went to Barnes & Noble yestreen. they got the thing right, pretty much. you step in and smell Starbucks coffee: good start. I do not actually look at many books. I just don't have the time or focus to read all the history I want to, or the science books, or fiction. I hate to admit that, but that's where I am. I almost got a book by James Hillman, who is a Jungian therapist (albeit one quite willing to criticise Jung), but the book was made of crappy paper with a crappy binding: what's the point. especially as Hillman is someone I'd underline a lot. I saw Kenneth Koch's collected and was this close to getting it. it just didn't excite me in the way Berrigan's did, however. I was bemoaning (you should have seen me bemoan!) the lack of a collected Berrigan years ago. it's not that I don't like Koch, it's just that he's on a different level of need for me. the Koch doesn't identify the editor or anyone involved, which removes a personal aspect from gthe project (it shouldn't but it does), whereas Berrigan's is a family affair and it shows. plus Notley's introduction has some useful comments to make. I was surprised to find a selection (or was it a complete) of Djuna Barnes. fault to me, I've never read her. sprinkled thru the book are photos of her, making the book seem like a biography. Laura Riding is of interest, but right now I'm suire I can't read her. what I've read of her is tortuous, tortured senteces, fascinating but such as my attention span can't render properly. see, I wasn't desperate to get anything. Sylvia Plath's journal looked interesting, as did a book by Kenny Goldsmith in which he gathers daily weather reports together. his projects are fascinating altho I wonder if we have to trust their actuality. keeping the scope up the way he does would seem to take mucho time. his book in which he gathers all the words he hears for a week: how the fuck could he do that? granted computer and granted some people have mighty fine engines, but still. I got none of those books. nor Mary Oliver's plethora. what's her hold on the po book public? the end display didn't seem to get marketing's full attention. MO was there, a selected and a collected Dickinson, Bloom's ridiculous Best Poems ever. the double dip of Dickinson is a waste of space. I'd do Plath and/or Ginberg there, and not MO, who seems low octane however well regarded she might be. trying to move some units, folks. I'd put Koch there, because it's a giftie sort of event. I suppose Bloom belongs there, in lieu of a more exciting anthology. nothing edgy about ranking on Bloom, but let me do so anyway. yes, "Song of Myself" makes an appearance, but no, not the whole thing: there are other warhorses to appease. long ago, on Jerry Garcia's birthday (and mine), the radio station that laughably still calls itself the Rock of Boston, decided to play "Dark Star" in tribute. oh, about 12 minutes in, the announcer jumps in and says, well enough of that. this station was the edge, of sorts, back in the day, but now it's all perfunctory. economic forces dictate, and that's what it feels like to put only part of Whitman's poem in. cripes, it's one of the poems Clinton uses to get chicks, so it has historical value. I'd like to go thru the whole anthology and determine which choices Bloom was guilted into and which set his dinghy rocking. altho frankly, does anyone think he even looked at the galleys? like any CEO, surely he trusts his grad student minions to get the job done. so what book did I finally get? Area of My Expertise by John Hogdman. I saw him on the Daily Shiow, where he was extremely funny. his book is an almanac of facts, such as: a list of all 51 state flowers, and one of all the presidents who had hooks for hands. we ate dinner at an Indian restaurant. on our way out, a manga display pulled Erin and the rest of us into a little bookstore. Lexie found 3 books by Dave Pelzer, who chronicles his life dealing with abuse. Beth got a couple Terry Patchett books to give as gifts. the cashier said, these are wonderful, referring to the Pratchett books. Lexie thought she meant the Pelzer books. she says it's a fascinating series. the cashier says, they're so hilarious, and Lexie fogs over, err... umm...until I explain.