I recently ordered the first volume of P.S. Pirro’s new zine, unschooling diaries (no. 1 “In Media Res”) from Mud River Press. It’s a lovely little 16-page booklet bound with twine. P.S. is a blogger, artist, author, and (as is evident from the title of the zine) an unschooler.

I’m a novice in the zine genre, so I won’t attempt to review this in the context of zines as an established medium, or the culture of self-published magazines. I will say that — as much as I love blogging and love reading other peoples’ ideas on the internet — there’s something tangibly delicious about actually holding a physical object that has been created by another human being. The texture of the paper and twine, the ink on the page. The font chosen, the images used. There’s something in that experience that I find uniquely pleasing.

Perhaps that’s the librarian in me talking? I dunno. But just the pleasure of holding an actual physical copy of unschooling diaries somehow seemed well worth the $3 cover price. Even before I opened the volume.

diaries reads like a cross between a chapbook and someone’s commonplace book. Each page contains a distinct thought or idea, although arranged together they do create something sustained and connected. Integrated. I think my favorite idea might have been this one (p. 2)