Yesterday's Purchases

Remember when I told you that The Paris Reviews Interviews, Vol. II caused me to add about a million books to my Wishlist? Well, I spent an hour at Barnes & Noble yesterday making a small but interesting dent in that list. Here's what I brought home:



Burn This Book: PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word edited by Toni Morrison. I chose this one because I want to read more essays about literature. OK, and it was 60% off. :-)



Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer was one of the author interviews included in Volume II. I was particularly intrigued by a short discussion of "Gimpel the Fool", so I thought I'd start here with his work.



On Moral Fiction by John Gardner, another author interviewed in Volume II. This is part of the description from the jacket flap: "With a daring not obscured by the author’s extraordinary humaneness of spirit, the book argued that contemporary literature suffers first and foremost from a basic failure of the test of 'morality.' By 'moral fiction' the author meant fiction that attempts to test human values, not for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology or mode of conduct, but in a honest and open-minded effort to find out what best promotes human fulfillment." Gardner discussed some of his ideas from this book in his interview, and it sounded like something I would enjoy reading. Barnes & Noble has a new line of books called "Barnes & Noble Rediscovers Series" and this one just happened to be sitting front and center for a mere $9.95 in hardcover. Serendipity!

Hopefully none of these will have to sit around too long before I can get to them!