You can definitely tell which genre you love the most, which one really makes you fall in love

For non-fiction I still have to see something about it online but I’m a little less picky. If it even remotely catches my interest from the explanation alone I’m hooked. It takes very little- depending on what it’s about.

For fiction it’s a more elusive process. I walk into the bookstore, head for the genre I’m in the mood for and stand before the shelves like a child at a temple waiting for the gods to speak and speak they do- eventually my eyes catch a shiny cover or some intricate artwork and it’s in my hands before I know. I’m not entirely vain though, the covers catch me but I’m still picky. I read the backs and the first pages and often move on (coming back twice or thrice is a sign I’ll probably buy it in the near future). I also like to work my way through the more obscure books- anything i haven’t heard of or it looks like no one’s given it a good read. Like I said, an elusive process.

Mwaha, I just signed up on GoodReads. The navigation has already killed me.

I found the novelist Barbara Kingsolver who I just grew to love and adore in much the way you describe going to the library, Val! I was in junior high and I was really out of wanting to read through the books in the kids section of the library anymore so I was moving into the adult fiction section. I started just going alphabetically through the stacks and when I got to K, I just love the cover of “Bean Trees” so I checked it out.

It wasn’t until years later that I read more of Kingsolver’s work and realized she was like totally famous and all

I’ve found quite a few people to buy books from by way of working on literary magazines.

How do you see criticism as different from reviews? I ask this seriously because I see little in the way of critical writings about contemporary authors anymore. I prefer them as well. Give me some meat about a book instead of just a – I liked it – kind of review.

Thanks, as always, for your thoughts!

I, also, do what I’d call quite a bit of catching up. In late 2008/early 2009, I got hung up on The Objectivists and bought what books I could find at a reasonable price by Niedecker, Oppen, Reznikoff, and Rakosi. (I already had the Zukofsky books that were reasonably priced and accessible.)

I don’t think reviews mean much these days particularly in the small press. Though, I do buy books based upon criticism. (The kind I find that is similar to that at JACKET Magazine online.)