' "
Corwin has raised about half the money he needs to make his film. He has a deal with Whitewater Films in Los Angeles, which made a substantial investment, and the support of the National Book Foundation, the Association of American Publishers and the American Library Association. But he is still seeking corporate sponsorship and individual donations, which can be made through his Web site, Bookmobiletravels.com.
His trip back to the Bay Area in the bookmobile featured a few colorful misadventures - including getting stuck bumper-deep in Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats - all caught on camera. Along the way, he interviewed regular folks, from a waitress in Battle Mountain, Nev., who writes and performs cowboy poetry to an Army vet in Boulder, Colo., just returned from Afghanistan, who talked about how important books are to soldiers away from home.
He is planning a six-week trek in late spring and summer, with authors driving different legs and stops to offer locals a book from the bookmobile's shelves in exchange for an interview. Between now and then, Corwin is filming jaunts with Bay Area authors, Handler being the first.
Arriving at the West Portal branch, Handler disembarks and ascends the stairs he used to climb weekly with his dad after they walked the six blocks from their home. He enters the Children's Room, flooded with light and adorned with exposed beams stenciled with pastel flora and fauna.
During the drive, Handler had talked about how he "read and reread" the books of Mill Valley author Zilpha Keatley Snyder, who wrote Newbery Honor Book "The Egypt Game" and many others.
"Her books show there's something secret and mysterious that's lurking beneath the everyday world, and I took that lesson very seriously."
Once inside, he goes over to the "S" shelves, where her books - and his - are displayed.
"It's kind of poetic," Corwin notes, "that kids are kneeling exactly where you kneeled down to pick out Keatley Snyder's book, but they're going one shelf up to pick out your book."
"It is - it's astonishing," says Handler, whose Snicket series has sold 60 million copies worldwide. "But it wasn't right here exactly. I think it was over there," he says, scanning the room and his childhood memories simultaneously.
Corwin explains that his project is really "an opportunity for the authors and readers to connect on their common love of books."
He will also weave into the documentary the history of bookmobiles, which started in Maryland in the early 1900s and are still thriving all over the country. He stopped at the ALA Conference in Chicago before he rushed back to San Francisco for Litquake (festival co-director and author Jane Ganahl is a big supporter of Corwin's project), and interviewed the librarians who drove his bookmobile for 18 years. They described the magical relationship they had with their patrons as they exposed them to new things through literature.
"I could see the sense of purpose they have in their jobs," says Corwin. "I think that will be a real powerful thread in the film."
While he was parked outside the conference, a man approached the vehicle and said, "It looks just like the one from my childhood." He came on board and began to reminisce: "Growing up African American in Mississippi, I was not allowed to use the library. But I was allowed on the bookmobile. There was a white driver and one white librarian, and they didn't care what color I was. I discovered books and the world on the bookmobile. I would probably not be a reader or a writer if it were not for the bookmobile."
The man turned out to be W. Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing for the Library of Congress and author of "Ever Is a Long Time" and "The House at the End of the Road."
"His story is such a great example of the kind of illumination that happened though these vehicles," Corwin reflects, "and also through books."
In the bookmobile, he asks Handler what book most influenced him.
"All of them," he answers. "My life feels like nothing but a tapestry of ideas hijacked from literature."
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Pulling away from the Cafe Flore on Market Street, San Francisco author Daniel Handler feels all the power and the weight of the 33-foot-long bookmobile as he cajoles it up the Market Street hill en route to his childhood library branch at West Portal. Unused to navigating large vehicles - "I've never even driven an SUV" - he is remarkably calm as he chugs through traffic on a recent afternoon.
"My wife made me promise not to do anything that would result in the headline 'Author Dies in Unfortunate Event,' " says the characteristically deadpan, pen-named author of Lemony Snicket's 13-volume orphan saga, "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Except for one scarily sharp right turn with an inch- and-a-half clearance between the back wheel and a parked Toyota, Handler keeps his promise without breaking a sweat.
