put not your faith in bookstores

It's October, right? The first full month of autumn? Yet, after a month of mostly reasonable late-summer temperatures, this week we're undergoing the biggest heat wave of the year. It's been consistently above 95F since Monday, mostly over 100. Strangely, I'm finding it less enervating than on previous experiences, and on days when I need to be home for health reasons, I'm managing.

But I'm still feeling desolated, because I can't read what I want to read. The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien was published in the U.S. on Sept. 17. I pre-ordered a copy. It still hasn't arrived. The Last Dangerous Visions was published on Oct. 1. I pre-ordered a copy. It hasn't arrived either.