Bookstore Adventures...

I stopped into Borders today and just had to purchase the November issue of Vanity Fair as the cover featured Marilyn Monroe and promised a look into her personal diaries. Sam Kashner's article, "Marilyn and Her Monsters", contained excerpts from a book that is being published this fall entitled Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, and Letters by Marilyn Monroe. (This will certainly be on the Christmas wishlist...if I can wait that long.) The article also revealed a beautiful photo spread of Monroe and of various pages written in her own hand. Kashner detailed that she was often photographed with her books such as in the photograph below:

I only wish I had been able to actually read the titles of all the books on her shelf; however I did see a copy of Tolstoy's War and Peace. In any event it appears that books, reading, and writing may have been a refuge for the haunted star. As someone who wrestles with insomnia I was drawn to this excerpt...Monroe, reported to have also suffered from insomnia, writes:

on the screen of pitch blackness
comes/reappears the shapes of monsters
my most steadfast companions...
and the world is sleeping
ah peace I need you - even a peaceful monster.

I also picked up a copy of Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds. This novel was published in 1977 and was a huge bestseller. I think I may add this to my challenge reading list.

Now...I am off to read some more Anne Frank...