Again, I'm fascinated by people who are able to read while walking down the street. If I could do this--and I know I can't because I trip even when I'm just plain walking--I'd probably quit my job and spend all my time roaming San Francisco and reading books, slowing down when I hit a sunny patch.
The sidewalks down here, in the Financial District, were pretty vacant though, because it was President's Day.
Reading What is the What, by David Eggers. He's read other stuff by the author and is loving this because, as he said, it makes our lives look so damn good. It's about the life of a Sudanese refugee.
Something else good he's read recently--Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which his girlfriend recommended.
February 18, Monday evening -- Reading David Eggers
February 16, Saturday night -- Reading French (grammar)
At a taqueria in the Outer Mission (where taquerias serve until at least 3am....good to know!)
Reading Deux Mondes, a French language textbook, by Terrell, Rogers, Barnes and Wolff-Hessini.
Language textbooks are the only things he reads and has ever read--they kill the time. He's also studying German.
February 14, 2008 -- Thursday evening -- St. Valentines Day
On a carpet of downy feathers
just outside of swinging range of San Francisco's third annual Valentine's Day pillow fight (attended by roughly 1000...emphasis on rough--my head still hurts today)
sat a poet, writing love poems for small donations.
With him was a friend who, though in the picture is reading I, etcetera, by Susan Sontag, also read, aloud, to her key clattering poet, her own poetry, written in a lovely palmsized notebook.
While he was fielding business, she told me how she'd just gotten the Sontag book at a bookstore in Berkeley--she's always wanted to read something by Sontag. Her favorite book--Beautiful Losers, by Leonard Cohen, for its stream of consciousness, spirituality, sexuality. Every time she reads it, and she's read it about seventeen or eighteen times, she discovers something new--it was on her Dad's bookshelf, among Frank Herbert, Robert Heinlein, Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut.
If she were to write her own book, it would be about the Hungarian pop singer, Sarolta Zalatnay, who one of the Bee Gees wanted to marry. She discovered Ms. Zalatnay while doing a google search for female psychedelic music.
The (working) poet's favorite books--Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon and Journal of Albion Moonlight, by Kenneth Patchen.
Happy (late) Valentine's Day!
(in San Francisco, it's not our Christmases that are white, it's Valentines Days....
the feathers are not as fun to catch with your tongue--they tickle when inhaled)
I heart readers.
yours truly,
sw
(in San Francisco, it's not our Christmases that are white, it's Valentines Days....
the feathers are not as fun to catch with your tongue--they tickle when inhaled)
I heart readers.
yours truly,
sw
February 13, Wednesday evening -- Reading Eckhart Tolle
Reading The Power of Now, by Ekhart Tolle. He's read it, he said, about a million times. It's his favorite book. There's always something he can relate to.
Other good books he's read recently--Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew X. Pham, about bicycle adventures through Vietnam and the U.S., which he read for his book group, and also for his book group, The Velvet Rage, by Alan Downs, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist who talks about how shame is driving the gay community and how people express shame in different ways. The next book group selection is Dry, by Augusten Burrows--it's the book that comes after Running with Scissors.
If he were to write his own book? It'd be about psychic abilities and astrology--topics he's been interested in.
February 11, 2008 -- Monday evening
At Dogeared Books at 19th and Valencia.
I was late for my writers group, but I had to stop. I love seeing people reading while working at bookstores. Of all the books that surround them they're reading that one.
The truth of the matter was, though, that the guy with the plaid shirt sleeve was pricing trade-in books for shelving and had recommended that his colleague read a poem. ...he was actually working. Sort of. Another bookseller once told me that it's a myth that booksellers have time to read at work. Maybe he's right. I've only been able to take about 3 pictures of booksellers reading.
Here's the poem. It's short.
53:
May my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old
...here's the rest of it.
Short, but too long to type.
Something good he's read recently--By Night in Chile, by Roberto Bolaño. What he's excited about reading next--That Awful Mess on Via Merulana, by Carlo Emilio Gadda, published by the NY Review of Books, which, he said, has been publishing lots of good mid-century mystery novels. 
February 10, 2008 -- Sunday afternoon
On a Sunny day at Dolores Park
Reading Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin for her book club--it's an impressive piece of queer literature and her friend who chose it for the group's first meeting really likes James Baldwin.
Her favorite book? She has about fifty. Among them: Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman and The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.
She's been a bookworm since she was a kid. When she was young, she read f-ing (abbreviated by her, not me) everything. Dianna Wynne Jones's book Witch Week was awesome as was Tamara Pierce's young adult fantasy series about a girl named Alanna who is a warrior and a witch.
If she were to write her own book? It'd be a comic book about her adventures being a stripper in New Orleans and Texas, where she also worked at Bookwoman, the only feminist bookstore in the state. Among the adventures are hearing people's secrets. You learn about people.
