A friend emailed late last night, asking me to take part in some meme where you list the 10 books that are within arms reach—or scattered closest to you. Now, for most readers and writers, we take it for granted that there will, actually, be 10 books (or some equivalently large number) in any given location that we find ourselves in. I mean, really. A home isn’t complete without stacks and piles of them at every corner.
Currently, in the sun room, where I’ve been working, I am surrounded by:
1. THE LIBRARY AT NIGHT by Alberto Manguel
2. WICKED PLANTS by Amy Stewart
3. THE FALLEN SKY by Christopher Cokinos
4. CRYPTOZOOLOGY A TO Z by Loren Coleman & Jerome Clark
5. MONSTER SPOTTER’S GUIDE TO NORTH AMERICA by Scott Francis
6. DOVE by Robin Lee Graham (w/ Derek L.T. Gill)
7. CHINA SAFARI: ON THE TRAIL OF BEIJING’S EXPANSION IN AFRICA by Serge Michel, Michel Beuret, and Paolo Woods
8. SPEAKS THE NIGHTBIRD by Robert McCammon
9. THE LETTERS OF ABELARD AND HELOISE by Peter Abelard
10. ARCHAEOLOGY (a magazine) – September/October 2009
There are actually more beneath the coffee table, but I don’t feel like getting down on my knees to scout them out. Only three of those listed pertain to the book I’m writing—the rest either just arrived in the mail, or were pulled off the shelf because I’ve been meaning to read them and want them around me for when I take short breaks from the book.
What books or magazines are near you at the moment? And what about them strikes your fancy?
In other news, it’s a lovely post-storm morning, the kind where everything glitters in moments of passing sunlight, but with that otherworldly haze that is mixed with thunderclouds. Much prettier than this picture. I think I need to take a walk.
