you can't curl up with a Kindle.

Before deciding to apply to MFA programs and doing all my research, despite all of my reading and English/lit classes, I hadn't heard of many great writers, both past and present. Sure, I read some of the classics, and of course Joan Didion, but I'd never heard of Wallace Stegner. Or Dan Chaon. Or Aimee Bender. Of course I knew about the Iowa Writers' Workshop, but the Stegner Fellowship? Nope. Never heard of the Pushcart Prize or the literary magazines Tin House or Ploughshares. I vaguely knew of Glimmer Train, but had never really picked it up. Did I really know how cutthroat MFA admissions were? Not a clue. If I'd known, I would have probably been a lot more nervous than I was. And I was pretty damn nervous.

So, now, as I prepare for my new program, I've read Aimee Bender, Wells Tower (Columbia alum), Alice Munro, will be reading Dan Chaon soon, and this summer, I discovered the amazing writer that is Wallace Stegner. I read his book "Crossing to Safety," and loved it. I wanted to savor it, so I read it in small pieces. I can't explain how crisp and cool his writing is, almost like you're running through a waterfall. That sounds ridiculous, but that's how reading "Crossing to Safety" felt like for me. I just got his Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Angle of Repose." Several regular customers have recommended it to me, and while it's not typically the kind of story I go for, I'm excited to start it. I will never get a Kindle or NOOK for this reason: the tactile experience of reading. I've picked up the book multiple times, felt its weight in my hands, sturdy, reassuring, and stable. Gazed at the beautiful cover and read the back several times over. Looked at the spine, at the name "Wallace Stegner" and thought about the man who wrote these important pieces of literature. Flipped through the pages and inhaled the smell of freshly printed pages. You book lovers know what I'm talking about. There is just something about a book......writers don't dream about the day they can download their books; we dream of holding our book in our hands, knowing how much labor and love has gone into several hundred pages. A book is tangible proof of hard work and effort.

I'm not really sure what the point of this is; I just had to write about this. Maybe it's working at an indie bookstore, maybe it's because of the internet MFA groups I've joined - I've become a bit of a booksnob, almost. :) There's just so much great writing out there that isn't commercially popular - because that's not the point. But I'd bet there's a lot more people who've read Dan Brown and consider him a great writer, than there are who've read Dostoyevsky or Nabokov or Michael Chabon. I have so much to learn about writing and literature and this world, that I really think this program will be wonderful. I can't wait.