Reading list out of whack

...needs an update due to a surpisingly fruitful trip to an antique store this weekend, where I picked up:

* a hardcover clothbound with jacket facsimilie edition of The World Is Round by Gertrude Stein, illustrated by Clement Hurd (of Goodnight Moon and Runaway Bunny fame. Read this twice, plus the afterword by Hurd's wife. Amazing stuff. This was one of Hurd's first (or first?) assignments at a children's book illustrator, and he was hired to turn some of the drawings into nursery rugs and wallpaper by two New York companies after the release of the book. Stein was paid royalties on the sales of these, since they were her characters. The classic line "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose" occupies the pivotal place in this book, written for a neighbor girl named Rose. Stein wrote another book for children after this, but the publisher eventually turned it down. Alas. Not sure if this fac is still in print, but it's well worth seeking out, either for yourself or little ones of your acquaintance. It is a rhyming chiming tale of individuality that is often silly, and just as often serious, tracking the emotional journey of Rose up a mountain with nothing but a blue chair as her companion. ($8.00)

* a New Directions paperbook edition of ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound ($1.15). Am reading this now and cannot put it down because so much of it seems so completely relevant. Select quotations perhaps to come. Struck again by Pound's superlative bluster, simultaneously annoying & entertaining, but aside from the overbearing AUTHOR enjoying the WORDS.

* a New Directions paperbook edition of The Poems of Dylan Thomas (having looked for my other copy in vain for several months; I think I lent it out). ($1.00)

* a New Directions paperbook edition of Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas, which I actually think I have somewhere in a larger volume, but those abstract black-and-white covers are so cool ($.80)

* a hardcover paper-over-board edition of Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil with some kickass two-color linoleum or wood cuts (more info to come; it's at home in my bag)

* and on a whim at the (poetry-poor-but-cookbook-heaven) bookstore, French Women Don't Get Fat, which for all the hype really doesn't contain any big secrets, and can be distilled into one of Julia Child's bon mots re: enjoyment in moderation ("Life itself is the proper binge.") like duh, but admittedly is a charming, breezy read with lots of lovely food-related memories and surprisingly great recipes and even some childrearing advice on the topic of instilling taste and nutrional habits. I justify this purchase by adding this book to our culinary library.