Booklyn is an artist run non-profit “dedicated to the proliferation and appreciation of people- made books” located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY. Their mission is to help artists in producing and exhibiting their artist books. They also publish a series called ABC (Another Booklyn Chapbook) and this book is issue three of that series. This book is about Joel J. Rane’s experiences as a reference librarian at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles told through profiles of the people he met on the job. He gave names to all these characters- The Screamer, The Ghoul, Mr. Brain Damage. The little segments, each average a page long, tell the storys of his encounter with each of them. The writing is good and funny and I loved reading all the crazy tales. Each story has a drawing of the character on the opposing page illustrated by either Raymond Pettibon or Cristin Sheehan Sullivan. The drawings are a great accompaniment to the tales in sketchy black ink. The original version of this book is hardcover, silkscreened in two colors and only an edition of fifty. The chapbook version let’s the rest of us enjoy the book who can’t afford the fancy one. It’s still pretty nice itself with a letter-pressed cover. I like having a semi-rare Pettibon book- this edition is of 600. You can pick up a copy of this book here and learn more about Booklyn here.

© Julia Rothman 2007