In celebration of National Poetry Month, we gave Los Angeles Public Library staffers a poetry prompt—Write an Ode to Your First Car—and the response was Fast and Furious! Because we received so many…
Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Stephen HawkingAstrophysicist and cultural icon Stephen Hawking shared this recommendation in a 2010 interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer…
Peter Swanson is the author of six novels, including The Kind Worth Killing, winner of the New England Society Book Award, and finalist for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and Her Every Fear, an NPR…
Like the current year, 1920 was an eventful one for the United States. The “Spanish Influenza” epidemic of the previous two years, which we’ve heard a lot about recently, had taken 675,000 American…
Way back in the 1980s, for that BFF or pen pal or special someone, you would make mixtapes. The perfect set of songs, lovingly curated to express your eternal friendship, your inspiration, the dark…
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, nonsense verse is defined as “humorous or whimsical verse that differs from other comic verse in its resistance to any rational or allegorical interpretation…
Movie theaters may be closed and many films delayed, but fear not! There is an abundance of book to film adaptations to be found on Kanopy, Overdrive, Digitalia Film and hoopla, our streaming services…
As Women’s History Month ends, we would like to offer you a few e-books and e-audiobooks about intrepid, adventurous women who traveled for the sheer joy of doing something different, to escape from…
“Music… will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.” ―Dietrich BonhoefferIn good times…
Sarah Gailey came onto the scene in 2015 and has since become one of the sharpest, funniest voices in pop culture online. They are a regular contributor to multiple websites, including Tor.com. Their…
Humans are destroying the planet. We’re eviscerating our atmosphere with growing holes in the ozone and using the planet as our trash can with no awareness of the consequences. It can be overwhelming…
On February 24, guitarist and songwriter David Roback passed away in his home city of Los Angeles at the age of 61. He was best known for his moody psychedelic band Mazzy Star, featuring vocalist Hope…
While it's true that information on the 2.8 million items in the Central Library is on computer servers that take up a tiny space compared to the hundreds of drawers of catalog cards once used, one…
kuwa jasiri (first name) Indomela, pronoun the one, is a seed steward, wordsmith, and spiritual tender. This one engages in international writing and speaking opportunities that affirm People Of…
Not often does a TV series begin with a shot of a library. In this case, the series in question began with a shot of the Benjamin Franklin Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library. Be still my heart…
No es común que una serie de televisión comience con la imagen de una biblioteca. En este caso, la serie en cuestión empieza con la imagen de la Biblioteca Benjamín Franklin, una sucursal de la…
Luke Geddes is originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, and now lives Cincinnati, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature and creative writing from the University of Cincinnati. He is the author…
“I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me...all I ask is that you respect me as a human being.”—Jackie RobinsonMany of us know about the phenomenal Jack “Jackie” Roosevelt Robinson. He was a…
Before Barack Obama, Hiram Revels and Shirley Chisholm helped govern the nation. William Wells Brown wrote a novel before Toni Morrison. Phillis Wheatley published poems before Langston Hughes. And…
If you live anywhere near Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, you have heard them. If you live in Eagle Rock or the Silverlake/Echo Park regions, you will recognize the sound. Twice a day, dawn and…
Novelist and essayist Eve Babitz grew up in Hollywood. Her work focuses on essay memoirs centered in Los Angeles, particularly in the sixties and early seventies. Since the NYRB classics reissued…
Ryan La Sala grew up in Connecticut, but only physically. Mentally, he spent most of his childhood in the worlds of Sailor Moon and Xena: Warrior Princess, which perhaps explains all the twirling. He…
One of the coolest things about working at the Central Library is getting to be around our amazing collection. We have amassed quite a few books since we opened our doors in 1926—the Fiction…
In recent days, the literary world has been rocked by controversy. At its heart, the controversy involves a book that is, on the one hand, a commercially successful book, currently, 400+ on the…
