Well. We all know about my book-buying problem (if you didn't know: I have one. That problem is that I buy too many of them). Jake and I went to Boston the weekend of March 4th, and I came home with nearly 20 new books, two of which I already had. One of those, Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus," I knowingly bought a second copy of because the newer one also included "The Duino Elegies." Regardless, I've resolved to create a sortable database of all the books I have, and then to print some form of it to carry with me.

Let me tell you though, Boston has some amazing bookstores. First and foremost, Raven Used Books, which had two locations... we found both of them. They had things I'd never been able to find in used book stores. Like Kurt Vonnegut. And adequate poetry sections. The Harvard University book store was of course also amazing. It had a basement level of used books and remainders (including more poetry). In Harvard Square there was also a poetry book store whose ad boasted over 16,000 volumes of poetry, but of course it was closed Sundays (the day we were there) and Mondays. All in all, I picked up poetry books by Rilke, Marina Tsvetayeva, e.e. cummings, Franz Wright, Margaret Atwood, Rita Dove, Erica Funkhouser, Jane Hirschfield, and others...

The good news in all this is that I've been reading more as well. Jake came and visited for about 10 days; I spent the last four being sick and not doing much which required energy. I finished one poetry book and read three more plus part of a novel in that time. I've since completed a short story collection I was reading.

Today I went to Ukazoo to trade in a few books (despite what their site says, the payment for the three I sold them was completely laughable - less than a dollar a book). Of course I left with four new (used) books.

But next week is Spring Break! I'll be in Michigan from Tuesday to Tuesday. Which means I'll have four hours one way on a plane to read some more... In my immediate queue is the rest of Valzhyna Mort's "Factory of Tears," Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," and the rest of the Swallow anthology of new poets from like... 2007. Plus two more books of poetry for class.

Woo hoo!