I thought I'd make a little journal to recommend a few good books to whomever might stumble across my little piece of the digital world. I'm doing this off the top of my head in no real order, other than to say that I promise not to write anything lame or vapid like "anything by Kurt Vonegut!!!!" OK?

OK. Here goes:

1) Anything by Kurt Vonegut. Although I don't think "Anything" was ever one of his titles. If I had been quicker with my wit and he had seen this, I daresay he might have.
2)The Daybreakers by Louis L'Amour. Honestly. It's the absolute best of the genre. As a child, it was the first book I shared with my grandfather, and I read it again, aloud, while he was in palative care.
3)Alastair MacLeod. "As Birds Bring Forth the Sun" and other stories. They are timeless pieces of perfection that capture both a time and a people in the same subtle way that we are subtly different than those from away.
4) Whetstone by Lorna Crozier. A slim volume of poems that are lovely. Moreso if you have ever met Patrick Lane.
5) You always loved being a stranger: 55 poems for patrick lane, edited by Lorna Crozier. This might be the most significant book of poetry I've ever read.
6)Rainbow Warehouse by WPKinsella and his lady whose name escapes me... good stuff, plus you have the wonder of experiencing two people linked by something as grand as poetry. "All I ever wanted was a girl I could read to," (Ann Rice).
7)Read 1/2 of anything Buchowski wrote: He was genius, but the man never knew when to shut up.
8)Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard. The movie's pretty good too. I once watched a beautiful girl read excerpts from it ...
9)The 23rd Psalm. I mean, read it, REALLY READ IT.
10)The Cow Jumped Over the Moon, by Earle Birney. If you are a writer or a teacher it will change everything in your life. Forever.

OK, that's ten beautiful things to read. Go find a beautiful girl and read to her. Please.