To the anon who asked what books I was currently reading..!

Sorry, I accidentally deleted your ask
and this is way overdue, seeing as I got
that ages ago, but I’m slowly going through
my inbox, so first things first:
why are you doing this to me?!

I am trying very hard to not acknowledge
the growing pile of books that I really,
really did not need to buy but did so I could read them
and read them again and again and again
(not to mention the other beloved books in my collection
that I’ve been devotedly cycling through).

Okay. Deep inhales here before I begin.

E.M. Cioran’s The Trouble with Being Born
and also another one of his works, The Temptation to Exist
a huge collection of Samuel Beckett’s poetry
I fucking adore George Steiner’s My Unwritten Books
and have bought three copies because the previous
two died from all my thumbing to where the print
actually faded Migration by W.S. Merwin
a book of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poetry
Stolen Air, a very excellent translation of Osip Mandelstan’s
poetry (a Russian poet, if you are unfamiliar)
The Book of Questions by Pablo Neruda
Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges
The Journals of Sylvia Plath
Dublineers by James Joyce (borrowed from my bestie)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar
The Little Demon by Fyodor Sologub
   
Black Snow by Mikhail Bulgakov
Stepphenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
being a smaller book and easier for me
to take anywhere, I usually tote around
Pierre Reverdy’s short stories and poems
same also goes for Baudelaire’s vignettes in Paris Spleen
and for Cinders by Jacques Derrida
I’ve read a lot of reviews about how some people tire
of the second half to Neruda’s Residence on Earth
(I’ve made references to this work in something
I’ve written), but with the experience I’ve shouldered,
I find something extremely resonating with the entire book,
regardless of the latter part being political/war descriptions.
His imagery never fails to leave me breathless
and there’s a visceral element that feels like home
in the most devastating sense.
I always come back to this book.
same goes for On the Blue Shore of Silence.
Excellent collection of his poetry and the theme
revolves around the sea. If you’re unfamiliar,
my favorite of this series is here.
in spite of having read the whole 700 page tome
in store (in one sitting, too), I am smitten with Edna St.
Vincent Millay like you wouldn’t believe
The Dismal Science by Peter Mountford
Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac
lovvvvvve short stories written by Nabokov.
I’m due to buy another copy because
my current is getting… rugged
huge Philip Larkin fan here, so there’s that
I’ve also been carrying around William Carlos Williams’
poetry during the last few days
Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
and I will forever adore The Little Prince until the end of time

I’ve been re-reading a lot of other stuff, too,
but these are predominantly what I’ve recently bought
or own and have been reading during what little spare time
had in the past couple of weeks.
Because any spare time was obviously meant for reading.

Soooooooo, yeah, I’m basically a huge fucking nerd
who would sooner forget her phone before ever leaving home
to start her day without a book.