To learn even more about people she's also working on getting a degree. In her bag--a textbook about human sexuality. She's waiting for her friends to come to break it out and get down to her bikini--the combination of the two, she said sagely, could invite trouble.
After completing her undergrad she's going to school for library sciences--future librarian. Horray!
February 9, 2008 -- Saturday afternoon
Parked on Bernal Hill, sitting in the sun on Chicken John's bus waiting while the passengers shoot a movie in the glorious green grass above the road--he's the driver for the day while Chicken John is out of town. The bus runs on coffee grounds.
Reading The Road, by Cormac McCarthy.
He's planning on shooting a movie--an absurdist look at the idea of "the last man on earth," which will include his band-- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. The band will play at the Great American Hall of February 16th. Here's the band's website.
February 7, 2008 -- Thursday evening
Reading all the way up the escalator--I stopped her at the top to find out what was so gripping.
It's called Suite Française, and it's by Irène Némirovsky. The author died in Auschwitz in August of 1942, shortly after writing the stories the book contains: two novellas about the German invasion of Paris--which she experienced--written virtually in real time. Here's a NY Times review about the book that describes the difficulty of writing fiction in real time.
What she's enjoying about Suite Française is that, though the author's real life has a sad ending, the stories themselves bring out the good that happened during that time.
Her favorite books--The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay and The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Books are, to her, a release--she loves experiencing other people's creativity.
February 7, 2008 -- Thursday evening
Reading Daughters of Moonsong, by Jessica Stuart. She got it because it's set in San Francisco and because she likes the author. It was only 75 cents with her 30%-off senior discount at the thrift store on Valencia between Cesar Chavez and 26th!
When she was young she liked reading Nancy Drew and the National Geographic magazines her dad would bring home--he worked for the company. She loved the paper it was printed on, but was always concerned with how many trees were being used.
February 6, 2008 -- Wednesday evening
Reading I'm Not the New Me, by Wendy McClure (who she's met), for her book group. Check out the author's blog at www.poundy.com--it's great. I learned a new word, well, not a real new word, but a fake word that the author learned while playing scrabulous. The plural of kith (your friends and aquaintences)--kithen. It could catch on. A new way to sweetly address multiple friends while sending the lazy one email.
Other good books she's read recently--The Custom of the Country, by Edith Wharton and, she was embarrassed to say, the first of the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar.
She's a sucker for books about rich people treating each other horribly.
Her favorite book of all time--House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. It's about a New York socialite trying to find a rich husband. The moral of the story: make your own money.
If she were to write her own book? Right now, it'd be about photography. She's taking a class and enjoys photographing her friends' bands, at a tattoo shop, and around the Mission.
February 6, 2008 -- Wednesday evening
In front of a window display for a clothing store on Market Street
Reading The Botany of Desire, by Michael Pollan. He works for a nursery and is big into carnivorous plants.
A pretty damn good book--The Savage Garden, by Peter d'Amato, an in-depth picture book of carnivorous plants. It's been reprinted six times.
His favorite book of all time--The Grapes of Wrath, by Steinbeck. He read it for the first time when he was in the 4th or 5th grade and has read it repeatedly since. It's jut amazing, he said. It opens your eyes; it takes you on a journey.
He's just getting back into reading. When he commuted, he read all the time, but when he started driving the company truck, he stopped.
He likes instructional books-- Insectivorous Plants, by Charles Darwin--Darwin's own research about how plants digest flies and the Sunrise Westsern Gardener book (not sure if I caught the title right).
If he were to write his own book, it'd be about how to take care of houseplants. You can go the simple route and water your plants once a week, or you can grow them with more of a feeling--get to know your plants.
February 3, 2008 -- Sunday evening
Reading Is Art History Global?, edited by James Elkins, which she found out about in the magazine, Art in America. It begs the question of whether a Eurocentric perspective can be avoided when approaching art history on a global scale. It's deep.
Her favorite book of all time--The Windup Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami. Why? For its dreaminess.
She just finished Dangerous Muse: The Life of Lady Caroline Blackwood, by Nancy Schoenberger. Caroline Blackwood had been married to prolific artists and writers and was considered to be a muse.
When she was a kid, at 8 or 9-years-old she read books that were castoffs from tourists--the only English books available to her. Jackie Collins, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steele. She lived in Indonesia, South Africa, Hawaii--her dad was a surfer. Her mom would read the books after she was done and be incredulous and she would laugh.
If she were to write her own book? Difficult question. It'd be fiction. Her art--she paints and does instillation-- is about counterfeit utopias and altering memory. Hence, her interest in her current book.
Next she plans on reading The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon, an anticolonialist intellectual.
January 31, 2008 -- Thursday night
Reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig. It was recommended to his brother and, because his brother wasn't reading it, he took it. It's so good, he said, that his brother should read it, too. He'll give it back when he's done.
