September Books Bought/Read

Bought:
Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes
Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes
Girls' Poker Night by Jill A. Davis (signed, to "Amanda")
Betty Crocker's Desserts Cookbook
Cooking with Bon Appetit: Vegetables
Collected Novellas by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Pat the Money by Diane Wachell
Earth from Above - 35 Days by Yann Arthus-Bertrand
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Schott's Original Food Miscellany
Reunion by Alan Lightman

Read:
Last Chance Saloon by Marian Keyes
Girls' Poker Night by Jill A. Davis
Betty Crocker's Desserts Cookbook
The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinella
Sushi for Beginners by Marian Keyes
Pat the Money by Diane Wachell
Reunion by Alan Lightman
Collected Novellas by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (started)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (started)

I have been reading a lot of Brit Lit (a la Bridget Jones' Diary) and its really getting me inspired to get some writing in. A bunch of he books I bought were from the New York City Opera thrift shop, which I found has the best used books, and often marks them 50% off the thrifty price :) I had been eying the Earth from above book for years, and finally saw it at a cheap bookstore in the west village for about a third the cover price. the last two boks I scooped up at my favorite little bookshop in Coolidge Corner, in Boston - Brookline Booksellers (?). I had heard buzz about Alan Lightman, but didn't know why I knew the name. Only after reading the book and looking at his bio did I realize he was a prof at MIT and wrote Einstein's Dreams (which I never read) while I was at MIT.

August Books bought/read list

This post will be updated throughout the month as I read more stuff.

Bought

Robert Burns Poems and Songs
Cassell's Styles in Art Series:
Antique Jade
Chinese Painting
The Age of Louis XV
The 1920s Style
European Enamels


Read
3 Plays by Thornton Wilder
The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Girls' Night In ed. by Lauren Henderson, Chris Manby, Sarah Mlynowsky
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood King

Books Bought/Read

In an homage to, or perhaps just copying, Nick Hornby's Book "The Polysyllabic Spree" I decided to keep track of the books i've bought and the one's I've read. These are different lists because not all the books I buy will I read right away. Some are destined to be shelved indefinitely, some are for reference, and some I just won't get around to in that calendar month. Additionally, not all the books I read do I buy in that month. I may have purchased them in the past, borrowed them from a friend, or checked them out from the library.

For the month of July this is the list:

Bought
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Candide by Voltaire
Wake Up, Sir by Jonathan Ames
The Letters of Virginia Woolf
Wines and Spirits by Alec Waugh (Time Life Books)
3 Plays by Thornton Wilder
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

Read
Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg
Candide by Voltaire
Wake Up, Sir by Jonathan Ames
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd
Life after God by Douglas Coupland
Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Small Bachelor by P.G. Wodehouse

most beautiful poem

this is the most beautiful poem i have read in a long time.

Song
By Allen Ginsberg

The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
under the burden
of dissatisfaction

the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.

Who can deny?
In dreams
it touches
the body,
in thought
constructs
a miracle,
in imagination
anguishes
till born
in human--
looks out of the heart
burning with purity--
for the burden of life
is love,

but we carry the weight
wearily,
and so must rest
in the arms of love
at last,
must rest in the arms
of love.

No rest
without love,
no sleep
without dreams
of love--
be mad or chill
obsessed with angels
or machines,
the final wish
is love
-- cannot be bitter,
cannot deny,
cannot withhold
if denied:

the weight is too heavy

--must give
for no return
as thought
is given
in solitude
in all the excellence
of its excess.

The warm bodies
shine together
in the darkness,
the hand moves
to the center
of the flesh,
the skin trembles
in happiness
and the soul comes
joyful to the eye--

yes, yes,
that's what
I wanted,
I always wanted,
I always wanted,
to return
to the body
where I was born.
San Jose, 1954