This is Your Brain in a Bookstore

Updated 2009 Reading List: already read or reading, on my shelf, still at bookstore (or Miranda's)

cunt - Inga Muscio
Spin Sisters - Myrna Blyth
Spook - Mary Roach
The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Red Azalea - Anchee Min
The Small Rain - Madeleine L'Engle
Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
He's a Stud, She's a Slut - Jessica Valentini
Purity Myth - Jessica Valentini
Self-Made Man - Norah Vincent
Opening Up - Tristan Taormino
Open - Jenny Block
Look at Me - Jennifer Egan

New Books and why I spent $17 on them collectively:

Age of Innocence - One of those classics I've never read. I've scanned the back a dozen times at the bookstore, it was never the right time. Plus after my last two heavy reads, some good old-fashioned parlor intrigue sounded nice.

To Kill a Mockingbird - It's one of the best books ever written, I haven't read it in maybe ten years. Girlyear seems as good a time as any to revisit old faves.

Red Azalea - Anchee Min wrote Becoming Madame Mao which I read a while back and really enjoyed. I always want to read stories out of China (and I am always wanting to go back there). Red Azaleo got more praise that Becoming Madame Mao, its Min's personal account of China under Mao. I'm interested to see how her style differs telling her own story than a semi-fictional accounting of Madame Mao's life.

Mrs. Dalloway - Believe it or not, I've never read anything by Virginia Woolf. I know! I was surprised too!

The Small Rain - L'Engle was my favorite writer in my pre-teen years (well, at least top 3). I've read a dozen of her books for young adults and A Wrinkle in Time is still one of my favorite books. Yet, I've never tackled her work as an adult. Saw this one and grabbed it hoping the magic between L'Engle and I is still there.

Afterthought, is this really a post for UBC? I almost put it there and then thought better of it. This is an accounting of my mental state during a shopping trip, its not really about literature. These books could easily be shoes or nail polish or groceries. But since they are in fact books, I thought Miranda might find my mental state interesting.

p.s. I need a new sign-off. "Vote Obama 2012" seems a bit premature.