His favorite book? This could be the one. It has thoughts in it that he has too, which makes him realize he's not crazy and that's a good feeling.
January 30, 2008 -- Wednesday evening
Reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second book in the series. His roommate gave him the whole set, which comes in a chest with a lock on it. This is what it looks like. Very impressive. All he got his roommate, he regretted, was a video game.
Favorite book--Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. It's the book that got him into reading when he was a kid. He still has the book, a signed copy that his uncle gave him.
The man has been gifted books.
Another favorite--A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin.
If he were to write his own book? He's got one in progress actually. It's a medieval fantasy.
January 29, 2008 -- Tuesday afternoon
Enjoying her day off of work
Reading Skinny Bitch, by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. Her sister said it was really good and gave it to her when she was done. It is, as it says on the cover, "a no-nonsense, tough-love guide for savvy girls who want to stop eating crap and start looking fabulous!"
Before this she read Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which she really loved. Her mom recommended it.
She doesn't classify herself as a "reader"--she reads when she hears about a good book.
When she was a kid--about eight-years-old--she used to like the Goosebumps books, by R.L. Stine. When she finished one, she’d move onto the next.
Her own book—it’d be about an autobiography about a woman finding herself in the world—from finishing school at age 16, moving to LA and then coming to San Francisco to work as a manager in a department store and study at the Academy of Art.
A bumper sticker she saw the other day: Reading is Sexy.
January 26, 2008 -- Saturday night
Reading from the works of Robert Burns at Burns Night at the Edinburgh Castle Pub.
She is a Scottish Zen monk who teaches meditation classes to the homeless.
After entertaining us with her singing and recitation of Burns' poetry she delivered a monologue on the topic of snot. Yes, mucus that comes from the nasal passages. She even passed out photographs of a ceramic mug, that looks like a face, but is really an egg seperater. The whites run out the nose. How psyched would you be to get one of those for Christmas?
We found her outside, getting some air after her recitation, standing beneath the awning while the rain pounded down and people carrying wet umbrellas jostled past, and she explained the context of the mucus--Robert Burns, like her, had earthy sensibilities.
(Photo taken while my friend, Colleen, and I crouched on the floor on the upper balcony, looking down between the slats of the railing.)
January 25, 2008 -- Friday evening
Reading Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings, by Sylvan Barnet and Hugo Bedau, for a class she's taking at City College.
A favorite author--Amy Tan.
January 23, 2008 -- Wednesday evening
Reading Science of Survival, by the American philosopher and founder of Dianetics and Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard. It's for the class she's taking, Science of Survival. She's been involved in Scientology for the past ten years and feels as though she has greatly benefitted.
Her favorite book? The Hammer and the Cross, by Harry Harrison. It's an historical novel about Viking history. The Vikings, she explained, with a tone of sweet affection, are her ancestors. She's Scandinavian.
If she were to write her own book? It'd be about human rights.
January 22, 2008 -- Tuesday evening
Reading Double Cross, by James Patterson.
When I approached her and asked her if I could take her photo she said, I knew you were going to ask me that.... which is a rare response. Usually people are confused. It turns out I'd photographed her before. About a year ago, she said. I disagreed. No. A few months ago at most. I checked when I got home. She was more right than me--a week off. Here's the 1/29/07 post.
Like last year, she's still into James Patterson. It's good stuff to read in short spots in her commute. But, she wishes she had time in the evenings to really get into a book. She'd read for knowledge and not just a diversion--mythology and U.S. History.
She picked up Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to read before seeing the movie.....but said it looks like she'll be getting it on DVD.
It's hard to find time.
January 21, 2008 -- Monday afternoon -- MLK Day
At Ritual Coffee Roasters, where the line stretches out the door....and into the rain. All the cafes were full-up. Gloomy holidays call for caffeine.
Reading Demian, by Hermann Hesse. She’s in a Herman Hesse phase and just finished Siddhartha. Next up? It’ll depend on what she’s writing, and, also, what she assigns to her students to read—she teaches creative writing at Mills. The only way to become a good writer, she said, is to read a lot of books. Her students read a book a week.
Her personal favorites—she doesn’t really have favorites, but, Faulkner and Dostoevsky come to mind.
Check out her website, www.michelinemarcom.com. It celebrates writing….and, this is hard to describe without looking at the site, scribbling!--it's neat.
From her Litquake bio:
Micheline Aharonian Marcom is author of Three Apples Fell from Heaven, a New York Times Notable Book; and of The Daydreaming Boy, which won the 2005 PEN/USA Award in fiction. Her Draining the Sea is forthcoming in March 2008. Marcom received a 2004 Lannan Literary Fellowship and 2006 Whiting Writers Award.
Proof that reading makes you a good writer.
Thank you!
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