Between my Amazon shipment (which FINALLY arrived after a month and a half, don’t get me started) and my visit yesterday to Barnes & Noble, I’ve mysteriously managed to acquire a number of new books. Books and notecards. Okay, books, notecards and a magazine. I also bought the current issue of The Believer, that most revered of edgy, modern literary magazines.
Here’s the rundown, so you won’t have to squint:
1. Quotable Notable Notecards
These feature Shakespeare, Austen and Woolf AND they include stickers with quotes!
2. Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather – Gao Xiangjian
Short stories from the Nobel laureate.
3. Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife by Sam Savage and Michael Mikolowski
The coming of age of a well-read rat in 1960s Boston. No, that’s not a typo.
4. Sailing Alone Around the Room and Nine Horses by Billy Collins
I’m going to hear the former U.S. Poet Laureate speak in April, so thought it a good idea to read some of his work.
5. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
A graphic novel that’s autobiographical. The drawings are gorgeous and blue-tinted, much like my photo above turned out, but her tint is intentional.
6. The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim
365 days’ worth of things I should have learned, or may have learned and forgotten. Part of my self-improvement vow.
7. White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Poems 1946 – 2006 by Donald Hall
Donald Hall is the current U.S. Poet Laureate. This edition includes a CD with him reading selections from his poetry. It had to be mine.
8. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Vol. 1: The Pox Party by M.T. Anderson
A young adult that won the National Book Award last year.
9. Drawing for Dummies
Will hopefully help me fulfill another NY resolution, to get back to my interest in drawing/sketching this year.
I also received a message that some books I ordered from my local indie bookshop are in, so that will be Confession, Part II: the Legend Lives On.
Bluestalking 
A treasure trove! Also, lovely pomegranite in the previous post…
LikeLike
Billy Collins, j’adore Billy.I have Nine Horses, must read again and Taking off Emily Dickinson’s clothes also a CD of him reading his poetry which is how I first discovered one of your national treasures here in deepest Devon. Long live Billy!
LikeLike
PS I’ve just had to blag your Jack Handey deep thoughts for my blog, they had me in stitches!
LikeLike
Jenclair, there’s just nothing like a big pile of books, now is there? Funny how I never manage to run out of books to buy… I run out of money, but never books!
LikeLike
Dove, I love what I’ve read from Billy so far. I had such trouble choosing which to buy at the store. He has so many! I wanted them all, but restrained myself so bought just two.
Cannot wait to actually see him in person. I’ve been vainly trying to find contact information for him, to see if an interview could happen, but his castle’s pretty well fortified. Ah, well.
LikeLike
Jack Handey is an absolute riot! I’ve loved his stuff since I first heard it on the American program “Saturday Night Live.” Such a twisted mind, that’s the best part.
LikeLike
I’m definitely going shopping with you – you’d make me buy things I want but think I don’t need!
LikeLike
Karen, my mother trained me very well! You must come shopping with me. I don’t see any way around it.
LikeLike
You can get to Billy Collins through Steven Barclay, his speaking agent. I read interviews with Billy all the time, so I’m sure he gives them freely.
LikeLike
Oh my goodness, Syzygy… You are a wonderful person! Thanks for this, now I’m hot on the trail.
LikeLike
Drawing for dummies looks interesting. I have “building a website” and (for Christmas) “blogging”, but I hadn’t realised they do a “drawing”. Might go for that one — I can’t draw to save my life but if it doesn’t help me I live with a couple of people who might like it.
I order so many things from Amazon that it doesn’t really matter if they take a while, as they kind of interleave, if that makes sense.
LikeLike
Maxine, when I was in high school I was very into art. My art teacher begged me to go to school for the graphic arts instead of English, but I was so stubbornly set in my ways. I wish I’d have double-majored, but you know what they say about hindsight. Ah, well, I’m going back to it now, and I’m not dead yet, so who knows!
LikeLike
I really enjoyed “Fun Home,” although it is certainly a very dark tale. There is a fascinating academic streak running through it….
LikeLike
Alison Bechdel’s talent is just amazing. I haven’t gotten all that far into the book, but anyone who can draw that beautifully and write in a compelling, darkly funny way must be absolutely brilliant in person. I’m hoping to get further into it today.
LikeLike