"Shirt" by Robert Pinsky

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YI8DvfM0VCs[/youtube]

Don’t tell me you don’t like poetry. Not liking poetry is like saying you don’t like beer. There are so many different flavors of each that there is one out there for everybody.

No talk of the American garment industry can avoid the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC in 1911. I’ve read about the tragedy in countless books, but none of them paint the tragedy with more humanity than Robert Pinsky in his poem “Shirt.” I appreciate poetry more when it’s read aloud, so give this a listen. The poem begins at 2:49, but his comments before will be of interest to any engaged consumer.

Here’s a short passage to show you the powerful words within. Drink it up.

At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven.
One…

How I get books

Where do you buy your books? Where should you buy your books?

Since I became an author, and learned a little bit about the publishing industry, these are questions on my mind when I need or want a book.

Without consciously doing it, I’ve developed my own book buying strategy.

Let’s look at my options.

The Chain

In Muncie we have a Books-A-Million, which never seems to have any of the books that I want, and when they do, the price is high unless you are a member of their club that costs $25/year. And the staff, if they are book lovers, do one heckuva job of hiding it. I don’t have a whole lot of loyalty to the store. Part of the inspiration for my Book Signing vs….