Welcome to the newly inaugurated E-Verse Radio blog.

As a Bond villain might proclaim: “You may be wondering why I’ve called you all here.” Paul, my E-Verse producer, has been after me for some time to begin blogging. I resisted for some time—not because I am at all opposed to the practice but rather because I quite naturally hesitate to take on any further responsibilities. However, I have relented and admit that it might be an amusing project—amusing for any willing and patient readers as well as myself. I intend to compose brief commentaries on books, films, music, and various events that divert me. I will also reproduce entertaining news stories I encounter. I hope to post something new most weekdays.

This year, for the first time, I decided to keep an account of the books I read. Beginning in January, I jotted down in a small journal the title and author of each book I finished. According to the ledger, I read 104 books in the first six months of this year.

Certainly, some will scoff at a mere 104 books in a six-month span. I know there are very serious readers out there, but I do what I can given a full time job and moments spent on laundry and dishes. However, I will point out that the books represent only a portion, perhaps less than half, of the reading I actually perform. As editor of the Contemporary Poetry Review, I read long, sometimes very sophisticated (sometimes torturous, destined for rejection) pieces of literary criticism. Some of these I see several times, as I revise three or as many as ten times before publication. Single articles sometimes come to me longer than 20,000 words each. Additionally, the nature of my profession (rare books) requires an incredible amount of bibliographical, biographical, and historical reading. On top of all that, I receive and read a number of periodicals, including The New York Times Book Review, the New York Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, Book Forum, The Threepenny Review, Five Points, The Paris Review, The Dark Horse, Poetry, the New Criterion, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, The New Republic, the New Yorker, Esquire, Vanity Fair, and any number of literary magazines. This does not account for the enormous amount of reading I also do online through portals such as Arts and Letters Daily and Arts Journal.

First, some business to get out of the way: This page originally contained the contents of the weekly E-Verse Radio text newsletter. The newsletter has been bumped aside to make room for my blog, but you may still locate current and past issues here:

http://www.everseuniverse.com/