Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Books, Books, And More Books

I’d no sooner cleared my desk of poetry-books-for-review when five more arrived: three published by Carcanet, one by Shearsman, and one by Waterloo Press. I began by reading a few poems from each and then settled into one of the Carcanet books, which is quite good, I think. Because of all this, I haven’t even been able to start the two new Salt books from Luke Kennard and Jamey Dunham.

I visited the Christian Aid Secondhand Booksale (Europe’s biggest) on George Street and came away with more books – a New Selected Poems of Ted Hughes 1957-1994, Michael Hofmann’s Approximately Nowhere, and Paul Muldoon’s Meeting the British. A week or two before, I’d picked up Frank Kuppner’s astonishing Arioflotga, a long poem consisting only of first lines from imaginary poems that make up a mythical anthology. It looks really funny, apart from anything else.

All good stuff, but I don’t know when I’m going to get a chance to read them, nor where I’m going to put them. I’ve decided it’s time for a clear-out of books I know I’ll never read again, especially those which weren’t much good first time. I don’t like removing books from my shelf and prefer to hoard them, but I will nevertheless enjoy the de-cluttered sensation once they have taken up position in whatever charity shop I hand them to.

3 comments:

deemikay said...

Tell me about it!

I keep meaning to clear out... but I always pick one up and then say "but no - I need this". And then I put it back.

One day, one day... I'll let you be ruthless for me in clearing out yours!

Ray said...

I used to have regular clearouts, but made some bad choices and ended up having to buy things again, usually in inferior editions or tatty condition. I've never managed to replace my copy of that nice little Cape edition of Holub's Although (what was I thinking of...?).

Anonymous said...

I know what you mean, Rob. I get sent so much stuff now that I've no need to buy anything any more....

James WW