The Stick

I took a break. Needed one. Since Friday, I have watched films (yakuza and Italian mostly), eaten out (French and Italian), drank good wine (From Burgundies to Grappas), bought a few things I needed (clothes and books), and laid around doing nothing. Felt good. I needed the break.

Tomorrow, it's back to the usual not saying no to anybody routine, which I happen to enjoy believe it or not. (I'll also be back to daily blogging--reading and writing.)

First, though, a stick was passed to me.


You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451, which book do you want to be?
One book? Do I have to be precise?
Today, my answer is
WCWilliams's Paterson

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?
Yes. Emily Dickinson

What is the last book you bought?
Yesterday I bought The Selected Poems of Po Chu-i.

What is the last book you read?
I am teaching and reading so many at once. I just re-read Baudelaire's Paris Spleen and am about to finish re-reading Aleksandar Hemon's The Nowhere Man.

What are you currently reading?
Po Chu-i (New Directions)
Dainis Hazners's (some of) The Adventures of Carlyle, My Imaginary Friend (Iowa)
Joy Harjo's She had Some Horses (Thunder Mouth)
David Bezmozgis's Natasha, and Other Stories (FSG)

What five books would you take to a deserted island?
Faulkner's A Light in August
Pound's Cantos
Woolf's To the Lighthouse
Rimbaud, the Mason trans, Modern Library
Stein The Making of Americans

Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 persons) and why?
Richard Greenfield: he'll have to post in my comments since he doesn't have a public blog: because I respect his reading habits.

Michael Peirson: because he's fucking great and his list will give me something good to read.

Nick Piombino: because he handed me the stick a long time ago.