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“Nobody loved the library more than Dan.” A meticulous list kept by Dan Pelzer from 1962-2025, cataloging all the books he read from the Columbus Metropolitan Library. Shared by his daughter, Dan's book list (all 109 pages) is at what-dan-read.com I love this so.

“Untitled” (Perfect Lovers) is an installation of two identical, battery-operated clocks, synchronized and hanging side-by-side. Félix González-Torres acknowledged that the clocks would fall out of synch, one eventually stopping first. “We are synchronized, now and forever.”

"And my mind is driven toward these things with an irresistible force." -Van Gogh

And it moves me immensely that the final book he records on his book list of thousands (finished just under the wire, on 12/30/23) is the David Copperfield, the story of a young man's journey. Safe travels, Mr. Dan Pelzer, lover of books.

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“Time is something that scares me…or used to. This piece made with the two clocks was the scariest thing I have ever done. I wanted to face it. I wanted those two clocks right in front of me, ticking.” [Félix González-Torres, Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1991]

“Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, time has been generous to us. We are synchronized, now and forever. I love you.” -Félix Gonzáles-Torres (1957-1996) Letter to Ross Laycock, 1988 #everynightapoem #ofsorts #clocks

Rather beautifully, Professor Mahmood Mamdani dedicates his 2020 book to his trail-blazing son Zohran Mamdani. He quotes Lu Xun's famous concluding lines: 「其實地上本沒有路，走的人多了，也便成了路。」-魯迅，故鄉 I wrote about it here. substack.com/home/post/p-16… #everynightapoem

I loved Brendel, and I especially loved Brendel playing Schubert.

On tragic mountain passes the wind rips hats from unwitting heads and we can't help laughing at that.

favorite copyright page ever "Flowers, insects, people and motorcycles in it are imaginary. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Feelings are real yet fleeting. Their sum is complex, and is this book."

Though I suspect this will be biggest summer reading challenge - thank you, friend! @__paleologo

Came home to the best book mail

The vital importance of immigrants to a democracy is not just as cheap labor, population replenishment, or as conveyors of culture, capital, & skills (‘good immigrants’), but bc immigrants fight for–and model for everyone–the right to have rights. Thank you, Wong Kim Ark. 6/6

Four years later, the now 21yo Wong Kim Ark, set off to visit his parents again -but upon return in 1895, he was detained and denied entry at US Customs. Wong fought vigorously. The young cook challenged the government’s refusal to recognize his birthright citizenship. 5/

Wong's Chinese immigrant parents, after the passage of the discriminatory Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, moved back to China. Wong accompanied them ‘back’- but as the only home he ever knew was in the U.S., he returned to SF and to his work here. 4/