When you're broke and exhausted and lightyears behind in your course readings. . . what could be better than finding two beautiful volumes of Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Thoreau's Walden 75% off at the bookstore? Buying them for yourself. So I did.

Something not many people know about me: I collect old volumes of poetry. One of my favorite things to do is dig through used bookstores and yard sales for turn of the century books of poetry. I love finding the cloth-bound ones with yellow pages (so long as there's no insects).

Someday I will have a library to put them in. I really miss the wall of floor to ceiling bookshelves my dad made for my old apartment. My mom has since stolen them for her sewing room.