Let’s talk about books

Hey!

1. What was the last book you read? How was it?
2. What are you reading now? Why?
3. Should I read any or all of these books?
4. If not, what should I read? Is there a book you find yourself recommending to most everyone, over & again?
5. What was the last book to keep you up at night?

I’m word-hungry & seem to have hit a dead end with my to-read list. I mean, I have a whole bunch of stuff waiting on Goodreads, but at times— okay, often— I like to be led somewhere unexpected.

*

My answers are below, if you’re curious.

1. Modern Life by Matthea Harvey; yes, it was fucking wonderful.
2. I always end up with five to ten books on rotation, out of antsiness or curiosity or something- this is analogous to my love life, incidentally- but right now I’m actively reading:

  • Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain (because sometimes I listen to NPR okay, & sometimes also I need to be narcissistic in my nonfiction reading choices.) 
  • The Sonnets by Ted Berrigan (because I can’t afford his collected works right now, & I’m unreasonably obstinate about needing to own a book like that rather than borrowing from the library.)
  • The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the Creative Brain by Alice Weaver Flaherty (because if memory serves, Ariana Reines recommended this to Michelle Tea in an interview, or maybe vice versa. In any case, hypografia is super interesting.)
  • A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon by CA Conrad, because Conrad is one of the great poetic prophets of our time, & its real necessary to be reminded (after being exposed to endless instructive essays on craft, etc.) that poetry- at least, poetry with any semblance of humanity & passion— is a corporeal thing.

3. Jury’s out on the nonfiction jawns, but definitely the rest, yes.
4. I tell most everyone to read Richard Brautigan. Though I’m not so sure I trust someone who hasn’t read Brautigan before. I mean, c’mon. Brautigan.
5. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson. Wasn’t trying to be cute with this question, by the way. This book kept me up nights.