
Sometimes, it’s the only way. Even if it’s only in your head.
Notes from a bemused canuck

Sometimes, it’s the only way. Even if it’s only in your head.
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.
–Neil Gaiman
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book.
–Josh Jameson
I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.
–Harold Kushner
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
–Haruki Murakami
It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.
–Oscar Wilde
There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.
–Marcel Proust
Beware of the person of one book.
–Thomas Aquinas
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
–Oscar Wilde
The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.
–W. Somerset Maugham
There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over.
–Gail Carson Levine
I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.
–C.S. Lewis
I divide all readers into two classes; those who read to remember and those who read to forget.
–William Lyon Phelps
You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
–Paul Sweeney
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
–Alan Bennett



According to a new study published in the Journal of Sex Research, people who watch porn are actually more likely to see and treat women as equals, and are just as likely to classify themselves as feminists as people who may be staunchly opposed to porn.
The study, performed by a research team from the University of Western Ontario, used data from more than 28,000 people who participated in the General Social Survey, a nationally representative, annual study of American attitudes from 1975 to 2011. Survey respondents were asked if they’d watched an X-rated film in the past year, as well as several questions on their attitudes toward women — like how they felt about women working outside the home, women holding political offices, and the legality of abortion. They were also asked if they thought of themselves as feminists.
About 23 percent of the respondents said they’d watched porn in the past year, and both men and women in that porn-watching group had more equal attitudes about women working outside the home, and were generally more supportive of abortion rights compared to people who said they didn’t watch porn.
It’s pretty well known that Star Wars creator George Lucas was greatly influenced by Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. With this in mind, it’s nice to see Star Wars returned to its roots with this Japanese project for traditional woodblock prints of Lucas’ characters.
The technique being used is known as ukiyo-e, a style of printing that was popular through the 17th to 19th centuries in Japan. Ukiyo-e prints typically begin life as paintings which are then carved into blocks of wood. Ink is applied to the surface of the woodblock and paper is pressed against the ink, with a different block of wood used to build up each layer of color and create the final image.
The limited edition Star Wars Ukiyo-e prints were created not just in an aesthetic that harkens back to Meiji era Japan, but also with the same skill, dedication and collaboration. Ukiyo-e is an art centered around the division of labor among the eshi (painter), horishi (carver) and surishi (printer). Together, these skilled craftsman created 3 different scenes from Star Wars, each in a limited edition run of 200. And the imagery is all licensed from Lucas Films.


