Hippity Hopping
I played Easter bunny for myself today and hippity-hopped over to Barnes and Noble for some goodies. I usually take a long list but today I took a short list and spent time browsing. It was lovely. Here is what the Easter bunny got me:
- A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Baca is a poet and this book is his memoir. At the age of twenty-one he was illiterate and behind bars at a maximum security prison for selling drugs. The book is how he managd to turn his life around.
- Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot by Richard Restak, M.D. I read about this book at Creating Passionate Users which I read at work because it is nominally about technology and I am the tech person and also in charge of training staff (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!). Restak is a neuropsychiatrist who uses examples from history, literature and science to explain how the brain works and how to make your own brain work better. It's not the most intellectual book on the brain but it looked interesting nonetheless.
- Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have always meant to read Elizabeth Gaskell but have not yet managed it. I saw this thick book and, in spite of the Pepto Bismal pink cover, couldn't help myself. I have no idea when I will be able to make time for it. Buying it was an attempt at wish fulfillment.
- The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells. I am sure I have seen one of the many movies though I can't quite bring the whole story to mind. I have never read the book. And since Alberto Manguel writes about it in A Reading Diary and before I left for the bookstore I had just read Margaret Atwood's introduction to it in Writing with Intent, how could I stop my hand when it picked it up off the shelf? The book gods have been telling me to get it and we all know that one should never mess with the book gods.
- The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald. I have heard of Sebald but he never really registered on my radar until Sandra at Bookworld wrote so passionately about him. It's a fictional walking tour of the eastern coast of England and it even has photos. I am looking forward to reading this one.
