[Reading]

I spent so much time this past semester preparing to apply to (and then applying to) Ph.D. programs that I had precious few hours available for "non-academic" reading. I've tried to remedy that this vacation. Here's what I've read, or have been reading, over the past three weeks:

Neal Stephenson, Anathem
John Fowles, The Collector
John Fowles, The Magus
John Fowles, The French Lieutenant's Woman
Haruki Murakami, After Dark
Haruki Murakami, After the Quake (*)
Roberto Bolano, The Savage Detectives (*)
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters (*)
George MacDonald Fraser, The Pyrates (*)
Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (*)
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (*)
Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems (*)
Jack Spicer, Collected Poems (*)
Barbara Guest, Collected Poems (*)

(*) = Still reading.

Given that I've been doing other things as well--including writing a ton of poetry (twelve poems thus far, including at least five I'm fairly happy with)--this is pretty good for me. Especially as Anathem and The Magus (two of the four books I've finished thus far) alone total well over 1,500 pages! [NB: Both are incredible, by the way]. I'm almost done with After the Quake, and a good chunk of the way into The Pyrates (which is a truly bizarre piece of work--using "piece of work" here in the slangy sense--and is almost deserving of its own post; in its relentless, OTT brand of satire it's actually exhausting to read) and Moby Dick (which I've read before, but am now re-reading in hopes of auditing Marilynne Robinson's seminar on it this coming semester).

Generally speaking I've bought a ton of books since I've been home--too many, in fact (and this speaks well of my exuberance and not so well of my common sense) to possibly bring with me to Iowa City. Apart from the above, I've picked up (all at very reasonable, used prices):

W.S. Merwin, The Lice
Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology
John Berryman, The Dream Songs
Dante, The Inferno (trans. Robert Pinksy)
Michael Palmer, Company of Moths
Heather McHugh, Dangers
Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (*)
Poetry (June 2007) (**)
Poetry (September 2007) (***)

(*) = Lost whatever copy I once had.
(**) = Includes noted SoQ poet Charles Bernstein. Wait a minute...
(***) = Includes noted SoQ poet Rae Armantrout. Wait a minute...

Then there's one entry in the category of "should have but did not buy":

Darby Conley, The Potpourrific Great Big Grab Bag of Get Fuzzy

Important note here: Bucky Katt is one of the best comic-strip characters ever. He's part Stalin, part George Steinbrennner, part Calvin (from Calvin & Hobbes), part George Gately's Heathcliff, part Brad Pitt's character in Twelve Monkeys, and, I don't know--probably twelve other ingredients besides. He's a sick bastard and (worse!) a Yankee fan but I can't help wishing he was my cat, anyway.

{click image below to enlarge}




We could all learn a lot from BK. As he once famously said: "The fork is there to punish those who do not respect the can."

Indeed.

[...makes sense if you read Get Fuzzy...].