OH WELL.

I tried posting a photo by cutting and pasting but it didn't work. I can see it on my computer when I read the blog, but my friends can't, so I'll have to keep trying.

So I'm working through the goal of learning how to use blog technology. I will now try to post a link, then I'll consider myself technologically able and get on with actual content. Here goes:

I'm reading Kenneth Koch's Making Our Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing Poetry.

It's easy to read and full of good insights into the language of poetry. The first half of the book describes poetry as a language of its own, distinct from conversation or prose. The second half is a collection of poems with short helpful comments. Instead of dissecting poems, this book shines a light on how they are written, and how they work intellectually, aesthetically and emotionally. I recommend it.

I don't necessarily recommend buying it on Amazon or at Chapters or Indigo. I use their websites to find books, read reviews, get ISBN numbers etc., then I take the information to my local independently owned bookstore and ask the owner to get me the book.

It's getting harder to find an independent bookstore these days but it's worth it. In Port Moody we had a new/used bookseller who had to close. Now we have a used and antique book store

Jolly Olde Bookstore

The only way stores like this can keep going is for thoughtful people to buy books from them and resist the lure of the Raptor.

That's enough lecture/rant. Here's my question for today:

Do you have an independent bookstore where you live? Have you struggled to stay away from the big book supermarket? Where do you buy your books?

mompoet - posting with 72% of the BOS (brain operating system) figuring out what to make for supper with 24% (4% currently unaccounted for)