Recent Acquisitions

For Christmas last year, H. bought me a really wonderful, thoughtful gift; McSweeney's San Francisco Panaorama. I actually still haven't read some sections of it yet (politics, sports), but I loved the comics and I pored over the literary supplement for weeks. It was exactly the sort of thing I've always wished we got with our newspaper; a thorough, magazine-sized contemplation of books. Besides a really charming interview between Miranda July and James Franco, the piece that most caught my eye was a column dedicated to out-of-print books. The words out-of-print always make my heart sink; whether it's a book or a little-known movie from the 80's (Electric Dreams, anyone?), the idea that something exists but isn't really accesible is a hard one for my mind to grasp. Anyway, this column was dedicated to Edna O'Brien's August is a Wicked Month, a book I'd certainly heard of but hadn't ever thought much about. The author of the piece described finding her copy at a used bookstore on a roadtrip in the midst of a relationship's unraveling. She ended the article by basically saying that if you ever find a copy, you need to buy it.
I immediately went on a hunt. Surely the internet, that great treasure chest, would prove to be my salvation. Not exactly...this book really was hard to find for a reasonable price, unless I wanted the Spanish edition, which was strangely easy to find. Of course B&N was out of the picture, as was my library, which has a long history of having every book/movie in the world except for the one I want at the moment. So for the last six months, I've been searching in vain.
This weekend, H. and I visited a bookstore in his town. It's one of my favorite bookstores because it's run by a charity that helps adults learn to read, or get their G.E.D., or learn English as a second language. All the books are ridiculously cheap, and since they're donations, the store has a pretty weird assortment. All hardcovers are only three dollars, and I've found some relatively new books. I got quite a haul this time, and as we were leaving, H. pointed pointed out a shelf and two boxes marked "FREE." As I idly picked up a copy of The Bell Jar, a purple paperback stuck out beneath it. "Holy shit," I dramatically stage-whispered to H.

I couldn't believe it. After six months spent searching, there it was, free for the taking! This isn't the sexiest cover available, but I'm not about to look a gift free-book-box in the mouth.
What are the sexiest covers, you ask? Well, there's this one. Edna O'Brien is basically the biggest bad-ass.

Then there's this one:

And then there's (eek!) this one:

The cover describes the book as "a fluid, sensual novel, throbbing with the heartbeat of desire." I assume I'll love it. In the usual nature of such things, I'm sure that this book is now available everywhere for a very reasonable price. But if you can't find it, feel free to borrow my copy.