I know this triptych has nothing to do with reading, but don’t they look bookish???

It’s Monday. A book review should be here, but it’s not, and I wanted to take some time to pour out some liquor (well, seltzer water since I don’t drink) for all the books that I WISH I could read. For reasons that are both time related – I work full time  – and money related – books and iTunes DECIMATE my budget before I can buy groceries, I cannot possibly get my hands on all the books that I lust after. Seriously, I have to avoid the Barnes and Noble when I go to the mall because I tremble with desire for those paper spines *bites fist*. So here it goes, a list of a few of the books I wish I could next to in the near future:

• The Dead Do Not Improve, by Jay Caspian Kang. First of all, this dude’s middle name is straight out of the Narnia series. Second of all, he writes for one of my favorite websites. And according to GoodReads, “this glorious debut stars hippie detectives, a singular city, and an MFA student on the run.” I’m sold.

• Telegraph Avenue, by Michael Chabon. It’s about race and relationships, written by a white dude. I’m curious to see how he pulls it off (you can find an excerpt of the book here). He also wrote ‘The Mysteries of Pittsburgh,’ and I lived in the 412 for 3 years, so there’s that too. Circle of Life. This book comes out Sept. 11.

• NW, by Zadie Smith. This book doesn’t come out until Sept. 4, but I am soooo ready for it. Like yesterday. Zadie Smith looks like Sade and writes like someone outta this world. She is…funny and smart and human, and I find her voice is refreshing in a fiction landscape that is either too high brow (read: boring) or too gutta-gutta (I can get down with that periodically, but not all the time).

The books that have been languishing on my bookshelf include Mrs. Obama’s American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden  and Gardens Across America and David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King. Seriously, I wish I had John Travolta’s “Phenomenon” powers so I could read every book in the world.

Good people, what books do you wish you had time to read? Are there any books chillin’ on your bookshelf in a b-boy stance that you need to get to?

~Terryn