Fall Reading List, Yet Again

by be. aaron

I forgot to add two Melville books to my original list: Omoo + Typee. Now I have to go back and re-think the whole living/dead male/female rotation thing.

Fall Reading List Update

by be.aaron

If anyone out there read my previous post re: fall reading, I needed someone good and dead to read before Lorrie Moore– and I just got the answer from Lorrie Moore herself. In a current interview she mentions Clarice Lispector in the same context as Alice Munro, the living, breathing goddess of story. Now I am wondering if I need to alternate between genders as well.

Fall Reading List

by be.aaron

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

2666, Bolano

Portrait of a Lady, Henry James

Olive Kittredge, Elizabeth Strout

A Gate at the Stairs, Lorrie Moore

* I like to alternate dead + living authors so I will need something to please the Eng. Lit. major in me to go between Strout and Moore. Suggestions???

summer library

by be. aaron, Eng.Lit. major

I just moved and have been unpacking the boxes of books which have survived the purges of perhaps fifteen previous moves. I’ve been in a prolonged nomadic period and have learned to shelve my books alphabetically and to label the boxes according to which shelf on which bookcase and in which room they will come to rest for the time being.  I am hoping to stay put in this perch for a few years because for the first time, I have an actual study, something that’s always been high on my list of things to attain in life. Next on my list of lifetime achievements will be to have a study with built-in bookshelves. This will require one more move.

In the process of unpacking the books, I’ve leafed through some that belonged to my father in his childhood- one has a pencil drawing of Popeye and a note scribbled in the back which says, “Do we have any English homework?” My father would definitely have done his English homework. I trace the Eng. Lit. major gene, the curly hair gene, and an undiluted pool of genes for which I am not thankful, to him. I   found a place of prominence for a book from my own childhood and a resting area for a pile of classic kids’ books that I plan to read for  the procrastination phase of a project.

I  gave away some books in the process of this move– mostly required reading for NYU courses on Fundraising + Philanthropy. I now know how to write a grant, though thanks to Bernie Madoff and the current economy, it’s become a less relevant skill. In the time I spent walking my dog around the block, all of the books were spirited away from the sidewalk, except for “Ethics  in Fundraising”.

Even though my bookshelves are stuffed to capacity, I just ordered another pile,used, from abe books, for my summer reading, which is in addition to my reading for purposes of procrastination.

I just finished Jill Bolte Taylor’s “My Stroke of Insight”, a must read. You can learn to reduce anger, sadness, grouchiness to an experience that lasts ninety seconds rather than a whole weekend, season or year.

I am now reading Colm Toibin’s “The Master” about Henry James. It’s a must read for Eng. Lit. majors. I was reading it in bed last night and this found poem, written on a slip of memo paper from “THE POD HOTEL” slipped out:

Melissa you are neat

And I can’t stand the heat

You are so fine

I want to make you mine

Sweet and gentle

You make me mental

From Leslie M. 5-29-08 12:09 a.m.

It’s the best bookmark I’ve ever had.

Also on my summer reading list– Jonah Lehrer’s, “How We Decide,” and delicious fiction which I haven’t been of a mind to devour for ages: Ian McEwan’s “Saturday,” and Mary Gaitskill’s story collection, “Don’t Cry.”

I wonder which of these books will make the cut next time I move.

New Definition #7

by carole jardins, delighted

SUMMER: Dahlias + Lemon Italian ices.

New Definition #6

by be.aaron, aggrieved

LANDLORDS: Except for my friends Jon and Ada, check-cashing cockroaches.

New Definition #5

by be.aaron, housekeeping mostly for the purpose of procrastination

HOUSEWIFE: When chosen as primary occupation in life, an early predictor of mild, to severe, cognitive impairment.

New Definition #4

by be.aaron, made miserable in her teen years by the moniker, “surfboard,” in reference to her  appearance in a bikini top

HELL: An afternoon of bra shopping, including fitting and innumerable try-ons, with, and for, one’s 83 year old mother and a perky southern Californian  saleswoman,  “I was named after Claudette Colbert.”

New Definition #3

by be.aaron, archivist

Memory: Imagination.

See also

neuroscience,

the past.

New Definition #2

by be.aaron, editor-in-chief

Transparency: I am an open book, as long I’m the one who has written it.

My Bio in Green

by be.aaron, the green-eyed

Fave R&B Singer: Al Green

Fave Rock Band: Green Day

Fave Veggie: Green Bean

Fave Salad: Greens w/Green Goddess

Fave Pasta: Spinach Fettucini w/ Pesto

Fave Ice Cream Flavor: Pistachio

Fave Nail Polish Color: Algae (Formaldehyde-free)

Fave Poem: Leaves of Grass

Fave Beverage: Green T

Fave Body Part: Green Thumb

Fave Bad: Green with Envy

Fave Color: You Guessed It.

New Definition #1

by be. aaron, serene+ clean

My new definition of  luxury: bubble bath.

I used to think it was essential, had to be made of botanicals, minimum cost $30. Now my only requirement is that it contain at least some essential oil of lavender. I found some for $8 and I make it last a month. Also, it’s  now called bath foam because perhaps, bubbles sound too frivolous. I draw the line at products called “body wash”– that’s just a new definition of soap.

I recently saw the film, Frozen River, which I recco. The main character is about to have her TV repossessed and has just lost the money she’s saved for a double-wide trailer but she has a stash of lounging liquids on hand, unused, in case things get really, really bad.

A Definition of Masochism

by be. aaron, over-sharing/over-caring dog-owner

While my dog was at the vet’s being anesthetized and then having her teeth cleaned, I watched Marley and Me.

I have written promos, ads and trailers for a gazillion movies –is there a dog movie out there in which the beloved pet does not die in the end? I ask rhetorically.

According to Anita Phillips, who wrote In Defense of Masochism, all artists are, by definition, masochists.

The next time my dog needs to get knocked out and have any kind of procedure, I vow to undertake something, anything, creative.

Still Life, by carole jardins

slice o' life

staff o' life

life n' death

Question of the Day

by be.aaron, poor person

Forgive my insensitivity

but why is it that,

when faced with

failure,

financial figures choose

suicide

rather than face

a life of quiet despair

and/or

the consequences of their actions,

or inactions?

habitat, by carole jardins

Question of the Day

by be. aaron, curious person

If you had to choose

between a known hell

and one that’s new,

which would it be?

Loves/Hates

by be.aaron, passionate person

I love to look at horizontal lines and write on unruled paper

I hate when a movie ends and the credits begin to roll and the people around me get up to leave, thus breaking the spell in which we gradually get acclimated to the world that is not the movie

I hate when people talk in yoga class– similar to above but in reverse, the chatter disrupts the process of leaving the world that is not the class behind

I love the word lunch– it sounds like it has mayo in it

I hate mayo

Yet Another Peeve

by be.aaron, peeved slow-foodie

I’ve been enjoying my weekly box of fruits +veggies from Urban Organic– but  the delicate skin of the zucchini, pears, apples, eggplants are consistently marred by adhesive labels which identify them as organic. The labels are decidely not organic and really, really annoying to remove.

Question of the Day

by be.aaron, fortune cookie

Why

be

a cookie-cutter

when

you can

be

a cookie-eater?

Elsewhere, My Mantra

by be. aaron, escape artist

Manhattan  Maine Mexico