As he drives, Mill Valley musician, author and documentarian Tom Corwin rides shotgun, peppering him with soulful questions about what books have been important to him, while cameraman Jim Dziura captures it all on HD video for a documentary called "Behind the Wheel of the Bookmobile."
Corwin bought this decommissioned bookmobile in October, for $7,500, from a library in a suburb of Chicago after Marin County author Peter Laufer told him over dinner that he'd seen it on Craigslist and wished he could buy it.
"By the end of dinner, I had come up with this whole concept of buying the bookmobile myself," Corwin recalls, "and having authors join me, taking turns behind the wheel, and driving across the country interviewing people about the books that have touched their lives and creating a documentary film and a Web-based literacy outreach component. Peter Coyote was my first call, and he said, 'I love it. I'm in.' "
Corwin has raised about half the money he needs to make his film. He has a deal with Whitewater Films in Los Angeles, which made a substantial investment, and the support of the National Book Foundation, the Association of American Publishers and the American Library Association. But he is still seeking corporate sponsorship and individual donations, which can be made through his Web site, Bookmobiletravels.com.
His trip back to the Bay Area in the bookmobile featured a few colorful misadventures - including getting stuck bumper-deep in Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats - all caught on camera. Along the way, he interviewed regular folks, from a waitress in Battle Mountain, Nev., who writes and performs cowboy poetry to an Army vet in Boulder, Colo., just returned from Afghanistan, who talked about how important books are to soldiers away from home.
He is planning a six-week trek in late spring and summer, with authors driving different legs and stops to offer locals a book from the bookmobile's shelves in exchange for an interview. Between now and then, Corwin is filming jaunts with Bay Area authors, Handler being the first.
Arriving at the West Portal branch, Handler disembarks and ascends the stairs he used to climb weekly with his dad after they walked the six blocks from their home. He enters the Children's Room, flooded with light and adorned with exposed beams stenciled with pastel flora and fauna.
During the drive, Handler had talked about how he "read and reread" the books of Mill Valley author Zilpha Keatley Snyder, who wrote Newbery Honor Book "The Egypt Game" and many others.
"Her books show there's something secret and mysterious that's lurking beneath the everyday world, and I took that lesson very seriously."
Once inside, he goes over to the "S" shelves, where her books - and his - are displayed.
"It's kind of poetic," Corwin notes, "that kids are kneeling exactly where you kneeled down to pick out Keatley Snyder's book, but they're going one shelf up to pick out your book."
"It is - it's astonishing," says Handler, whose Snicket series has sold 60 million copies worldwide. "But it wasn't right here exactly. I think it was over there," he says, scanning the room and his childhood memories simultaneously.
Corwin explains that his project is really "an opportunity for the authors and readers to connect on their common love of books."
He will also weave into the documentary the history of bookmobiles, which started in Maryland in the early 1900s and are still thriving all over the country. He stopped at the ALA Conference in Chicago before he rushed back to San Francisco for Litquake (festival co-director and author Jane Ganahl is a big supporter of Corwin's project), and interviewed the librarians who drove his bookmobile for 18 years. They described the magical relationship they had with their patrons as they exposed them to new things through literature.
"I could see the sense of purpose they have in their jobs," says Corwin. "I think that will be a real powerful thread in the film."
While he was parked outside the conference, a man approached the vehicle and said, "It looks just like the one from my childhood." He came on board and began to reminisce: "Growing up African American in Mississippi, I was not allowed to use the library. But I was allowed on the bookmobile. There was a white driver and one white librarian, and they didn't care what color I was. I discovered books and the world on the bookmobile. I would probably not be a reader or a writer if it were not for the bookmobile."
The man turned out to be W. Ralph Eubanks, director of publishing for the Library of Congress and author of "Ever Is a Long Time" and "The House at the End of the Road."
"His story is such a great example of the kind of illumination that happened though these vehicles," Corwin reflects, "and also through books."
In the bookmobile, he asks Handler what book most influenced him.
"All of them," he answers. "My life feels like nothing but a tapestry of ideas hijacked from literature."
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