books, books, more books, and thanks

You may be glutted by the previous list, as am I. But my inner librarian has come out, and since I've thanked one person for suggestions I thnk I'll spread the joy.

Here are some of the books I didn't ship home, but carried in my suitcases (I had to pay overweight, but I think that that was more to do with cheap Neutrogena products and American sweets.)

I had asked people (on Facebook, how lame! and yet how effective!) for ideas what to get, and had many interesting suggestions. I couldn't find lots of things - and thanks Eva, but I never made it to the Gotham Bookstore, it was all too much. It's on the list for next time. I looked for, but didn't find, Sarah Hannah, Katie Peterson, Frances Chung, etc etc (thanks Sarah and Tim and Carrie). Thanks to all for your great ideas! In the end I most closely followed the advice of George Szirtes: "almost anything you haven't got." (Thanks, George, it worked.)

Books I carried home:
Auden, For the Time Being, first, from Tom (see previous post where he got a signed one for two bucks at a tag sale, kept it, and gleefully told me all about it before the tears had even evaporated on my face at receiving this one!)
Millay, two firsts (Wine From These Grapes, and Mine the Harvest), from le Duc
Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, as reported
James Marcus, Amazonia: five years at the epicentre of the dot.com juggernaut (a very funny book)
Frederick Seidel, Ooga Booga
David Mason, Ludlow (can't wait to read it - a verse novel)
Philip Levine, The Simple Truth
Cate Marvin, Fragment of the Head of a Queen (ta Andy Jackson for tip)
Meghan O'Rourke, Halflife
Thomas Lux, New & Selected Poetry
Tony Hoagland, Real Sofistikashun, essays
Legitimate Dangers, anthology, Marvin & Dumanis, eds. (thanks Roddy Lumsden for tip)
Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great - interesting, and for someone else ultimately. Of course the man has a wonderful prose style, & makes some good points, but as with all polemics the arguments only hold together if you've already accepted his central premise.
knitting patterns, three books of

Somehow I felt it would be more books than this! How do they do that? I'm sure several indispensible volumes have been incorporated seamlessly into the shelves and heaps and thus been lost to view... anyway it was all very exciting, a real mission, and even with the cost of posting the box (but including gifts, of which there were a few wonderful ones I haven't mentioned, and le duc's library) it came to less than £3 a book.