my eyes have always been bigger than my stomach

I decided that letting three weeks of fall quarter pass by without buying any of the books I need for my classes was long enough. So today I walked into the university bookstore and bought twelve books for $173.80. (Which is really not bad, when I recall that, as a pre-med neurobiology major, I used to pay close to $400 for textbooks during each quarter.) I also spent way too much time I didn’t have lurking around the English and Comparative Literature aisles, browsing through books for classes I’m not even enrolled in. Which means I ended up buying one book I don’t need: Farid ud-Din Attar’s Conference of the Birds. Way too cool to resist though.

edit: Forgot – two books I really, really wanted but decided to resist for now:

– Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, by Atul Gawande (I read the introduction while just standing there in the bookstore, and it was absolutely fascinating.)

– Palestine’s Children: Returning to Haifa & Other Stories, by Ghassan Kanafani

Read ’em for me and let me know how it goes, okay?

But still, the highlight of my last week, in contrast, was ducking into a used bookstore close to my hometown and coming back out with thirteen books for $25. Not bad at all, eh? A few short story collections by Ray Bradbury; a few novels I loved, growing up; and this gem by Susan G. Woolridge: poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words – I’m reading it less for the poem-writing advice and more for the author’s delightful stories interspersed throughout the book. Also, two poetry collections by Seamus Heaney (Station Island and The Haw Lantern), among other things. I was so tempted to buy this book – Ray Bradbury! One hundred short stories! Brand-new! Only $9.99! (All those exclamation points were my hyperactive bookworm brain trying to convince me I need to invest in books I really have no space for.) But I abstained, even though my fingers were all twitching. Clearly, I am such a nerd, what can I say.

Thank you, karrvakarela, for the Seamus Heaney recommendations; I trust your judgement, and I’ll definitely be checking out the ones you mentioned.

Anjum, I still owe you a book list. Gimme a couple days to go through my archives, buddy. I know, I said that a week ago. Sorry, dude.

Oh yeah, and I have absolutely no idea where all these books are going to go. I need to invest in a couple more bookcases. For now, the floor’s just gonna have to do.