Back to work means back in the groove of things. A few slow moments trying to remember all the different access codes, but a few hours in everything was running smoothly. It was nice being back at work; sifting through money, being polite to people who were probably raised by street dogs, and standing for long periods of time. That novelty will wear off quickly, especially since it looks like I'll be working full shifts seven days in a row. I ain't even mad, those long shifts are gonna ease the strain on my Visa bill. 

While I was in New York, actually right after buying myself a Nook HD (which is a whole other post in itself), I was trying to figure out my way out of Barnes and Noble and found Bodega Dreams. The cover seemed pretty interesting and it looked like there used to be a stack of them at some point, so I bought it to give it a shot. It looks like a good read, nothing more than a quite afternoon to blow through it. I don't know how I feel about my reading challenge (I'm about five or six books ahead, I don't know why I'm fretting since I'm going back to school in an arts related program instead of a medical one), so I'm sort of just collecting these smaller books for last minute catching up. I also picked up for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf in a sort of strange throw-everything-together-and-sell-it shop next to 5 Pointz. When I pulled it off the shelf I wasn't really sold on it, until I looked at the publishing date. Paper felt heavy enough to be the same quality they would've used in the early printings (somewhere between a mid-seventy to high-eighty gram weight?) and definitely smelt its age. I didn't contest when I found out it was only a dollar, which means I'm learning because I usually blow my own spot up when I find a gem. Turns out after a little research it is from the original batch of published copies by Macmillan in 1977, and is in pretty amazing condition nonetheless.

All I had to do when I got back from New York was unpack, put my laundry in the machine, go downtown to get my Canadian phone turned back on, and pick up my schedule for work. How I ended up purchasing four books (Basquiat, And Still The Earth, Graffiti and Street Art, and My Sister's Keeper which isn't pictured above) is beyond me. I'm obsessed. I have a problem. Are we supposed to clap in this moment? Thank goodness for my employee hook up, because the four books ended up costing me the price of the actual Basquiat book (around $70 with tax), instead of somewhere around $100. Initially I borrowed And Still The Earth when I stumbled upon it when I was sticking books, but I ended up buying it since I marked it up quite a bit. The book was a pretty solid read; I pulled a number of quotes from it. In terms of dystopian fiction, I definitely put this above George Orwell's 1984. I had no real intention of looking for Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper, but it was just lying there on the bargain table, so I figured why not make use of the new $5 price slashed from its original $23. Graffiti and Street Art, written by Anna Waclawek (who's actually a professor in the Art History department at Concordia University, and will therefore be receiving an email from me trying to get info on her syllabi) was more for a comprehensive, sort of reference guide. I like that many of the terms are well defined and the diction is suitable for everyone. I've written a few papers on graffiti and street art, and it's annoying to constantly be trying to find the right words and acceptable sources (i.e.: not Wikipedia or Urban Dictionary). Compiled with the rest of the graffiti books on my shelves, I've got a feeling this book will be dog-eared and marked up excessively. Another thing I like at a glance is the quality of the paper. Waclawek's usage of actual full colour pieces (a whopping 211 throughout the book) for side-by-side comparison and explanation on such nicely weighted paper, and also not in matte, is the cherry on top. I've never heard of the publishing company Thames & Hudson, but I'm definitely looking into some of the other books in their World of Art collection. Finally, Jean-Michel Basquiat is definitely a must-have for anyone who's a fan of his work. At $65 (and I definitely have seen it on Amazon for less), it's basically a steal. It's got interviews, I think one or two essays, a few quotes from him, and MAD PRINTS. I'm actually considering getting another copy of the book just so I can cut the spine off and make a collage of the loose prints.

Well, after my Visa is paid.