Bolinas Reads: Donald Guravich
Donald, a writer and artist, came to Bolinas after meeting Joanne Kyger while attending some writing workshops at what later became Naropa University. Originally from Canada, he travelled, and held a number of jobs before he landed here, where he worked as a landscape gardener and later as a tree worker. He was a frequent guest faculty at the summer writing program at Naropa in Boulder, Co. and is the author of several short books of short prose, including Triggers (1983), A Brief History of Flying (2001), Blue Chips (2003), followed by World at Large, Selected Poems 1971-1978 (2011). His artwork and illustrations are included in Mexico Blonde (1981), Snapshots (1983), 8-Ball (1992), among others. He's also written and illustrated two graphic journals which can be found in the Bolinas library, about two trips that he and Joanne took to New York City and Boulder, Colorado (Blue Press, 2021).
What are you reading now? What’s in your pile of books? Do you read one book at a time or several? What’s the best book you’ve read this year?
Right now, I’m re-reading My Journey to Lhasa by Alexandra David-Neel. One of the great travel journals. The first western woman to enter the Potola, in 1927, after trekking for months often in extreme conditions, while disguised as a Tibetan pilgrim.
I recently finished A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella L. Bird, her journal about a trip she undertook in 1873, another classic, loaned to me by a friend.
Best book this year? Ah, the year is still young, but I’d give it a toss-up between a collection of essays by the late Malcolm Margolin, Deep Hanging Out, and Mesopotopia, a new poetry collection from Anne Waldman.
Do you like to read paper or eBooks? Audiobooks? DVDs?
I read paper books. I tried eBooks a couple of times, long ago. Not for me. Feels too removed, somehow. Paper is more intimate.
DVDs? I spend a lot of my time in the library checking out and browsing the DVD shelves.
Are you a browser in the library or do you know in advance what you are looking for? Do you browse the library catalog or pick specific books? If so, how do you find out about them?
I’m a browser in the library, though if I read a good review or get a recommendation from a friend, I’ll order out of the library catalog.
I also get suggestions from friends and from the writers that I am in contact with, who often send me books.
Do you have a favorite genre? Any genres that you never read? Have your preferences changed through the years?
I suppose the detective/mystery/noir niche. I’ve read all of Elmore Leonard, Janwillem van de Wetering’s Amsterdam detective novels, Carl Hiassen, Charles Willeford, John D. MacDonald of course, several by Donna Leon, etc. I enjoy reading Jim Nisbet’s novels, off tilt, quirky, and loaded with historical and literary asides.
My reading preferences are pretty varied, but romance novels have never appealed to me.
What was your reading experience as a child? Did you grow up with a lot of books? A favorite book?
I read a lot when I was young. My parents were readers, and their shelves had Nabokov, James Baldwin, Saul Bellow, Huxley, etc., so I was exposed to reading as a part of living. Of course, I was reading different fare then … Zane Grey, the Hardy Boys (Franklin Dixon), but later on, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, Robert Heinlein. At the time, I’d say that Mark Twain made a big impression on me. Poe also, though he was scary. Thomas Hardy.
Did you use the library growing up?
There were bookmobiles that would come around to neighborhoods, and that was always a treat. And on Saturdays, I would take a bus into the city, and go to the public library after the Saturday matinee cowboy movie at the downtown theater.
Were there any books that made a big impression on you in in your younger life? Say, in your 20s?
Don Allen’s The New American Poetry was a revelation for me. Poetry could actually reflect everyday speech and thought and didn’t have to be stuck in the land of iambic pentameter forever and ever.That book introduced me to a new and really interesting community of writers, writing really interesting things.
And Hugh Kenner, Canadian writer and teacher, who wrote many books about the work of Joyce, Beckett, Eliot, others, came out with The Pound Era. That book opened a lot more windows.
What’s the last great book that you read and recommended to a friend?
Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient Worlds, by Irene Vallejo, such a fascinating history of the written word.
What do you plan to read next? Do you plan?
I’m looking forward to reading Bill Porter’s (Red Pine) latest book, his translation of the lyric poems of Xin Qiji, If a Mountain Lion Could Sing, from Copper Canyon Press and after that, Woman House: essays and assemblages, by Lauren W. Westerfield.
Do you have a collection of books at home. If so, where do you keep them and do you re-read?
I do have a collection of books at home. As to where do I keep them, I keep them wherever I can find some room. Right now, I’m looking at a thankfully very sturdy wooden coffee table, made in Grand Rapids that has five stacks, each about twenty books high, of some of the more recent additions, all slightly listing on its top.
What kind of characters draw you in as a reader?
I really enjoy encountering a well-drawn character, or facet of a character, in a book. It’s not an easy thing to do as a writer. Jim Harrison was a master at it. Lucia Berlin, Richard Ford, Annie Proulx, Elizabeth Strout, Bobbie Louise Hawkins, Dale Herd and others.
When and where do you like to read? Describe your ideal reading experience.
I usually read in a favorite chair, next to the wood stove. Or once in a while, on an old couch. Rarely while in bed.
Why read?
Why live?
Contributed by Jane Silvia
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