Books: April

Books bought:
In Defense of the Earth by Kenneth Rexroth
Essay on Rime by Karl Shapiro
Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. 

We found an old used bookstore in Columbus, the kind with volumes stacked from floor to ceiling, and someone's beat-up hardbacks of beat poetry had been languishing so I brought them back to New York to set them free.

On a stoop in Park Slope I found an armload of volumes, including a couple books by Nick Hornby, Motherless Brooklyn, The Essential Lenny Bruce, and Katz on Dogs. I'm set for next year.

Books read:
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Rain Dragon by Jon Raymond
Traveling Mercies by Ann Lamott



I found Ann Lamott on This American Life, reading "Knocking on Heaven's Door." I've read a few of her books now and Traveling Mercies is her best work. The essays, mostly about faith, sometimes about her family, sit with the tension that most human events are both challenging and good. It's really helpful to follow another person's brain over those rocks.

"Don't read something so emotional and good while I'm driving." - M

Josh Ritter:

Ladies and gentleman
sometimes
sometimes it's just not as warm as you'd like it to be
it may not be as dry as you want it to be
it may not stay late as open as you want it to
it doesn't turn on when you need it to
and you lie on your back
in an inn somewhere
on the outside of town
near the red cow roundabout
the only thing that seems to happen in the room next to you
is someone else having fun

and you think,
as you kind of watch the crack on the ceiling
grow above you, plaster dripping down
you think, my god,
how did this happen?

so you roll over on the bed
and you open up the drawer
and you think, maybe there's an answer

you open up the drawer
and your hands rest on a book.
you open it up and inside that book

are phone numbers. hallelujah!

Now that I reflect, this has been a "thoughts on faith" kind of month. It started with Buck, the Jack London here, emancipating himself and following the wild dogs into the woods of Alaska. I wish there were someway to do that – to recognize our own human wildness. As glad as I am for laptops and public transit, they obfuscate what we are.

As for Jon Raymond, he's really good. The movies Wendy and Lucy and also Old Joy were based on his short stories. Start with Livability.