i can't really sing, so

More poetry than usual this month! It WAS National Poetry Month in April, so that makes sense! Mission:  to read 52 books in 2012 Status : 24/52 Books Read, April:  7 Notes on Books Read: 18) Threats by Amelia Gray We read this for book club and everyone liked it. It had short, short chapters, something that I think appeals to modern readers. It's like-- if I am reading something with longer chapters, I am more inclined to stop once I reach the end of a chapter because then I won't have to worry about getting caught in the middle of one. Short chapters, however, do not pose the same threat, so I read more nonstop. The zany world that this book builds in-or-around (who knows!) the reality we live in is both believable and unbelievable at the same time. This novel will make you feel slightly insane and is worth reading. It just came out this year from FSG. 19) Culture of One  by Alice Notley I heard Notley read from this novel-in-verse at AWP in Chica...

I drove to Chicago and back for the AWP conference in late February through to earlier this month. Here are some notes on the states that I drove through. Pennsylvania is full of old dilapidated barns. People can actually drive in PA as long as you are not near a major city (Philly/Pittsburgh); if you are near a major city, they don't understand the "keep to the right/pass on the left" thing that makes highway driving amazing. I drove through four mountains, one back to back. I don't think I had ever driven through a mountain before.  On the road again! in PA Ohio has the best rest stops. They are clean and bright and very modern and make you feel welcome. I stayed overnight in Ohio and went through a drive-through for the first time in, like, forever? Since high school maybe? The food was actually good. Then I took a bath. That was nice. Red Roof Inn, mofos! Free wi-fi! Indiana was very windy on the way there, and not as windy on the way back. But it...

The class I've been teaching at Rowan University ended. I sadly said goodbye to my first two classes I ever taught this month, and following this farewell, I devoured a number of books. Eight to be exact. It's the 27th, so if I manage to finish Bolano's 2666 by midnight on the 30th, it will be nine, but I'm doubt that will happen. Because of the large number of books I finished reading in May, I will write the first half of this now, and the second probably soon after the month ends. Enjoy. BOOKS READ: MAY: PART ONE A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn To be fair, I started reading this in April and read it for a long time. This book will change the way that you look at American History. That's it's motivation, and it succeeds. I was afraid that Zinn would get a bit preachy, but instead he gets the majority of his preaching over in the beginning of the book and just let's his title "People" speak for themselves through refe...

Alice Notley, prominent poet from the 2nd generation of the New York School, will be reading at Rowan University on Monday, April 26th in the Rowan Art Gallery in Wesby Hall at 7pm. This event is both FREE and OPEN to the PUBLIC. If you are in the area, you should probably attend. Visit the official link on the Rowan website HERE . It advises you to contact Bill Friend at friend[at]rowan[dot]edu for more information. In honor of continuing our "poem a day" posts for National Poetry Month, I would like to guide you to the poets.org site on Alice Notley. There are six audio recordings of her reading here as well as two text versions of her poems. Check it out HERE . I read the Selected Poems of Alice Notle y earlier this year, and I started my copy of her collection Disobedience this weekend in honor of her Monday reading, I recommend strongly that you get your hands on a copy of her work. I would, personally, like to own Grave of Light: New and Selected Poems 1970-2005 . I on...

I read a lot in December. Perhaps to counteract one-book November? I am not sure. I think I just found the time and the energy to immerse myself into my reading, chose the right books, and thoroughly enjoyed a good number of them... books read: December Bend Sinister by Vladimir Nabokov I picked this book up because during lunch before I went to work, I finished the book I had been reading. I searched and searched in Book Trader for something. Book Trader is one of those can't-go-there-to-find-something-specific bookstores. I grabbed this book because the copy I found was a limited edition with an interesting textured cover that had a modern painting on both the front and back. The book was excellent. I immediately recommended it to at least two or three readers I know. Nabokov has a way of weaving stories you'd never think to create yourself with human emotions, tendencies and specifics that make you think "I do that!" or "I know someone who would think like t...

This week, I broke all of my fiscally conservative book-buying rules. This is okay, though, because my birthday is this Thursday, the 26th, and if nothing else, I can break a few self-imposed spending rules. However, I am worried, kind of, about the time I waste posting blogs about books that could be spent reading them. So! In other words, let's get to the point... Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, Eds. Poems for the Millennium: Book of Modern & Postmodern poetry, Fin-de-Siecle to Negritude. Berkley: University of California Press, 1995. [paperback] AND Rothenberg, Jerome and Jeffrey C. Robinson, Eds. Poems for the Millennium: Book of Romantic & Postromantic Poetry. Berkley: University of California Press, 2009. [paperback] We just started to recieve these volumes at work in a strange number over the past few months. At first, the first two trickled in and out occasionally, but over the last few weeks, we have been buying and selling them a little more frequently....