Michiko, how do you do it? This fall is going to drown me. I never even finished all the books that came out this summer I wanted to read, haven't even started them. Anchor Book of New American Short Stories. Cloud Atlas. Undoing Gender. Aloft. The Dew Breaker. Oblivion. They are all sitting in my apartment eagerly awaiting their turn.

And now there is an insane amount of books coming out this fall to further get me backlogged. That Roth book. That Koestembaum book. And oh my god, How We Are Hungry comes out in a week. I have to get moving on this Thackery horse. I know I will read that Eggers book as soon as I get my hands on it and that every thing will be bumped back one in line. God, I sometimes think this is an addiciton, that I could not stop. It is compulsive, the need to read certain books. It is all I am ever doing.

I don't know if I talked about it here, but my love of Eggers has definitly dwindled since I first became obsessed with him. Now, I no longer still hold him in such high esteem, but I still really like him and like reading his stuff. When I notice his tendencies, I notice that I also do them. The breathless, speedy sentances - the obsession with motion. I wish I had better samples of my writing pre-Eggers to know if this is his influence. But I could also blame Whitman. Doesn't the cover look awesome, though?