Nonfiction Monday-- Book Deconstruction

Ah, summer. The upsides are not waking up insanely early, and being able to drink as much tea as I like. The downsides include not being able to give books to students and having to actually physically go to the public library to get books. While I love going to the library, I tend to be unfocused and end up meandering about the adult nonfiction section, distracted by all manner of fun things that are totally useless for my job. (Train Like a Mother, anyone?) While this is great fun, it leaves me at loose ends for a middle grade nonfiction for today. I'm not sure giving students the following book would be wise!

Occhipinti, Lisa. The Repurposed Library.
1 May 2012

Yes, these thirty plus crafts are really cool, and yes, some of the ancient nonfiction that I pulled while weeding this year might be good to use for some of them. There were even some crafts that I thought were cool, like the clock made out of a book with "time" in the title or the old bridge book made into a container for a deck of cards. I had brief thoughts of making a lampshade out of paper or maybe a bracelet out of some decoupaged words.

But this makes me so, so sad. There were several books in this volume that I would have loved to read! That's the problem. Any time I get rid of a book, I have a feeling that someone, somewhere might like to read it, so I shouldn't destroy the book. Could I make a Kindle cover out of a Little Golden Book? Only if I had two copies, I suppose. There are a lot of cool old books used in this, and most of the old books that I get rid of would not make good art projects. Still, if you have a LOT of old paperbacks, you might take a look at this and make some of the vases.

I also can't look at end tables that are made out of butchered sewing machine cases. Or fruit bowls made out of old records that have been melted in the oven. Just can't.