the written word.

I've been reading a lot lately, trying to prepare myself for the 2-3 books per week that I will have at Columbia. I used to be able to read a book in one day, but I got out of practice, and have worked slowly toward that. Not there yet with all of them, but some of them. :) I recently read Anthropology of an American Girl, by Hilary Thayer Hamann. At 500+ pages, it's not a beach read. But I loved it. It was originally self-published and caught the eye of Random House. It kind of reminds me of a female Holden Caulfield, during the late 1970s and early 80s. I'm currently reading Heat, by Bill Buford, about his experience as a writer, learning how to cook with Mario Batali. The writing is so good that it makes me want to eat my body weight in tortellini every time I read it. I have piles of ARCs next to my bed. ARCs are Advance Reader Copies. Bookstores, editors and other writers get these from publishers so they can see what they want to order, tell their customers about, blah blah blah. It is also the best perk of my job - and I love my job. I'm also reading Girl in Translation, by Jean Kwok. Kwok is a Columbia MFA alum. I've been trying to read lots of books by professors and alums before I get there. Let me tell you, I get a strange thrill every time I look at one of the displays we have at the bookstore, because it has both Kwok and the book of another alum, Wells Tower, on the display. And that's not counting Lipsyte's The Ask or Maureen Johnson's YA books that are out on display. Or Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story and Oliver Sacks' new book - both profs at the school. It makes me catch my breath, that hopefully I will follow in their footsteps.

I don't think I realized it, or let myself realize it, that I really, really want to go to this program. I don't think I let myself get excited before. The cost was overwhelming and I didn't think it would work out. But now that a huge portion of that is off my plate, this is really happening. I still can't believe it.

Annie Dillard once told her students that, whenever they are in a bookstore, go to where your books would be shelved, and make a little space there with your finger. I do that.

I can only hope.