Jack Pendarvis, On Reading

"I love to read. I read all the time. I just read Wuthering Heights, Frankenstein, and Citrus County -- the latter by John Brandon, in galley form. They made a great trio. Don't you love how one book seems to lead to another? You read the book you're supposed to read at the time. The book decides. Now I'm reading I Was Looking For A Street by Charles Willeford. I'm reading fast. I'm eating books up. I teach for many weeks of the year and don't have much time for 'mere' pleasure reading. So when I get the chance, I guess I go nuts. Of course, I try to teach books I enjoy reading. Recently I read Lee Durkee's Rides Of The Midway for a second time because I was teaching it. That was a luxury. Same with Ghosts by Cesar Aira. Three times now. Always more to find in that one. In the fall I intend to teach Bats Out Of Hell by Barry Hannah so I can revisit it in a serious way. I have a lot of books about birds I've been meaning to read. I like to read about birds for some reason. Birds are growing on me. I avoided them for years. Crow Planet by Lyanda Lynn Haupt is one I'm really excited about. I'll probably read it after I finish the Willeford. I go to the local bookstore, Square Books, almost every day. I like looking around and talking to my friends who work there. Sometimes I buy a book even when I can't afford it. Sometimes I don't buy a book, and then I think about it all night, and come back and buy it the next day. Day Out Of Days by Sam Shepard was one of those. I'm glad I read it. I just loved it. It's fun to wander around in a bookstore. There are books about everything! Sometimes that feels daunting. Other times you just sink into it."

{Jack Pendarvis has regular columns in The Believer and The Oxford American. He has written three or four books (including Awesome, and Your Body Is Changing). Visit his website here for more information.}