The Environmental Atheist wants to know what I read, cuz I’m a lit-and-writing grad student, after all :) Ok — Actually, it’s just another meme:

A book that changed my life
Frank O’Hara’s Lunch Poems. (scroll to the bottom for pretty sample poem) [pic by Tina Burch, AP]

A book I’ve read more than once
Nabakov’s Lolita. “Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.”

A book I’d take with me if I were stuck on a desert island
Stitch N’ Bitch, assuming somewhat unrealistically that I have a buncha yarn to knit on this island.

A book that made me laugh
Any Human Heart by William Boyd. If you disagree with me, you’re a brutette — a brute in the making –

A book that made me cry
The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing. I’ve recommended this book to a lot of friends — and a few of them actually became quite depressed — to the point I demanded they take a break from the book.

A book that I wish had been written
Revenge of the Surrealists

A book that I wish had never been written
The Turner Diaries, which I read for a class as an undergrad. I wanna be clear: I don’t at all think the book should be banned or censored or not read in colleges — Just want a less racist and xenophobic world.

A book I’ve been meaning to read
The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I’ve read excerpts and like all the reviews, and I follow Michael Pollan’s publications religiously. But I haven’t read the whole book.

I’m currently reading
I just finished The Iliad (Richmond Lattimore, trans), and started Teaching Literature earlier today.

My fave Frank O’Hara poem, titled “Song”:

Is it dirty
does it look dirty
that’s what you think of in the city

does it just seem dirty
that’s what you think of in the city
you don’t refuse to breathe do you

someone comes along with a very bad character
he seems attractive. is he really. yes. very
he’s attractive as his character is bad. is it. yes

that’s what you think of in the city
run your finger along your no-moss mind
that’s not a thought that’s soot

and you take a lot of dirt off someone
is the character less bad. no. it improves constantly
you don’t refuse to breathe do you

Buy it via the Abebooks link below, and I get a kickback. Plus, the store resells pre-loved books :)

And I wanna know the literary tastes of Erin, groby, Summer, Russ, and Brian.

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