The Dry Spell Ends
As I mentioned recently, I have not been allowed in a bookstore due to the fact of my impending birthday. However, last night being the start of the birthday celebrations (the actual day is not until Tuesday, but once you make it past 30 you get to celebrate longer to make up for the getting older part), we went out for Vietnamese food. The place we went to just happened to be around the corner from Half Price Books. Of course we had to go browse. Of course, I couldn't just browse. I walked out with four, new to me, books. With my teetering piles I have no idea when I will have time to get to them, but that's beside the point. For your voyeuristic pleasure, here's what I brought home:
- On Creativity by David Bohm. The book is an exploration on the nature of creativity and the relationship between art and science. Oh how I love stuff like this. My inner scientist did a happy dance when I saw this book. Have I ever mentioned that before I turned to Literature in college I was a biology major? I would have stuck with it except I had an existential crisis surrounding mathematics. Numbers and I never really got along. Still don't. But I love science and theory as long as I don't have to do the math.
- The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick. This has been on my wishlist for some time. I've never read Ozick but I've heard interesting things about her and about this book.
- Literature and the Gods by Roberto Calasso. I've seen this book sitting on the shelf at the bookstore since the end of last year. I kept telling myself that if it was still there next time I'd get it. Each time I'd say that. Next time finally arrived. The book is based on a series of Oxford lectures Calasso delivered in 2000 on the divine--godly or otherwise--in literature.
- The Dream of Heroes by Adolfo Bioy Casares. This book turns out to be out of print. It's a novel and supposedly considered to be a masterpiece of Argentine literature. Don't know much about it. Just know that Bioy Casares was a friend and collaborator of Jorge Luis Borges. So it will be a bit of an adventure.
