We at Linebreak act, on rare occasion, ambivalent about paper. OK. I know that’s an understatement. We get nearly unreasonable when yet one more print journal comes whining, prophesying that online journals are a sign of Armageddon – or at least the end-times – and so on, and so on. Needless to say, when we hear that kind of crazy talk, we tend to become almost as aggressively annoyed as a teenager who’s being quizzed about how school went. At least.

But really, our impatient eye-rolling would start to seem a little strange – even hypocritical – if you were to come over for coffee: You’d see bookcases doubled-up with two rows of books on a shelf; books laid sideways on top of the books standing upright; books stacked on the coffee table – on the  floor around and under the coffee table! Books swinging from the ceiling fan!  Books in the bathtub! Books in the fridge! Be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea – Oh! The Books You Would See!

So I identify probably a little too closely with this cartoon from The New Yorker: Some guy showing his lady-friend around his impressively book-filled apartment says, “Those are the books I never had a chance to finish, and those are the books I never had a chance to start.”

Yeah. I bought that mug.

I’ll buy books compulsively if you let me near them – even though I already have a rather looming stack still waiting to be read. I’d insist that this is not OK, but it seems perfectly normal in my social circle, so I go with it.

But now: Holidays are rumbling home, and they’re accompanied by a motorcade of the gift-laden expectations of your family and friend(s). They’re escorted by an overwhelmingly sizable marching brass band of consumer goods to choose from. Terror!

Since I assume that you might have more than a few bibliophiles on your list, I thought I’d be helpful, relay a few lists of picks for the best books of 2009 – and generously let you know you which ones made my wishlist. After all, I wouldn’t want you to worry too much over what to get me. You have enough to worry about. Yes?

In the article “Christmas Gifts 2009: The Most Beautiful Books Of The Year” on Huffington Post, Lina Tabori from Welcome Books has compiled a wide-ranging list that includes both Batman and W. Eugene Smith’s ”legendary” photographs of 50’s and 60’s jazz musicians. The unifying factor: She considers these “the most beautiful books of the year”. (Of course, the books are physically beautiful – and the content sounds promising in most cases – but if you’re just looking for pretty, you probably can judge these books by their covers. Hooray!) Which of the books on this list do I want, you ask?

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans is a 528-page catalogue of Robert Frank’s photographs, and it includes an introduction from our own Jack Kerouac.  His photos document America as it was fifty years ago, and as Tabori notes, “One cannot say that the America he observed was always one he loved.” (Amazon: $48 – or a signed copy for $8,000. Your call.)

There might be a conflict between being a feminist and being high femme, but I hope not. Here’s one reason why: In My Favourite Dress by Gity Monsef, Samantha Erin Safer and Robert de Niet, 100 major designers picked their all-time favorite dress – and this book showcases their choices. Photograph after photograph of gorgeous designs presented in interesting ways. Am I being mesmerized, hypnotized by the patriarchy if I buy this? Is this book just a tool for further brainwashing the ladies? Maybe. But it’s so pretty! Dilemmas are so hard! (Amazon: $32.67)

Inside the Painter’s Studio by Joe Fig reminds me of Linebreak’s series “Where the Magic Happens” – both glimpse where art is created, but in regard to painters and poets, respectively. While Inside the Painter’s Studio gives you 214 photographs of the studios belonging to famous painters, Fig also takes a time-out to ask each painter about their process and their beliefs about art. Fascinating. (Amazon: $23.10)

Meanwhile, over at NPR, Susan Stamberg’s article “Season’s Readings: Top Picks From Indie Booksellers,” has revealed a particular book – or, really, a boxset of books – that I covet terribly: The Paris Review Interviews, Vols. 1-4. This collection features interviews with an impressive array of novelists, playwrights and – (Most importantly?) – poets. According to Amazon, interviewees include T.S. Eliot, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin, and Robert Lowell. While most of these interviews are available online by now, being able to read them all by candlelight when the power’s out is just about irresistible. I can only hope W.H. Auden’s interview found its way in. (Amazon: $40.95)

Also courtesy of NPR, two more lists for those among you who read the fiction: Glen Weldon gives us his personal  list of “The Best Five Books To Share With Your Friends”, and Jessa Crispin catches us up with contemporary world literature in “A World of Novels: Picks For Best Foreign Fiction.”

If you prefer to maintain your purity, reading only poetry, you might check out Ted Genoways’s list of “The Top 10 Poetry Books of 2008″ over at The Virginia Quarterly Review. Sure, it’s a little behind the times, but the 2009 list isn’t posted yet. Deal with it.

Alternately, if you’re really looking for the greatest of the latest, check out the No Tell blog. They’ve let quite a few folks supply litanies of 2009’s best poetry collections, and they’re all worth glancing over.

In the end, though, I’m a sucker for the Great Dead Ones, so naturally, one list I find appealing comes from The Academy of American Poets. They’ve rattled off some titles they think of as  “31 Groundbreaking Books”,  promising that the list “showcases the masterpieces of American poetry that have influenced—or promise to influence—generations of poets.” Additionally, they provide a brief description of each book’s importance, sample poems from it, an essay on it, and more – seemingly everything but the book itself. Maybe a really good place to get some gift ideas?

After all, what can go wrong when handing off Leaves of Grass to a poetic compatriot? Nothing, right?

At Sewanee Writer’s Conference last summer, there was a panel on online journals. To represent online journals, the organizers chose two editors of print-based journals, one of of which had an online counterpart. The other editor was half-heartedly – almost regretfully – toying with the idea.

During the panel, the latter editor asked who among us would be happy being published on a journal’s web version instead of in its print publication. While well over half of the attendees raised their hands, that apparently wasn’t enough for this editor, who said “See?” and went on to explain why online publication wasn’t perceived to be as prestigious as a print publication.  

Believe it or not, we deal with this attitude all the time here at Linebreak: an attitude that Johnathon summarizes as making technophobia a literary badge of honor,  an attitude that implies the work we publish is somehow second-tier because it’s not laid out in ink, an attitude that fears the internet is killing off good poetry.

Frankly: I’m calling bullshit. But so is Andrew Motion. 

In an article published in the Telegraph titled “Internet ‘is causing poetry boom‘”, the British poet laureate explains his thoughts on the relationship between the internet and poetry: “Poetry as an art form was simply well suited to the internet.”

While the article focuses on how internet communities support poetry readings, which have grown in popularity; how the internet provides a “shop window” for small presses; and how more people seem to be writing poetry lately, Motion sees the internet as returning poetry to the ear in important ways:

He said that because the web allowed people to listen to poetry once more, it had helped return it to the position it held in the “mead halls” 1,000 years ago.

Moreover, the ability to hear poetry online isn’t just rejuvenating an interest in contemporary poetry, but also in the golden oldies:

Websites like Poetry Archive, which enables people to listen to recordings of poets like TS Eliot and Allen Ginsberg reading their work, are now enjoying unprecedented success.

Poetry Archive , which Mr Motion helped set up, now receives 135,000 visitors a month and a million page hits.

The popularity of the Poetry Archive has only led Motion “to conclude that the real problem with poetry was ‘not one of appetite, but of delivery’.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.