A reading list can come from anywhere and can be given to anyone.
Yesterday, Annex Books in Toronto closed its doors for the last time; however, before it went, it gifted me with a short reading list. Albeit an informal reading list, the books that ended up in my white plastic bag would not have ended up on my shelves had I not walked into that store on that particular day.
Book buyers, the ones who stock the shelves at your local bookstore, are the quiet list makers, tempting you with books you never knew were available. Their tastes inevitably shape the stock of the store, and your shelves. At the end of the year, newspapers and journals are bursting with end of year lists; however, a reading list tailored specifically for you will be the one you keep for years.
When I was twenty years old and a student at the University of Windsor, my American Literature professor noticed that I would read any book he mentioned in class. One day, before class began, he gave me a reading list. The list was comprised of names that while familiar to most were new to me. Years later, I still have the list and many of the books have become dog-eared favorites.
Although my professor passed away last year, his tastes have not. The good books he recommended remain good books, and, together, they make up a small slice of his literary history, which in turn, became mine.
So, take a few minutes and read through the list, which contains titles suggested by readers, writers and publishers, both Canadian and American. Inherit someone else's library, or at least one title from it. While this list was not tailored for any one in particular, I hope you'll consider picking up even one of the titles, especially if it is by a writer you have never heard of.
And if you want more suggestions, use the contributor list as your next reading list, many of whom have published worthy titles of their own. Better yet, ask a friend with an enviable book collection to make a list for you.
As for my pick, I'd like to suggest Now You Care, by Di Brandt. Now go on, get reading.
The NPR List of Essential Poetry Books
List of Contributors
Dani Couture, January 21, 2007
So, I'd like to start with a comment made near the end of your Late Nights with Wild Cowboys, in the poem "Jawbone." You express real fear and anxiety over the prospect of having your life and love be objectified, turned into summary, a bowdlerized rendering that "[leaves] nearly everything out." More than that, though, you are worried about how we ourselves are complicit in this sort of exclusionary act. I guess what I'd like to ask first, then, is: do you imagine poetry as a means of letting things in rather than keeping everything out? And what are you aiming to let in, exactly?
I really do think of poetry in that way, in terms of providing a space -- an opening -- in which it might be possible to say the things that are hard, and perhaps impossible, to say otherwise; in which to express that inarticulate feeling that you get sometimes...continue reading
Steve McOrmond's new collection of poems begins with a caution. In the style of TV content warnings, "Advisory" lists potential disturbing content to come: "themes which could threaten the viewer's sense of security," "Evidence of fatalism and irreligion," and the typical forewarnings about sexuality, violence and "language." Here McOrmond displays the dual cautionary and playful perspectives that interact throughout the book, switching from warnings about a drowning and an animal attack to the line, "The following program may contain scenes not suitable for language."
The poem raises the expected questions about what we censor and screen in popular media. What is considered objectionable, and why? Placed at the start of a collection whose title references Armageddon, "Advisory" leads the reader to expect a certain discomfort.
With that warning, the book moves to the title...continue reading