I Have a Problem: Volume VII

"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed and Where and Why" is one of the first poems that I read over and over again. St. Vincent Millay led a fierce and complex life and she really shook things up for her time. But for a woman who could look into a camera and seduce you across the ages, her vulnerabilities and strength come across in equal measure in her poetry. She reminds you that people are often infinitely more complex than the bare expression of their actions. 

My boyfriend's brother recommended this and I hear there's a cat in it. That's only partly a joke. This book has something of a cult following and everyone that I've spoken to who has read it absolutely loves it.

I read The Innocents Abroad when I was in India and fell in love with Mark Twain in a way that I never had when reading Huck Finn in high school. Twain pulls no punches and, as someone who has grown up in the age of the politically correct, it is refreshing to read someone who is not apologizing every other sentence.

This book is my latest addition to my collection of good ol' fashioned ghost stories. I have a fascination with Nantucket, because whales.

I love books about places and also things that go. This means that I am attracted to board books designed for children who cannot yet read and books like this.

167, 168, 169, 170, 171

In Which I Take a Buzzfeed Quiz and Hit the Library Book Sale

I took a Buzzfeed Quiz and I'm not ashamed because it was on one of my favorite subjects: banned books! You should take it, too, and then we can compare geeky notes.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/ariannarebolini/how-scandalous-is-your-reading-history

I've read 47 of 93 of the banned books on their list, which means two things:

1. I have a moderately scandalous bookish history- more easily compared to the track record of Zelda Fitzgerald than that of Tallulah Bankhead.

"Scott does worry so over
 my troublesome spells..."

If I smoked one cigarette for each of the scandals of the day,
Hollywood would have a cigarette shortage.

 2. I have to step up my game!

There were several books on the list that I have been intending to read and three of them were even on my list for The Great Book Liberation Project (explained at the end of the link rainbow)!
1. Beloved by Toni Morrison
2. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
3. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
I am going to pick up a cheapo copy of 1984 tomorrow so that I can add it to my project. It may shock you, as it certainly shocks me, that I haven't read it- but when I first tried there was sex and I got a little fit of the vapors because that was my knee jerk reaction to any mention of sex for a very long time while growing up. So let's say,
4. 1984 by George Orwell
Those four books will be my next four reads in the project, methinks. I am currently reading White Tiger.

I also purchased four books at the library book sale and one book while I was out tonight. Please don't look at me.

This project is never going to end, is it?

In other news, I heard peepers as I drove home this evening and finished my route with an absurd grin on my face. Spring is officially here and not going anywhere. 
If you don't have peepers in your life, I am so sorry. Here is an explanation of what they are.
Here are 10 continuous hours of what you're missing out on.

I Have a Problem: Volume VI

I have a bit of an aversion to book stores that look sterile. You know what I'm talking about- post-Borders wunderkind with too much open space, a mediocre coffee bar, light-wood shelves, and not a speck of dust to be found. I am definitely more comfortable in shops that look as if they would welcome a resident cat, sleepy and full of warm, heavy light, books stacked and scattered, some already well-loved. Don't get me wrong- both stores should exist. People have the types of spaces in which they elect to exist and there need to be all sorts of environments on which to embark that most wonderful of missions: looking for books.

I found myself in the first type of bookstore this week and forced myself to focus on the shelves instead of the IKEA chairs and found two great little volumes, one I have been meaning to read and one that looks made for me.

The very first thing that attracted me to Swamplandia! when I stumbled across it for the first time was that wonderful cover illustration and the title. I love bayous. I know nearly nothing about bayous, but I love them. Find me a decent tale set in the Deep South, with screaming crickets and murky water and I will love you forever. The grass is always greener, amiright?

I eat books on faith for breakfast, because I struggle through my own dealings with the Spirit and it is good to know that one is not alone in such heavy ponderings. I look forward to reading the perspectives offered in this book.

157, 158

I Have a Problem: Volume V

The gentleman and I were strolling Salem, Massachusetts this past weekend, getting out of town to celebrate our year-and-a-half with a little adventure in a whole new city. Just the sort of thing that we were hoping to find was found- a wonderful book store, of the rare and special sort, books as shelves for books, haphazard stacks, and shelf labels hanging from the ceiling because there is no space on floor or wall. Everything was 75% off, and while we were happy to take advantage of such an incredible deal, it broke our hearts to find that our good fortune was at the loss of such a wonderful space. 39 years in business on that sweet little street corner and now closing. My heart aches. Salem has so obviously lost a treasure. 

It was difficult to keep to a strict budget under such conditions, but I have a speculative fiction event coming up and I know that I'll be spending at book signings and the like. So, now for what I finally decided on in the stack that I accumulated in three minutes:

I have never read any Flannery O'Connor, which is tragic and wrong and weird, considering how much I love a good Southern Gothic tale. And, as I mentioned before, I am trying to read more short stories.

