To get from here to there

While on the road, I forgot to mention that I definitely bought loads of books. Too many. I bought them like I was buying souveniers. "Here's a book I got from Quailridge Bookstore" or "Here's a book I got from Busboys and Poets" or "Here's a book I got from the Bullshead Bookshop".

Here's the final count:

Elizabeth Alexander's "Power and Possibility"
Anne Carson's "decreation"
Saadi Youseff's "Without an alphabet, Without a land"
June Jordan's "Affirmative Acts"

Elizabeth's and June Jordan's books are strictly essay books. I am wanting to get back into essay writing. I would like a book of essays soon. I bought Elizabeth's because I admired her book "The Black Interior" and because (despite the fact that it worked out she chose my book!) I secretely want to be her in a way. This was pre-inaugural fame. This was pre "How God Ends Us" -- I just always liked her historical take on poetry and how history informed her poetry, etc etc. So now I'm looking at her critical analysis of poetry and people.

I bought June Jordan's book "Affirmative Acts" strictly because I knew it contained her essays on Palestine. I've been reading and enjoying all the other essays, but I remember encountering a few people who mentioned it, and I had the hardest time finding the book (even in NYC!) and when I walked into Busboys & Poets and it was just right there on the shelf, I had to take it home. Look for more essays and greater writings on Palestine and abroad.

Anne Carson will be teaching at NYU now. Many friends told me I should be most excited to work with her; they think we can be a good fit. I figured I should pick up something by her. Too, I've been looking around NYC bookstores casually, and have turned up empty-handed. What DO we have here?

Saadi Youseff was a purchase continuing in the tradition of buying non-western poetry. It feeds me.

This was supposed to be a post about what else I've been reading. Namely, this memoir: "Bitter is the New Black" I think I have 10 or so pages left. It's my subway reading. It what I do to create a buffer between home and work, work and home. It's like watching a soap opera. I get on the train and enter this world. It's pretty entertaining. I don't want to say it's "mindless", but it is, sort of, for me, because it's the only thing lately I've found that I can read without thinking it or making it feel like work. I've decided, I think, to keep this tradition up. I need to find the next book.