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.