I literally bought this book because of the author bio: 

Gregory David Roberts was born in Melbourne, Australia. A gifted writer and student, he became addicted to heroin when his marriage collapsed and he lost the custody of his daughter. When he committed a series of robberies with an imitation pistol, he was described as the Gentleman Bandit. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison, he escaped and journeyed to New Zealand, Asia, Africa, and Europe. For ten of those fugitive years he lived in Bombay-where he established a free medical clinic for slum-dwellers, and worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner, and street soldier for a branch of the Bombay mafia. Recaptured in Germany, he served out his sentence there and in Australian prisons. Upon his release, he established a successful multimedia company, and since the international publication of Shantaram, he is a full-time writer, at home in several countries. (from Amazon) 

This guy:

From his website

Translation really does make all of the difference. I have stumbled over The Iliad in the past and really could not stand it, but upon finding a Fagles translation I think I shall have to try again. I read his work on The Aeneid in high-school and really couldn't get enough of it. It was the first time I realized the magic of Homer and just how he managed to capture so many imaginations over so much time. I sense a Greek history obsession coming on in my little chest.

154, 155, 156

A Bookish Buy and A Couple of New Entries

So I have been ogling Frostbeard Studio candles for a while. Maybe it's a strange thing to love, but I am kind of a candle geek. I really just appreciate nice smelling spaces- they soothe me. Anyway, I finally picked out my first candle from this company: Soy tarts inspired by The Shire! The notes are oakmoss, clover, aloe, and a hint of cherry pipe tobacco- perfect for the springtime!

 Other scents that I am coveting include: Cliffs of Insanity (Princess Bride), Dumbledores' Office, Old Books, and Oxford Library (Lyra's Oxford, that is). This feels like grown-up happy meal prizes- collect them all!

Frostbeard Studio Website
Frostbeard Etsy Shop

And since I was already spending money, hey! Why not get a couple of books?

Because I really need to read more Virginia Woolf

Because after reading Rebecca, I am now obsessed with Daphne du Maurier. 

152, 153

I Have a Problem: Book IV

I am stress buying.
Most people have some sort of persistent nervous behavior, a tell that gives them away when life becomes poker and the stakes are set strenuously high. There are stress eaters, exercise-a-holics, and within many of us lurks a closet shopaholic that emerges, debit card held high and legs churning to the closest depot for our consumption of choice. I am the last sort, if that has not yet been made clear. And as there are enough decisions on my shoulders to crush Atlas, at the moment, I spent all sorts of money that I don't really have on books yesterday. It was modest, as book hauls go, but it was significant for me.

The lad and I speak often about the rush of daily life- how the modern world does not lend itself to the sort of contemplation of one's surroundings that enrich a life. When I spotted this "country diary" and looked through its beautiful pictures and scripted entries, I knew that here was a woman who would have understood our distress.

I have this Great Gatsby joke that I tell strangers. In my defense, I always ask if they've read the book before I regale them with my recycled hilarity. About one awkward minute later we find that they don't really remember enough from that one high-school perusal fifteen years ago to decipher just why my joke was funny. This is always very sad and yet I am no closer to giving up on the joke as an effective ice breaker. Someday, the gathered crowd will howl in paroxysms of mirth and I will know at that moment that I have found my people.

I work with perfumes nearly every day and have really grown to love the intricacies of their compositions, as well as the cloudy history around each group of scents.This is an altogether different approach from what romantic write-ups I have read, almost always as part of a publicity file, and I'm looking forward to it.

To be honest, it was the title that attracted to me this.
Sometimes I struggle to do this.
Who doesn't?

148, 149, 150, 151

Okay. NEW RULE.

Before I can purchase any single new book that qualifies (AKA Books I Own But Have Not Read), I must read TWO from the existing list.

I Have a Problem: Book III

I will not be buying books for a little while.

I will not be buying books for a little while. 

I will not- you know, if I say it enough times, maybe it will become true. But in all honesty, I am going to try not to buy for a couple of weeks at least. I am saving up for a Salt & Cedar candle. No, really. I'm not buying books because I'm saving up for a candle, which I will burn while reading books. So this will be my last "I Have a Problem" update for a little while (hopefully).

I've been really into food information for the past couple of years and really only started cooking in earnest this past year. One of my absolute favorite topics of conversation and thought is sustainability and what it means to be truly invested in the workings of one's life- specifically from a consumer standpoint. What does it mean to buy the things we buy- from food to the clothing on our backs? I think that this find will feed into the accumulating body of work I've read in this direction. It's mostly been pop non-fiction up to this point, but I can definitely see myself going down the food rabbit hole. As a side note, Mark Kurlansky wrote The Basque History of the World, which I really enjoyed reading before I went to Basque country, a couple of years ago.

I am missing a 145. I really don't know how that happened, but I guess that makes this 145.

I Have a Problem: Book II

It looks like "I Have a Problem" is going to be an ongoing series because, well, I can't stop buying books.

I have been looking longingly at this one for a while and I finally just broke down and purchased it. I'm obsessed with good, ol' fashioned ghost stories, which is weird because I'm a bit of a pussycat when it comes to all things spooky. Still, back in November I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I wrote a novel that takes place in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and so I bought this for research. 

Yeah, research. 

No one believes that.

The lad and I nabbed this in an antique store the other day for three dollars and it will probably be one we read together. Is James Bond suited to cozy reading out loud nights? I think so.

These books are, respectively, 146 and 147.