Mullaney's miscellany: 3

Vintage decorative books as shelves is a DIY project dear to our hearts. Real Simple's website gives 3 steps to creating the shelves at right. Although the concept is great, we do think some more attractive hardware would add the finishing touch!

(Janek SkarzynskiI / AFP/Getty Images)

Dana Stevens' tribute in Salon to the late Nobel-winning Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska included this poem:
ABC
I’ll never find out now
What A. thought of me.
If B. ever forgave me in the end.
Why C. pretended everything was fine.
What part D. played in E.’s silence.
What F. had been expecting, if anything.
Why G. forgot when she knew perfectly well.
What H. had to hide.
What I. wanted to add.
If my being around
meant anything
to J. and K. and the rest of the alphabet.
"She is able to capture the pointlessness and sadness of life, but somehow still be affirmative" Woody Allen commented in a documentary about Szymborska, who was called Poland's "guardian spirit" by President Bronislaw Komorowski.

USA Today reported the top 10 book-buying cities for 2011 as follows:
    1.    Washington, D.C.
    2.    Seattle
    3.    Minneapolis
    4.    Atlanta
    5.    Boston
    6.    Pittsburgh
    7.    Cincinnati
    8.    St. Louis
    9.    San Francisco
    10.    Denver
Daedalus can consider itself lucky to have a store in the DC metropolitan area (and even more fortunate to have web and catalog customers all over the world!)

Los Angeles Public Library

Flavorwire ran the image below of a Lockheed newsstand by Ansel Adams—a photographer more known for his landscapes—in their feature on his street photography of 1940s Los Angeles. Dig the pulp fiction titles!